Books by Joav Merrick

Book SynopsisCosmetic surgery (CS) has become popular and common in Hong Kong, especially with the emergence of beauty salons, to which clients have easy access. However, there was found to be too little support for those undergoing and becoming addicted to CS, and whose health is affected as a result. For example, frequent treatments and chemical products place stress on the eye and are closely related to a person''s health in general. In addition, eyebrow beauty treatments are commonly available in Hong Kong salons and elsewhere. Recently, artificial fingernails have become very popular in Hong Kong. This book examines popular beauty products, trends and the effects that the beauty industry has on public health.

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Book SynopsisThis yearbook compiles articles published in the International Public Health Journal, a peer-reviewed journal which provides an international multidisciplinary forum with a holistic approach to public health issues, health and medicine, health and social policy, service aspects, developmental aspects, epidemiology, rehabilitation, family and social issues, quality of life and all other aspects of public health over the whole age spectrum.

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Book SynopsisThis compendium brings together articles from the ''Journal of Alternative Medicine Research'' in 2009 with a broad research agenda on a global basis, addressing questions ranging from policy to practice, human development and a whole spectrum of issues also involving infancy and early childhood, to adolescence and adulthood. The information presented in this book is intended to generate new knowledge, link research to practice and policy, and help build networks of research collaborations and move science forward in this field.

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Book SynopsisThe early years in the life of a child are critical for cognitive, social and emotional development. It is therefore important that we make sure that children grow up in an environment where their social, emotional and educational needs are met. Children who grow up in an environment where their developmental needs are not met are at risk for compromised health, well-being and sometimes developmental delays. Society must therefore work to ensure that children develop in safe, loving and secure environments. This yearbook compiles the work done in 2008 with a broad research agenda on a global basis, addressing questions ranging from policy to practice, and spanning the developmental spectrum from human genetics, infancy and early childhood, to adolescence and adulthood.

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Book SynopsisIn the year 2010, the new "International Journal of Child and Adolescent Health" was begun under the auspices of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Israel, in collaboration with Nova Science Publishers in New York, in order to facilitate an outlet for peer-reviewed papers in the areas of both child and adolescent health and human development. The editors hoped that there would be an international interest in such a new journal, and they hoped to receive good-quality reviews and original papers in these areas. This in fact happened, and in this yearbook they have gathered papers from the year 2011. This book discusses recent advances in child and adolescent health with research findings published in the year 2011.

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Book SynopsisIn the year 2011, the new "International Journal of Child and Adolescent Health" was begun under the auspices of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development in Israel, in collaboration with Nova Science Publishers in New York, in order to facilitate an outlet for peer-reviewed papers in the areas of both child and adolescent health and human development. The editors hoped that there would be an international interest in such a new journal, and they hoped to receive good-quality reviews and original papers in these areas. This in fact happened, and in this yearbook they have gathered papers for the year 2012. This book discusses recent advances in child and adolescent health with research findings to be published in the year 2012.

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Book SynopsisTropical medicine is a branch of medicine focusing on disorders usually found in subtropical and tropical areas of the world. Tropical paediatrics is a branch of tropical medicine focusing on children in these areas. The current process of global warming and the widespread issue of international travel are bringing these conditions to many places of the globe. This book highlights selective concepts of tropical paediatrics that are of importance to clinicians caring for children and adolescents.

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Book SynopsisThe early years in the life of a child are critical for cognitive, social and emotional development. It is therefore important that we make sure that children grow up in an environment where their social, emotional and educational needs are met. Children who grow up in an environment where their developmental needs are not met are at risk for compromised health, well-being and sometimes developmental delays. Society must therefore work to ensure that children develop in safe, loving and secure environments. This yearbook compiles the work done in 2011 with a broad research agenda on a global basis, addressing questions ranging from policy to practice, and spanning the developmental spectrum from human genetics, infancy and early childhood, to adolescence and adulthood.

