Given the at times confusing new information concerning the human microbiome released over the last few years, this book seeks to put the research field into perspective for non-specialists. Addressing a timely topic, it breaks down recent research developments in a way that everyone with a scientific background can understand. The book discusses why microorganisms are vital to our lives and how our nutrition influences the interaction with our own gut bacteria. In turn, it goes into more detail on how microbial communities are organised and why they are able to survive in the unique environment of our intestines. Readers will also learn about how their personal microbial profile is as unique as their fingerprint, and how it can be affected by a healthy or unhealthy lifestyle. Thanks to the open and easy-to-follow language used, the book offers an overview for all readers with a basic understanding of biology, and sheds new light on this fascinating and important part of our bodies.

This volume collects selected, peer-reviewed contributions from the 2nd Conference of the International Society for Nonparametric Statistics (ISNPS), held in Cadiz (Spain) between June 11-16 2014, and sponsored by the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the Bernoulli Society for Mathematical Statistics and Probability, the Journal of Nonparametric Statistics and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. The 15 articles are a representative sample of the 336 contributed papers presented at the conference. They cover topics such as high-dimensional data modelling, inference for stochastic processes and for dependent data, nonparametric and goodness-of-fit testing, nonparametric curve estimation, object-oriented data analysis, and semiparametric inference. The aim of the ISNPS 2014 conference was to bring together recent advances and trends in several areas of nonparametric statistics in order to facilitate the exchange of research ideas, promote collaboration among researchers from around the globe, and contribute to the further development of the field.

This book explores the long-term outcomes of severe and ongoing trauma-particularly complex posttraumatic stress disorder (C-PTSD)-from phenomenological and cognitive perspectives. For example, C-PTSD can result in impairments at the body-schema level. In order to survive, trauma victims may conduct their lives at the body-image level, thus producing a mismatch between body schema and body image. In turn, as in the case of somatoparaphrenia and body integrity identity disorder, this incongruity can result in body disownership, which will affect long-term outcomes of severe and ongoing trauma.

This clear-sighted volume introduces the concept of "disruptive cooperation"- transformative partnerships between the health and technology sectors to eliminate widespread healthcare problems such as inequities, waste, and inappropriate care. Emphasizing the most pressing issues of a world growing older with long-term chronic illness, it unveils a new framework for personalized, integrative service based in mobile technologies. Coverage analyzes social aspects of illness and health, clinically robust uses of health data, and wireless and wearable applications in intervention, prevention, and health promotion. And case studies from digital health innovators illustrate opportunities for coordinating the service delivery, business, research/science, and policy sectors to promote healthier aging worldwide. Included among the topics: Cooperation in aging services technologies The quantified self, wearables, and the tracking revolution Smart healthy cities: public-private partnerships Beyond silos to data analytics for population health Cooperation for building secure standards for health data Peer-to-peer platforms for physicians in underserved areas: a human rights approach to social media in medicine Disruptive Cooperation in Digital Health will energize digital health and healthcare professionals in both non-profit and for-profit settings. Policymakers and public health professionals with an interest in innovation policy should find it an inspiring ideabook.

This book describes how epigenetic context, in a large sense, affects gene expression and the development of an organism, using the asymptotic limit theorems of information theory to construct statistical models useful in data analysis. The approach allows deep understanding of how embedding context affects development. We find that epigenetic information sources act as tunable catalysts, directing ontogeny into characteristic pathways, a perspective having important implications for epigenetic epidemiology. In sum, environmental stressors can induce a broad spectrum of developmental dysfunctions, and the book explores a number of pandemic chronic diseases, using U.S. data at different scales and levels of organization. In particular, we find the legacy of slavery has been grossly compounded by accelerating industrial decline and urban decay. Individual chapters are dedicated to obesity and its sequelae, coronary heart disease, cancer, mental disorders, autoimmune dysfunction, Alzheimer's disease, and other conditions. Developmental disorders are driven by environmental factors channeled by historical trajectory and are unlikely to respond to medical interventions at the population level in the face of persistent individual and community stress. Drugs powerful enough to affect deleterious epigenetic programming will likely have side effects leading to shortened lifespan. Addressing chronic conditions and developmental disorders requires significant large-scale changes in public policy and resource allocation.

This book is the first to present a regional analysis of climate change and human health, focusing on geographically and socio-economically distinct countries of South and Southeast Asia. It has a major focus on India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Thailand, Nepal and Taiwan. Climate change is a significant and emerging threat to human health. lt represents a range of environmental hazards and will affect populations in both the developed and developing countries. In particular, it affects the regions where the current burden of climate-sensitive diseases are high, which is the case in South and Southeast Asian countries.

