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A Handbook of Tropical Soil Biology: Sampling and Characterization of Below-ground Biodiversity
by Fatima M. Moreira E. Jeroen Huising David E. BignellThis practical handbook describes sampling and laboratory assessment methods for the biodiversity of a number of key functional groups of soil organisms, including insects, earthworms, nematodes, fungi and bacteria. The methods have been assembled and the protocols drafted by a number of scientists associated with the UNEP-GEF funded Conservation and Sustainable Management of Below-Ground Biodiversity Project, executed by the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility (TSBF) Institute of the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). The methods provide a standardized basis for characterizing soil biodiversity and current land uses in terrestrial natural, semi-natural and agroecosystems in tropical forests and at forest margins. The aim is to assess soil biodiversity against current and historic land use practices both at plot and landscape scales and, further, to identify opportunities for improved sustainable land management through the introduction, management or remediation of soil biota, thus reducing the need for external inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides. The book also contains extensive advice on the handling of specimens and the allocation of organisms to strain or functional group type. Published with TSBF-CIAT, CTA, UNEP and GEF
A Hands-On Course in Sensors Using the Arduino and Raspberry Pi (Series in Sensors)
by Volker ZiemannA Hands-On Course in Sensors using the Arduino and Raspberry Pi is the first book to give a practical and wide-ranging account of how to interface sensors and actuators with micro-controllers, Raspberry Pi and other control systems. The author describes the progression of raw signals through conditioning stages, digitization, data storage and presentation. <P><P>The collection, processing, and understanding of sensor data plays a central role in industrial and scientific activities. This book builds simplified models of large industrial or scientific installations that contain hardware and other building blocks, including services for databases, web servers, control systems, and messaging brokers. A range of case studies are included within the book, including a weather station, geophones, a water-colour monitor, capacitance measurement, the profile of laser beam, and a remote-controlled and fire-seeking robot <P><P>This book is suitable for advanced undergraduate and graduate students taking hands-on laboratory courses in physics and engineering. Hobbyists in robotics clubs and other enthusiasts will also find this book of interest. <P><P>Features: <li>Includes practical, hands-on exercises that can be conducted in student labs, or even at home <li>Covers the latest software and hardware, and all code featured in examples is discussed in detail <li>All steps are illustrated with practical examples and case studies to enhance learning
A Hands-On Introduction to Forensic Science: Cracking the Case, Second Edition
by Mark M. Okuda Frank H. Stephenson, PhD.A Hands-On Introduction to Forensic Science, Second Edition continues in the tradition of the first edition taking a wholly unique approach to teaching forensic science. Each chapter begins with a brief, fictional narrative that runs through the entire book; it is a crime fiction narrative that describes the interaction of a veteran homicide detective teamed with a criminalist and the journey they take together to solve a missing persons case. Step-by-step the book progressive reveals pieces of information about the crime, followed by the more traditional presentation of scientific principles and concepts on a given forensic topics. Each chapter concludes with a series of user friendly, cost effective, hands-on lab activities that provide the students the skills necessary to analyze the evidence presented in each chapters. The new edition is completely updated with special focus on new DNA techniques in DNA sequencing, DNA phenotyping, and bioinformatics. Students will engage in solving a missing persons case by documenting the crime scene, analyzing physical evidence in the lab, and presenting findings in a mock trial setting. Within the chapters themselves, students learn about the technical, forensic concepts presented within each of the opening stories segments. The book culminates with having the students playing to role of the main characters in a trial—attorneys, scientific experts, suspect, judge, bailiff, and jury—to present and judge the evidence in a mock trial setting. The mock trial will mimic what takes place in a real courtroom, and the jury of swill be asked to deliberate on the evidence presented to determine the guilt or innocence of the suspect.