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Book SynopsisIn this Public Health Yearbook 2011 the authors will touch upon several topics like health risk communication, translational research, primary care, AIDS, tuberculosis, smoking, alcohol and drug screening and finally in the last section discuss primary health care development. Health risk communication deals with planned or unplanned communication to the public about the nature, impact and management of a wide array of health threats, such as cancer, HIV/AIDS or influenza pandemics. Current important research questions are raised and this book provides several comprehensive up-to-date reviews on important public health areas. World-wide partnerships, collaborations and communications between professionals and society so that new kinds of knowledge and knowledge networks can be developed.

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Book SynopsisLife is complex and human life is even more so. Holistic derives from the Greek word ????, holos, holos, meaning whole or complete. Looking at the whole organism minimises loss of meaning, when the chaos of the detail is examined. Holistic medicine aims to restore health to all levels of the human being, including body, mind, spirit and the environmental system in which the patient lives. We aim to understand the patient in their system and avoid imposing an alien system that detracts from being able to understand the fully functioning person. This year book 2011 brings together the work the authors did over the past year with a broad research agenda on a global basis, addressing questions ranging from pain, food additives, quality of life, integrative medicine to discussion of randomised clinical trial. The authors hope this book will provide the reader with new knowledge, link research to practice and policy, and help build networks of research collaborations and move science forward in this field.

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Book SynopsisThis Yearbook touches upon several public health topics like burns, infant mortality, maltreatment, tropical paediatrics, building community capacity, and HIV research. Tropical paediatrics is a branch of tropical medicine focusing on children in these areas. The current process of global warming and the widespread issue of international travel are bringing these conditions to many places of the globe. Advances in science, innovations in business, and technological development in the last century and the continued rapid pace of change in these areas have created an environment, where the world today in the twenty-first century knows few boundaries. Health care is a field that has been enhanced and able to expand as a result of progress in these diverse yet integrated areas. However, for all of the improvement that new drugs, health care re-organisation and focused delivery, and accessible electronic medical records, for example, can afford many of the "haves" in society, there still remains a significant segment of the population in the industrialised world, and certainly in developing countries, who comprise the "have nots" and do not benefit from this progress. This disparity in health among populations across the globe has existed for decades despite our advances in health care and will be discussed in this yearbook and in the last section a small cross-section of some of the types of approaches that contemporary social scientists are taking in their efforts to minimise the harms resulting from HIV and AIDS.

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Book SynopsisLooking back on history and especially medical history, children born with significant congenital anomalies, genetic and metabolic diseases or disabilities perished at an early age, and very few survived into adolescence and even less into adulthood. Congenital heart disease, major errors in metabolism, cancer, cystic fibrosis and many other diseases were fatal. Today with advances in medical knowledge and technology, many of these patients now live a longer life and sometimes even close to the average life expectancy for the country. In this way, childhood diseases have become lifelong disease or in other words, health care providers in adult medicine such as family practitioners, internists, cardiologists and so on now have to deal with individuals suffering from unfamiliar diseases that used to be only seen in paediatric care. Today, still many paediatricians all over the world find themselves caring for forty-year-olds with for example congenital heart disease or cystic fibrosis, because health care transition to adult care has not been possible. Leading healthcare professionals from many corners of the globe and institutions in Israel presented their work and clinical practice on a wide range of topics related to paediatric and adolescent chronic diseases and human development.

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Book SynopsisIn this yearbook for 2011 we start out with a description of research from the University of Toronto in Canada on bone metastases. The next section also from the Odette Cancer Centre, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre is about brain metastases, a frequent manifestation of advanced cancer devastating to the patient as typically patients do not survive more than a year upon diagnosis and the treatment itself often results in significant side effects that impact a patients quality of life. The next section is on neuroplasticity, which reflects the ability of human brain to alter the pattern of neural activation in response to previous experience, and recent findings indicate that the effects of experience can lead to both structural as well as functional reorganisation. If neuromodulatory approaches prove to be safe and effective, they could change the current view of best practice in pain management and assume a significant role in the clinic. This yearbook will present you with the latest research on pain management.