This book discusses fundamental discourses relating to health in Africa arising out of the consequences of endemic diseases in Africa. It identifies, explains and illustrates the contexts, challenges and efforts to combat these diseases. The book provides a unique comparative analysis of African contexts of health, thereby not ignoring the global contexts of health within which Africa exists. It follows a macro-analytic stance about health in Africa framed around significant/pressing issues. "Discourse of disease" is part of a profound sociological discourse of health in Africa, which provides a framework for students, academics and healthcare practitioners to understand the states of health and healthcare in Africa.

1 Einleitung.- 1.1 Rechtliche Hygieneregelung.- 1.2 Aspekte zum Hygienekonzept.- Literatur.- 2 Begriffe zur Lebensmittelhygiene.- 2.1 Lebensmittel.- 2.2 Lebensmittelhygiene.- 2.3 Leichtverderbliche Lebensmittel.- 2.4 Verpackte Lebensmittel.- 2.5 Herstellen.- 2.6 Behandeln.- 2.7 In-Verkehr-bringen.- 2.8 Verzehren.- 2.9 Nachteilige Beeinflussung.- 2.10 Genusstauglichkeit/ Genusswert.- 2.11 Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatum.- 2.12 Bedarfsgegenstande.- Literatur.- 3 Lebensmittelmikrobiologie.- 3.1 Einteilung von Mikroorganismen.- 3.1.1 Bakterien und Bakteriensporen.- 3.1.2 Schimmelpilze.- 3.1.3 Hefepilze.- 3.1.4 Viren.- 3.2 Groessenordnung von Mikroorganismen und Viren.- 3.3 Erkennbarmachung von Keimen.- 3.4 Vermehrungsformen von Mikroorganismen.- 3.4.1 Ungeschlechtliche Fortpflanzung.- 3.4.2 Geschlechtliche Fortpflanzung von Hefen.- 3.5 Gesundheitsgefahrdende Mikroorganismen, Lebensmittelverderber und Nutzlinge.- 3.5.1 Gesundheitsgefahrdende Mikroorganismen und schadliche Stoffwechselprodukte.- 3.5.2 Lebensmittelverderber.- 3.5.3 Technologisch erwunschte Mikroorganismen.- Literatur.- 4 Wachstumsvoraussetzungen fur Mikroorganismen - Beeinflussung der Vermehrung.- 4.1 Wachstumsfaktoren.- 4.1.1 Nahrstoffangebot.- 4.1.2 Wasseraktivitat und Feuchtigkeit.- 4.1.3 pH-Wert.- 4.1.4 Temperatur.- 4.1.5 Redoxpotential.- 4.2 Beeinflussung des Wachstums von Mikroorganismen.- Literatur.- 5 Mikrobielle Gefahrdung von Produkten.- 5.1 Lebensmittelverderb.- 5.1.1 Faulnis.- 5.1.2 Garung.- 5.1.3 Sauerung.- 5.1.4 Ranziditat.- 5.1.5 Schimmeln.- 5.2 Lebensmittelvergiftung.- 5.2.1 Salmonellen.- 5.2.2 Staphylococcus aureus.- 5.2.3 Clostridium perfringens.- 5.2.4 Clostridium botulinum.- 5.2.5 Bacillus cereus.- 5.2.6 Listeria monocytogenes.- 5.3 Gefahrdungen physikalischen Ursprungs.- Literatur.- 6 Schadlingsbefall und weitere Gefahrdungen.- 6.1 Insekten.- 6.2 Nager und Voegel.- 6.3 Schadlingsbekampfung als Teil der Betriebshygiene.- 6.4 Chemische Schadensquellen.- 6.5 Physikalische Schadensquellen.- 7 Raum-und Anlagenhygiene.- 7.1 Reinigung und Desinfektion.- 7.1.1 Reinigungsverfahren.- 7.1.2 Desinfektion.- 7.1.3 Reinigungsintervalle.- 7.2 Raumtemperaturen.- 7.3 Konstruktive Anlagenhygiene.- Literatur.- 8 Stichprobenplane.- 8.1 Mikrobiologische Stichprobenplane.- 8.1.1 2-Klassenplan.- 8.1.2 3-Klassenplan.- 8.2 Stichprobenplane fur die sensorische Prufung.- Literatur.- 9 Betriebseigene Massnahmen und Kontrollen - HACCP-Konzept.- 9.1 Produktbeschreibung, Ermittlung potentieller Gefahren, Identifizierung kritischer Punkte (HACCP-Grundsatze 1-3).- 9.2 Festlegung und Durchfuhrung des Verfahrens zur UEberwachung und Kontrolle der kritischen Punkte (HACCP-Grundsatze 4, 5).- 9.3 UEberprufung der Eigenkontrollsysteme, Dokumentation (HACCP-Grundsatze 6, 7).- Literatur.

