How Tobacco Smoke Causes Disease


Book Description

This report considers the biological and behavioral mechanisms that may underlie the pathogenicity of tobacco smoke. Many Surgeon General's reports have considered research findings on mechanisms in assessing the biological plausibility of associations observed in epidemiologic studies. Mechanisms of disease are important because they may provide plausibility, which is one of the guideline criteria for assessing evidence on causation. This report specifically reviews the evidence on the potential mechanisms by which smoking causes diseases and considers whether a mechanism is likely to be operative in the production of human disease by tobacco smoke. This evidence is relevant to understanding how smoking causes disease, to identifying those who may be particularly susceptible, and to assessing the potential risks of tobacco products.




Art in History/History in Art


Book Description

Historians and art historians provide a critique of existing methodologies and an interdisciplinary inquiry into seventeenth-century Dutch art and culture.




Defining Drug Courts


Book Description




Finding What Works in Health Care


Book Description

Healthcare decision makers in search of reliable information that compares health interventions increasingly turn to systematic reviews for the best summary of the evidence. Systematic reviews identify, select, assess, and synthesize the findings of similar but separate studies, and can help clarify what is known and not known about the potential benefits and harms of drugs, devices, and other healthcare services. Systematic reviews can be helpful for clinicians who want to integrate research findings into their daily practices, for patients to make well-informed choices about their own care, for professional medical societies and other organizations that develop clinical practice guidelines. Too often systematic reviews are of uncertain or poor quality. There are no universally accepted standards for developing systematic reviews leading to variability in how conflicts of interest and biases are handled, how evidence is appraised, and the overall scientific rigor of the process. In Finding What Works in Health Care the Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommends 21 standards for developing high-quality systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research. The standards address the entire systematic review process from the initial steps of formulating the topic and building the review team to producing a detailed final report that synthesizes what the evidence shows and where knowledge gaps remain. Finding What Works in Health Care also proposes a framework for improving the quality of the science underpinning systematic reviews. This book will serve as a vital resource for both sponsors and producers of systematic reviews of comparative effectiveness research.




Pain Management and the Opioid Epidemic


Book Description

Drug overdose, driven largely by overdose related to the use of opioids, is now the leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States. The ongoing opioid crisis lies at the intersection of two public health challenges: reducing the burden of suffering from pain and containing the rising toll of the harms that can arise from the use of opioid medications. Chronic pain and opioid use disorder both represent complex human conditions affecting millions of Americans and causing untold disability and loss of function. In the context of the growing opioid problem, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched an Opioids Action Plan in early 2016. As part of this plan, the FDA asked the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine to convene a committee to update the state of the science on pain research, care, and education and to identify actions the FDA and others can take to respond to the opioid epidemic, with a particular focus on informing FDA's development of a formal method for incorporating individual and societal considerations into its risk-benefit framework for opioid approval and monitoring.




Middle Range Theory for Nursing


Book Description

Three-time recipient of the AJN Book of the Year Award Praise for the third edition: "This is an outstanding edition of this book. It has great relevance for learning about, developing, and using middle range theories. It is very user friendly, yet scholarly." Score: 90, 4 Stars -Doody's Medical Reviews The fourth edition of this invaluable publication on middle range theory in nursing reflects the most current theoretical advances in the field. With five additional chapters, new content incorporates exemplars that bridge middle range theory to advanced nursing practice. Additional content for DNP programs includes two new theories: Bureaucratic Caring and Self-Care of Chronic Illness. This user-friendly text stresses how theory informs practice and research in the everyday world of nursing. Divided into four sections, content sets the stage for understanding middle range theory by elaborating on disciplinary perspectives, an organizing framework, and evaluation of the theory. Middle Range Theory for Nursing, Fourth Edition, presents a broad spectrum of 13 middle range theories. Each theory is broken down into its purpose, development, and conceptual underpinnings, and includes a model demonstrating the relationships among the concepts, and the use of the theory in research and practice. Including concept building for research through the lens of middle range theory, a rigorous 10-phase process that moves from a practice story to a conceptual foundation, and exemplars that clarify the concept building process, this new edition remains an essential text for advanced practice theory and research courses. New to the Fourth Edition: Reflects new theoretical advances Five completely new chapters New exemplars linking middle range theory to advanced nursing practice New content for DNP programs Two new theories: Bureaucratic Caring and Self-Care of Chronic Illness Two articles from Advances in Nursing Science documenting a meta-perspective about middle range theory development over the decades Key Features: Provides a strong contextual foundation for understanding middle range theory Introduces the Ladder of Abstraction to clarify the "range" of nursing's theoretical foundation Presents 13 middle range theories with philosophical, conceptual, and empirical dimensions of each theory Examines research application through exemplars demonstrating the use of middle range theory for advanced practice nursing Includes Appendix summarizing middle range theories from 1988 to 2017