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Book SynopsisIn this yearbook for 2012 we present you with the latest research on pain management. We start our with experience from Hong Kong on palliative care and the four year training program and then further along the pages of this yearbook you will find information about pain, psychological symptoms and prescription drug misuse in HIV, oxygen therapy in patients with advanced lung disease, pain beliefs and pain-related profiles of older persons living in nursing homes, happiness among community-dwelling older persons, fibromyalgia in women, chronic headache, pain management programs, and the role of radiotherapy for the management of painful bone metastases. It is our hope that you as the reader will find the information of interest and useful.

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Book SynopsisThe "global village" has resulted in the need to tackle cross-cultural issues in the health field. Especially the southern region of Israel (the Negev), which provides a unique opportunity to study the interaction between medicine and culture. The Negev population is a multicultural society, with Bedouin Arabs comprising almost a fifth of its population. This imposes tremendous challenges to the health establishment in the region and serves as a "cross-cultural laboratory" for educating health professionals in global health issues. Both the traditional Israeli medical school track, as well as the Medical School for International Medicine at the Ben Gurion University of the Negev, incorporate studies of cross-cultural issues in various forms and to different degrees. Studies suggest that the exposure of students to international medical experiences increases their cross-cultural sensitivity, knowledge and expertise. In this book, you will find research from this region concerned with various aspects of Bedouin health, which we hope will give you a picture of various health issues from the southern region of Israel.

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Book SynopsisOnce upon a time, paediatrics was involved with infectious disease and acute disorders, but a new pattern of morbidity has emerged. Social difficulties, behavioural problems, developmental difficulties, disabilities and chronic disease have become main parts of the scope of paediatric practice. Among adults, multiple chronic disease is increasingly prevalent, whereas the prevalence of impairment and disability remain stable, but substantial and therefore, present day health professionals must be aware of disability and chronic disease. Just a few decades ago, children born with significant congenital anomalies or genetic and metabolic diseases perished at an early age and very few survived into their teens and even less into adulthood. Congenital heart disease, major errors in metabolism, cancer, cystic fibrosis and many other major diseases were fatal. Because of that, many physicians in adult primary care did not have the opportunity to see patients with these problems and thus were unable to learn how to care for them. With major advancements in medical knowledge, technology, imaging techniques, surgical skills and pharmaceutical products as well as prosthetic devices, many of these patients now live much longer lives and sometimes even close to the average life expectancy for the country, at least in the developed world. With that, a new medical care challenge has been created and we have to take a life span approach.

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Book SynopsisAdolescent violence is a very visible violence in our modern society, where you just have to open the newspaper or the television and you find yourself right in the middle of it. In order to understand the scope of the problem, we need to look at the epidemiology of global violence. Each year, more than 1.6 million people world-wide lose their lives to violence and for every person who dies as a result of violence, many more are injured and suffer from a range of physical, sexual, reproductive and mental health problems. Violence places a massive burden on national economies in health care, law enforcement and lost productivity. We are talking about a major public health problem. Programs for intervention have been researched and long-term follow-up indicates that early intervention is working and even if such programs would seem to demand a substantial economic investment, they have been proven cost-effective in the long run. In this book, we have gathered presentations on bullying, aggression, violence, suicide and prevention from an international perspective.

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Book SynopsisSince pain management became a speciality in its own right and following the tremendous breakthroughs made by several pioneer researchers, we have seen major developments in the field and a growing international interest represented at the many national conferences and the World Pain Congress and European Congress. But there is still much to do, as there are still groups under-represented in the research such as children, older adults and people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Also, we do not have all the answers and pain is an area, where traditional medicine may well be complemented by the field of complementary and alternative therapies. In this book, we have gathered recent papers related to many aspects of pain and pain management and it is our hope that you will all benefit from the wisdom in the many research papers.

