All forms of life depend on a variety of heavy metal ions. Nearly one-third of all gene products require a metal ion for proper folding or function. However, even metals generally regarded as non-poisonous are toxic at higher concentrations, including the essential ones. Thus, sensitive regulation of metal uptake, storage, allocation and detoxification is needed to maintain cellular homeostasis of heavy metal ions.

Molecular Microbiology of Heavy Metals includes chapters on allocation of metals in cells, metal transporter, storage and metalloregulatory proteins, cellular responses to metal ion stress, transcription of genes involved in metal ion homeostasis, uptake of essential metals, metal efflux and other detoxification mechanisms. Also discussed are metal bioreporters for the nanomolar range of concentration and tools to address the metallome. Chapters in the second part cover specific metals such as Fe, Mn, Cu, Ni, Co, Zn and Mo as key nutrient elements and Ag, As, Cd, Hg and Cr as toxic elements.

This book seeks to invert the negativity inherent to the well-articulated challenges of long-term care for older people by focusing on progression and improvement for policy and practice. Building on ample research in 13 European countries, evidence is provided for how the construction of long-term care systems can be taken forward by practitioners, policy-makers and stakeholder organizations. By focusing on prevention and rehabilitation, the support of informal care, the enhancement of quality development as well as by decent governance and financing mechanisms for long-term care, stakeholders may learn from European experiences and solutions on the local, regional and national levels.

Drawing on research across a wide range of European countries, this book analyzes the key issues at stake in developing long-term care systems for older people in Europe with a focus on progression and improvement for policy and practice.

Norman H. Nie, Jane Junn, and Kenneth Stehlik-Barry explore in this volume the causal relationships between education and democratic citizenship. They argue that citizenship encompasses both political engagement in pursuit of political interests as well as commitment to democratic values that temper what citizens are willing to do to win in politics. Education affects these two dimensions in distinct ways, influencing democratic enlightenment through cognitive proficiency and sophistication, and political engagement through position in social networks. For characteristics of enlightenment, formal education simply adds to the degree to which citizens support and are knowledgeable about democratic principles. But for political engagement, education orders the distribution of social position and connections, creating an inherently uneven political playing field. The authors develop and test this model with data from the 1990 Citizen Participation Study, along with pooled cross-sectional survey data from the National Election Study and the General Social Survey over the last quarter-century. Despite a dramatic increase in educational attainment over this time period, political engagement has not risen at a commensurate level. Instead, as society becomes more educated, it takes more and more education to reach a position in the social hierarchy that facilitates political engagement. Alternatively, the same increases in education in the American mass public have produced a more tolerant and informed citizenry.

In this survey of political participation in seven nations - Nigeria, Austria, Japan, India, the Netherlands, Yugoslavia and the United States - the authors examine the relationship between social, economic, and educational factors and political participation. The book provides insight into an ongoing debate among political scientists and sociologist: why is political participation in some nations distributed evenly across economic, social, and educational lines, whereas other nations foster participation only by their privileged classes? The book treats politics not only as a dependent variable influenced by socioeconomic factors, but also as an independent variable that affects levels of political participation through variations in party systems and linkages between parties and other organizations.