Human aging is perhaps the most complex and important subject that will be facing science and societies in the next century. People seem to be living longer and remaining more active than their parents and grandparents, caused by to social and demographic shifts that must be accommodated by society. On the other hand it presents perplexing questions about the underlying processes and determinants of healthy aging. This book gives a design for research that will increase our understanding of the factors that influence healthy aging and can lead to improvements in reducing the levels of disability in the population. Its focus is on bio-behavioural and psychological factors contributing to healthy aging. Since human aging is determined by many interacting conditions inside and outside of the organism, research should concentrate on ecological relationships between the human organism and its social and physical environment. Not only individual characteristics associated with aging are discussed in this book, but also their impacts on society. The information presented in 'Aging in Europe' has not been available in any single source before. In many ways this book provides a model of gaining knowledge through cooperation that should guide us in the next century and beyond.

Starting with more general issues of healthcare policy and governance in a global perspective and using the lens of national case studies of healthcare reform, this handbook addresses key themes in the debates over changing healthcare policy.

This volume describes classic and contemporary theory and research in social psychology that sheds light on how people think about health and illness, as well as their willingness to engage in health-relevant behaviors. The Editors have selected papers that serve to illustrate the reciprocal relation between advances in theory and advances in practice.

The first two sections of the volume examine people's mental representations of health and health practices, and how these personal construals and implicit theories are linked to behavior. People can react to new health information in different ways - with acceptance, defensiveness, or downright ignorance. Research that can help us to understand these varied reactions is examined in Section 3. The following sections consider how classic social psychological theories and perspectives can be used to understand behavior relevant to health and illness. These include social influence, social comparison, pluralistic ignorance, social support, cognitive dissonance, message framing, and attribution theory. Finally, several articles consider links between personality characteristics and health, such as those between hostility and heart disease, and confiding traumatic experiences and immune function. The volume also contains a introductory chapter by the editors which provides a discussion of why social and personality psychologists should be interested in health and illness.

Together with overviews for each section, discussion questions, and suggestions for further reading, the volume is an ideal text for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses on health psychology. The volume is also appropriate for courses in related disciplines such as public health, nursing, health education, health communication, and other allied health sciences.

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This book demystifies the cultural work of syphilis from the late nineteenth century to the present. By interrogating the motivations that engender habits of belief, thought, and conduct regarding the disease and notions of the self, this interdisciplinary volume investigates constructions of syphilis that had a significant role in shaping modern subjectivity. Chapters draw from a variety of scholarly methods, such as cultural and literary studies, sociology, and anthropology. Authors unravel the representations and influence of syphilis in various cultural forms: cartography, medical writings, literature, historical periodicals, and contemporary popular discourses such as internet forums and electronic news media. Exploring the ways syphilitic rhetoric responds to, generates, or threatens social systems and cultural capital offers a method by which we can better understand the geographies of blame that are central to the conceptual heritage of the disease. This unique volume will appeal to students and scholars in the medical humanities, medical sociology, the history of medicine, and Victorian and modernist studies.

This study explores the regulation of occupational health in the British asbestos industry from the recognition in the late 1890s that asbestos dust might pose a health hazard until the establishment of the 1969 Asbestos regulations. Whereas almost all of those who have written on this subject have attacked the entire asbestos industry and all its works, The Way from Dusty Death takes a more balanced view. It accepts the history of asbestos and health as in many ways a human tragedy, but it rejects simplistic, universalised arguments that this has been a tragedy with a cast only of villains, dupes and victims. The historical account includes the emergence of medical, and then official, concern about the three diseases related to asbestos (asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma) the legislative process during and after the 1930s and the impact of the 1931 Asbestos Industry Regulations. The book brings together much previously unexamined material - including copious government records, combined with unimpeded access to the vast archive of documents kept by the leading British asbestos manufacturer, Turner and Newall - to present a unique analysis of occupational health and its regulation in the 20th Century.