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Book SynopsisPain is a common issue among the elderly. Common causes of pain in this population include angina, arthritis, bone and joint disorders, neuropathies, and other chronic conditions. When we become more aware of the importance of healthy aging, we often neglect the significance of pain management in older adults and, therefore, pain in older adults is often under-treated. Pain under-treatment in this population is the result of misconceptions regarding the aging process, difficulty accessing care, and the stigma associated with admission of pain and reluctance to medicate. In fact, unrelieved pain has a severe impact on both the individual and the society, which further increases the burden of medical and social services. Given the aging population globally and the increasing burden on medical and social services, it is worthwhile to empower older adults to be more independent and take more responsibility in their aging process via the use of various non-pharmacological strategies. It is our hope that this research will increase the quality of life for this population and save health care resources and expenses in the long term. In this book, you will find information on non-pharmacological approaches to manage pain, which we hope will be of use to the reader.

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Book SynopsisLooks at the need to re-evaluate government policies and interventions regarding mental health, and the need for more accurate data and information. (Children''s Health)

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Book SynopsisAdolescence is the critical period or rather process in human development, where the individual leaves the dependency of childhood and enters a period in which dramatic changes occur, eventually resulting in what society identifies as adulthood. It is a complex developmental time involving sociological, psychological and physiological issues that starts with puberty and ends sometime in the third decade of life with central nervous system maturation (parents would want this period to be much quicker and shorter). The goal of adolescence is to develop an autonomous adult, who is capable of functioning at intellectual, sexual, and vocational levels acceptable to society. Prevention and management of health problems in children and adolescents can prevent considerable morbidity in adults. Working with adolescents is difficult, frustrating and very rewarding at the same time. In this book, we have gathered international research to show you a picture of health issues in adolescence and during the school period of human development.

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Book SynopsisHuman sexuality involves sexual attraction to another person, which for the most part is to the opposite sex (heterosexuality), some to the same sex (homosexuality) or some having both (bisexuality) or not being attracted to anyone in a sexual manner (asexuality). Human sexuality is determined by many factors, like cultural, political, legal and philosophical aspects of life, but also morality, ethics, theology, spirituality and religion. Sexuality is as old as mankind and interest in sexual activity is very much related to the onset of puberty and the period of schooling. In this book, we have gathered papers from around the world in order to discuss issues of sexuality from an international perspective.

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Book SynopsisIndia or the Republic of India is a large country in South Asia, in fact the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world. India is still struggling with malnutrition, high infant mortality rate, diseases such as dengue fever, hepatitis, tuberculosis, malaria and pneumonia with diarrhoeal diseases the primary causes of early childhood mortality. Maternal mortality in rural areas are among the highest in the world. In this book, we have gathered research papers from India published over the past three years in several Nova Science journals and it is our hope that you will find this research of interest and give you a small picture of health issues in modern India.

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Book SynopsisThe term, adolescence, can be traced to the 15th century and is based on Latin etymology; adolescere referring to "growing into maturity." The current term, adolescence, identifies a critical period of human life that allows sufficient maturity for the human being to leave childhood dependency and pass through a dramatic period of immense physiological, psychological, and sociological consequences. The adolescent must accept the failures and successes of childhood with the initiation of puberty and in the end, start his or her adult life as central nervous system maturity occurs. The tremendous peaks of growth and development are only exceeded by those seen in utero and in early childhood. This yearbook is focused on adolescence with a chapter on health aspects in this time period, health risks, bullying and the new issue of internet addiction in adolescence, which we hope you will find of interest.

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Book SynopsisThe early years in the life of a child are critical for cognitive, social and emotional development. It is therefore important that we make sure that children grow up in an environment where their social, emotional and educational needs are met. Children who grow up in an environment where their developmental needs are not met are at risk for compromised health, well-being and sometimes developmental delays. Society must therefore work to ensure that children develop in safe, loving and secure environments. This yearbook compiles the work done in 2013 with a broad research agenda on a global basis, addressing questions ranging from policy to practice, and spanning the developmental spectrum from human genetics, infancy and early childhood, to adolescence and adulthood.