Rethinking Case Study Research


Book Description

Comparative case studies are an effective qualitative tool for researching the impact of policy and practice in various fields of social research, including education. Developed in response to the inadequacy of traditional case study approaches, comparative case studies are highly effective because of their ability to synthesize information across time and space. In Rethinking Case Study Research: A Comparative Approach, the authors describe, explain, and illustrate the horizontal, vertical, and transversal axes of comparative case studies in order to help readers develop their own comparative case study research designs. In six concise chapters, two experts employ geographically distinct case studies—from Tanzania to Guatemala to the U.S.—to show how this innovative approach applies to the operation of policy and practice across multiple social fields. With examples and activities from anthropology, development studies, and policy studies, this volume is written for researchers, especially graduate students, in the fields of education and the interpretive social sciences.




Eye Banking


Book Description

Corneal transplantation has been performed with increasing success for more than 100 years. In the last 20 years, standards, outcomes and developments in the field of corneal transplantation and eye banking have been discussed at the annual meetings of the European Eye Bank Association (EEBA) to share and promote good practice and guarantee a high level of safety for the recipients. The EEBA standards for donor selection and eye banking provide professional advice and guidance to eye banks and corneal surgeons.This book highlights the history and development of eye banking and all significant steps including the donation, processing and distribution of corneas for transplantation. Additional contributions on the sclera, amnion and retinal pigment epithelium provide further insights into ocular surgery and the future potential for transplantation. This book contributes the essentials in eye banking activities for ophthalmologists and eye bankers as well as for regulatory and legislative authorities.




Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Save Lives


Book Description

The opioid crisis in the United States has come about because of excessive use of these drugs for both legal and illicit purposes and unprecedented levels of consequent opioid use disorder (OUD). More than 2 million people in the United States are estimated to have OUD, which is caused by prolonged use of prescription opioids, heroin, or other illicit opioids. OUD is a life-threatening condition associated with a 20-fold greater risk of early death due to overdose, infectious diseases, trauma, and suicide. Mortality related to OUD continues to escalate as this public health crisis gathers momentum across the country, with opioid overdoses killing more than 47,000 people in 2017 in the United States. Efforts to date have made no real headway in stemming this crisis, in large part because tools that already existâ€"like evidence-based medicationsâ€"are not being deployed to maximum impact. To support the dissemination of accurate patient-focused information about treatments for addiction, and to help provide scientific solutions to the current opioid crisis, this report studies the evidence base on medication assisted treatment (MAT) for OUD. It examines available evidence on the range of parameters and circumstances in which MAT can be effectively delivered and identifies additional research needed.




My Brother's Voice


Book Description

Stephen Nasser somehow dug deep within his soul to survive the brutal and inhumane treatement his captors inflicted on the Jews. He was the only one of his family to survive--but the memory of his brother's dying words compelled him to live. Stephen's account of the Holocaust, told in the refreshingly direct and optimistic language of a young boy, appeals to both younger audiences and his contemporaries. Written in a straightforward, narrative style, Nasser avoids the cloying or maudlin language that characterizes some stories of the Holocaust. Perhaps it's for that reason readers will find his book one they won't forget--and one they recommend to others as a "must read."