The International Network for Research in the Interpretation of Healthy life Expectancy Data held its first meeting in Quebec in September 1989. This book gathers together and confronts the various studies devoted to disability-free expectancy carried out since 1988 and summarized the earlier studies presented and discussed at the Quebec meeting. Divided into three parts it deals with: the initial studies (1964-1976); the empirical approach of the early 80s (1979-1983); and the beginning of the scientific approach (1983-1987) which is expended by current research."

Antibiotics represent one of the most successful forms of therapy in medicine. But the efficiency of antibiotics is compromised by the growing number of antibiotic-resistant pathogens. Antibiotic resistance, which is implicated in elevated morbidity and mortality rates as well as in the increased treatment costs, is considered to be one of the major global public health threats (www.who.int/drugresistance/en/) and the magnitude of the problem recently prompted a number of international and national bodies to take actions to protect the public (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/health_consumer/docs/road-map-amr_en.pdf: http://www.who.int/drugresistance/amr_global_action_plan/en/; http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/docs/carb_national_strategy.pdf). Understanding the mechanisms by which bacteria successfully defend themselves against the antibiotic assault represent the main theme of this eBook published as a Research Topic in Frontiers in Microbiology, section of Antimicrobials, Resistance, and Chemotherapy. The articles in the eBook update the reader on various aspects and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance. A better understanding of these mechanisms should facilitate the development of means to potentiate the efficacy and increase the lifespan of antibiotics while minimizing the emergence of antibiotic resistance among pathogens.

Presents the results of the MacArthur Foundation Study of Aging in America, which show how to maintain optimum physical and mental strength throughout later life.

Education forms a unique dimension of social status, with qualities that make it especially important to health. It influences health in ways that are varied, present at all stages of adult life, cumulative, self-amplifying, and uniformly positive. Educational attainment marks social status at the beginning of adulthood, functioning as the main bridge between the status of one generation and the next, and also as the main avenue of upward mobility. It precedes the other acquired social statuses and substantially influences them, including occupational status, earnings, and personal and household income and wealth. Education creates desirable outcomes because it trains individuals to acquire, evaluate, and use information. It teaches individuals to tap the power of knowledge. Education develops the learned effectiveness that enables self-direction toward any and all values sought, including health. For decades American health sciences has acted as if social status had little bearing on health. The ascendance of clinical medicine within a culture of individualism probably accounts for that omission. But research on chronic diseases over the last half of the twentieth century forced science to think differently about the causes of disease. Despite the institutional and cultural forces focusing medical research on distinctive proximate causes of specific diseases, researchers were forced to look over their shoulders, back toward more distant causes of many diseases. Some fully turned their orientation toward the social status of health, looking for the origins of that cascade of disease and disability flowing daily through clinics. Why is it that people with higher socioeconomic status have better health than lower status individuals? The authors, who are well recognized for their strength in survey research on a broad national scale, draw on findings and ideas from many sciences, including demography, economics, social psychology, and the health sciences. People who are well educated feel in control of their lives, which encourages and enables a healthy lifestyle. In addition, learned effectiveness, a practical end of that education, enables them to find work that is autonomous and creative, thereby promoting good health.

Covers the latest insights any fetal specialist needs and provides essential knowledge for professionals caring for women with high-risk pregnancies.

The study of stem cell biology is under intensive investigations. Because stem cells have the unique capability to self-renew and differentiate into one or several cell types, they play a critical role in development, tissue homeostasis and regeneration. Stem cells also constitute promising cell candidates for cell therapy.The aim of this book is to provide an accurate knowledge on stem cell biology and regenerative medicine. This book will cover many topics in the field and is based on seminars given by recognized scientists involved the international master program on stem cell biology at the University Pierre and Marie Curie (UPMC) in Paris.