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Book SynopsisIn this yearbook for 2013 we present you with the latest research on pain management. We start out with knee, pain in persons with intellectual disability, low back pain and pain in cancer and oncology. You will also find a systematic review on pain and function in older people with persistent pain, pediatric pain and the influence of music on dental pain. Acute pain, pelvic pain and many case stories around pain in cancer will be found in this Yearbook. It is our hope that you as the reader will find the information of interest and useful.

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Book SynopsisClassical medicine is about helping the patient back into happiness, good health and developing a constructive role in society by helping the patient to increase self-awareness and self-insight. The fruit of realising your own talents and character is the experience of being of value to one self and other people -- being of value in all relationships, private or professional. From the experience of this happy and constructive state of being comes all good things, a positive understanding of life, a positive state of consciousness, a positive state of existence and finally good physical and mental health, high quality of life, and excellent ability of functioning in all areas of life. Whether we call this classical medicine, "quality of life as medicine", consciousness-based medicine, character medicine, placebo medicine, holistic medicine or any other equivalent label, it is basically about helping the patient to know him or herself, and to live in accordance with this knowledge. This yearbook 2013 bring together the work we did over the past year with a broad research agenda on a global basis, addressing questions ranging from a discussion of positive youth development in Hong Kong to managed care. We hope this book will provide you with new knowledge, link research to practice and policy, help build networks of research collaborations and move science forward in this field.

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Book SynopsisIn this Public Health Yearbook 2013, we will touch upon several public health topics like community capacity building, global health and health promotion. If where we live impacts our health, then we need to start improving the health of communities at the local level. For sustainability purposes, we need to help these communities build their capacity to address the episodic, as well as the persistent, public health issues that affect their health. How do we do that? How do we learn the skills and principles necessary to establish partnerships with our communities? How do we then teach our community partners to continue to improve the health status of their neighbourhoods when the funding expires? How to we conduct health promotion and does it really help and increase health and quality of life? In this Public Health Yearbook 2013 we explore this in greater detail and hopefully will answer some of your questions.

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Book SynopsisIntellectual disability is characterised by deficits in cognitive and adaptive abilities that initially manifest before 18 years of age. The prevalence of intellectual disability is estimated to be between 1 and 3 out of every 100 individuals in the general population. Most individuals have mild intellectual disability and the cause is generally not identified. A small percentage of individuals have severe deficits and will need lifetime supports. The diagnosis of intellectual disability requires formal psychometric testing to assess the intelligence quotient and adaptive functioning. The management of individuals who have intellectual disability is based on providing general medical care, treatment of specific behavioral symptoms, early intervention, special education, and variable degrees of community based supports. In this book we present some current issues in intellectual and developmental disability.

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Book SynopsisThis book is dedicated to professor Greydanus as he enters the septuagenarian decade of his life! Greydanus has been a pioneer in the field of especially adolescent health, but also in general pediatrics and child health with major contributions to research and teaching material. His contributions for many decades has inspired students and other pediatricians to "do their best: Doch dyn plicht". In this book you will find a potpourri of research and knowledge of child and adolescent health information from an international perspective on topics that have been and still is the interest of the pediatrician Gredanus: Body shape and sexual health, research related to work, study and health of children and adolescents, injury, abuse and safety for children and adolescents and finally several interesting chapters about autism.

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Book SynopsisIn this yearbook we start out with chapters on mental health, stress, yoga and other interesting topic on alternative medicine, but the other three sections are related to psychiatry and dermatology. The skin has evolved over millions of years of life from a simple envelope to cover microscopic organisms to a complex organ system that has protected complex life from a harsh environment. The skin and central nervous system (CNS) develop together in utero and remain intricately connected throughout the life of Homo sapiens. Diseases of the skin have led to considerable medical as well as psychological morbidity, caustic contumely, and even Stygian mortality over the hundreds of years of the hominoid existence. When the skin is diseased, significant psychosomatic, behavioral, and psychiatric factors can result in a gallimaufry of primary and/or secondary disorders. Both dermatologists, primary care clinicians, psychiatrists, psychologists, and others can learn from these chapters, take this knowledge and apply it to their patients.

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Book SynopsisChildren represent our future and healthy growth and development ought to be the prime concern of any society. President Calvin Coolidge (1872-1933), elected as the 29th Vice President in 1920 and succeeded to the Presidency upon the sudden death of Warren G. Harding in 1923. Elected in his own right in 1924 he became the 30th President of the United States until 1929. He was in favour of the civil rights of African Americans, Catholics and in 1924 Coolidge signed the Indian Citizenship Act, which granted full citizenship to all American Indians. Coolidge''s chronically ill mother died, perhaps from tuberculosis, when he was twelve years old and his sister died at the age of fifteen, when Coolidge was eighteen, which are maybe some of the reasons behind his proclamation for a national Child Health Day in 1928 (in 2014 it is child health day on 6 October, first Monday of October). Today about one in six children between the age 2-19 years is overweight with risk for serious health consequences like asthma, diabetes and heart disease and child health day is therefore also relevant today. In this Yearbook you will find interesting chapters on a broad spectrum relevant for health and human development in our time.

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Book SynopsisIn this yearbook for 2014 we present you with the latest research on pain management. We start out with the ethical mind of "Dr Feelgood", discuss social isolation among adults with chronic pain and you will also find several chapters related to mindfulness and pain. Oncologic pain is discussed and dated in many chapters and it is our hope that you as the reader will find the information of interest and useful.

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Book SynopsisIn this Public Health Yearbook 2014 we will touch upon several public health topics like Bedouin health, obesity in the Caribbean region, health in rural India, smoking in Atlanta, quality of life in persons with intellectual disability and trying to understand substance abuse. We all long for a life of purpose and fulfillment and striving for high quality of life for us and those we care for is a powerful motivator. Many busy people dream of lazing by a pool fanned by a soft summer breeze, but this does not last, because a short time of rest and replenishment is quickly replaced by boredom and a sense of purposelessness. Quality of life is much deeper than material comfort. Sadly in our world today, many people live lives lacking in meaning and value: the unemployed, the underemployed, those with disabilities who would like to contribute to society but are deprived the opportunity. Their quality of life is not what it could be. In this book you will find many chapters that discuss the many aspects of quality of life in persons with intellectual disability within a social context and we also discuss how we need to prevent drug addiction in our youth and establish prevention programs to decrease the devastating toll it has and will take on billions of human beings in this century and beyond. We must be concerned about drug addiction and its effect on our youth including their alarming use of nonmedical analgesics. It is important to study youth in their communities and thus support more community-based research protocols.

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Book SynopsisDisability is part of human life and most of us will, at some time during our lifetime, experience an impairment or difficulty in our functioning, either by disease or in our old age. Once upon a time, disability in a person resulted in many kinds of disadvantages and shunning from society as a whole, but in our time society has changed attitudes toward this part of our population. The idea today is to transform a disability into an ability and to support and help this population in any way possible via treatment, interventions or new technology to make a better quality of life and an optimal functioning, despite the disability or chronic disease. Chronic disease for example is a long lasting condition that can be somehow controlled, but not cured. This lifespan approach to chronic diseases was the topic of the Gerry Schwartz and Heather Reisman 4th International Conference on Pediatric Chronic Diseases, Disability and Human Development held in Jerusalem, Israel during January 21-23, 2015 and in this book you will find the abstracts from the conference.

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Book SynopsisThink positive and not negative. For too long, the "deficiency" or "pathological" approach in understanding children and adolescents has been prevalent, but in recent years we have seen a greater interest in positive youth development programs with a shift from looking at the negative to turning the related programs and approach into something positive and highlighting the positive side of youth development. This has resulted in a focus on talents, strengths, interests and potential in order to facilitate a stronger and better youth development. Instead of viewing children and adolescents as "problems" or "issues" to be resolved, they are regarded as "resources" and "assets" to be developed. In particular, it is argued that it is important to nurture the developmental assets such as psychosocial skills in children and adolescents. The notion of positive youth development bears striking resemblance to the beliefs of Chinese medicine and holistic medicine, which maintains that when a person has inner strengths and talents, the chance of becoming ill will be reduced.

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Book SynopsisIn this yearbook we have many interesting chapters and topics. We start out with chapters on psychocutaneous disorders from different points of view. Then we move to the newborn period with chapters on evaluation and screening of the newborn, prematurity, circumcision and environment. Then we move into specific health issues in the new born period and end up with several chapters on cost-benefit, sleep disorders, immunisations and more. It is our hope that you will find the content of interest.

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Book SynopsisAdolescence identifies a critical period of human life that allows sufficient maturity for the human being to leave childhood dependency and pass through a dramatic period of immense physiological, psychological, and sociological consequences. The adolescent must accept the failures and successes of childhood with the initiation of puberty and in the end, starts his or her adult life as central nervous system maturity occurs. The tremendous peaks of growth and development are only exceeded by those seen in utero and in early childhood. This yearbook has research on pregnancy, cyberbullying, transition issues, body image, health issues and environmental health, which we hope you will find of interest. 

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Book SynopsisIn the past there has been much emphasis on child and adolescent developmental problems and while it is perfectly legitimate to look at child and adolescent problems, there are two problems with this approach. First, over-emphasis on problems can reinforce a pathological orientation. As such, children and adolescents may be seen as "problems" or "issues" to be fixed. Second, this approach may overlook talents, potentials and abilities in young people. Because of the limitations of the "deficiency" or "pathological" approach in understanding children and adolescents, there has been a greater interest in positive youth development programs in recent years with a shift from looking at the negative to turning the related programs and approach into something positive and highlighting the positive side of youth development. This has resulted in a focus on talents, strengths, interests and potential in order to facilitate a stronger and better youth development. Instead of viewing children and adolescents as "problems" or "issues" to be resolved, they are regarded as "resources" and "assets" to be developed. In this Yearbook 2015 we cover many aspects of child and adolescent development and health issues from newborn to adolescence and it is our humble wish that the chapters can help stimulate more interest and effort in developing and implementing programs for children and youth to ensure a good and positive development.

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Book SynopsisIn this Public Health Yearbook 2015 we will touch upon several public health topics having in mind the fight against Ebola in West Africa. Public health efforts can only be successful if attention is paid to the interconnectedness between the population''s perception of the disease, their cultural practices relating to death, dying, and the treatment of corpses, their ecosystem (including their food culture, garbage disposal, and overall sanitation culture), their socialisation methods, and their cultural practices and perceptions of isolation and human security. It is essential for governments to provide essential information relating to the nature of the disease and the risks associated with it as well as create awareness through culturally congruent education and sensitisation methods. West African governments must engage with community members and learn about their perceptions of the disease and of their own safety. Public health providers must also learn about and utilise control and prevention strategies that are community-based. We hope this Yearbook and the research will be of interest to our readers.

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Book SynopsisIn this yearbook for 2015 we present you with the latest research on pain management. We start out with chapters on cancer, intellectual disability and pain. Then we move into the field of palliative care, quality of life and cancer. Post-traumatic stress disorder in cancer patients is discussed from experiences in Canada and you will also find a chapter on burnout for professionals working with cancer patients. Social work related to end of life is also presented and it is our hope that you as the reader will find the information of interest and useful.

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Book SynopsisJust a few decades ago, children born with significant congenital anomalies or genetic and metabolic diseases perished at an early age, and very few survived into their teens and even less into adulthood. Congenital heart disease, major errors in metabolism, cancer, cystic fibrosis and many other major diseases were fatal. Because of this, many physicians in adult primary care did not have the opportunity to see patients with these problems and thus were unable to learn how to care for them. With major advancements in medical knowledge, technology, imaging techniques, surgical skills and pharmaceutical products (as well as prosthetic devices), many of these patients now live much longer lives and sometimes even survive to the average life expectancy. With that, a new medical care challenge has been created and we have to take a life span approach.

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