A Hardware Track-Trigger for CMS: at the High Luminosity LHC (Springer Theses)
by Thomas Owen JamesThe work described in this PhD thesis is a study of a real implementation of a track-finder system which could provide reconstructed high transverse momentum tracks to the first-level trigger of the High Luminosity LHC upgrade of the CMS experiment. This is vital for the future success of CMS, since otherwise it will be impossible to achieve the trigger selectivity needed to contain the very high event rates. The unique and extremely challenging requirement of the system is to utilise the enormous volume of tracker data within a few microseconds to arrive at a trigger decision.The track-finder demonstrator described proved unequivocally, using existing hardware, that a real-time track-finder could be built using present-generation FPGA-based technology which would meet the latency and performance requirements of the future tracker. This means that more advanced hardware customised for the new CMS tracker should be even more capable, and will deliver very significant gains for the future physics returns from the LHC.
A Head Full of Notions: A Story about Robert Fulton
by Andy Russell BowenDescribes the life and work of the talented inventor and resourceful businessman, with special emphasis on his development of the steamboat.
A Heart Afire: Helen Brooke Taussig's Battle Against Heart Defects, Unsafe Drugs, and Injustice in Medicine
by Patricia MeisolA deeply compelling biography of the pioneering children�s heart doctor Helen Taussig, who helped start heart surgery and became a global force against preventable suffering.
A Heat Transfer Textbook: Fourth Edition
by John H Lienhard VThis introduction to heat transfer offers advanced undergraduate and graduate engineering students a solid foundation in the subjects of conduction, convection, radiation, and phase-change, in addition to the related topic of mass transfer. A staple of engineering courses around the world for more than three decades, it has been revised and updated regularly by the authors, a pair of recognized experts in the field. The text addresses the implications, limitations, and meanings of many aspects of heat transfer, connecting the subject to its real-world applications and developing students' insight into related phenomena. Three introductory chapters form a minicourse in heat transfer, covering all of the subjects discussed in detail in subsequent chapters. This unique and effective feature introduces heat exchangers early in the development, rather than at the end. The authors also present a novel and simplified method for dimensional analysis, and they capitalize on the similarity of natural convection and film condensation to develop these two topics in a parallel manner. Worked examples and end-of-chapter exercises appear throughout the book, along with well-drawn, illuminating figures.
A Hetero-functional Graph Theory for Modeling Interdependent Smart City Infrastructure
by Amro M. Farid Inas S. Khayal Wester C. SchoonenbergCities have always played a prominent role in the prosperity of civilization. Indeed, every great civilization we can think of is associated with the prominence of one or more thriving cities. And so understanding cities -- their inhabitants, their institutions, their infrastructure -- what they are and how they work independently and together -- is of fundamental importance to our collective growth as a human civilization. Furthermore, the 21st century “smart” city, as a result global climate change and large-scale urbanization, will emerge as a societal grand challenge. This book focuses on the role of interdependent infrastructure systems in such smart cities especially as it relates to timely and poignant questions about resilience and sustainability. In particular, the goal of this book is to present, in one volume, a consistent Hetero-Functional Graph Theoretic (HFGT) treatment of interdependent smart city infrastructures as an overarching application domain of engineering systems. This work may be contrasted to the growing literature on multi-layer networks, which despite significant theoretical advances in recent years, has modeling limitations that prevent their real-world application to interdependent smart city infrastructures of arbitrary topology. In contrast, this book demonstrates that HFGT can be applied extensibly to an arbitrary number of arbitrarily connected topologies of interdependent smart city infrastructures. It also integrates, for the first time, all six matrices of HFGT in a single system adjacency matrix. The book makes every effort to be accessible to a broad audience of infrastructure system practitioners and researchers (e.g. electric power system planners, transportation engineers, and hydrologists, etc.). Consequently, the book has extensively visualized the graph theoretic concepts for greater intuition and clarity. Nevertheless, the book does require a common methodological base of its readers and directs itself to the Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) community and the Network Science Community (NSC). To the MBSE community, we hope that HFGT will be accepted as a quantification of many of the structural concepts found in model-based systems engineering languages like SysML. To the NSC, we hope to present a new view as how to construct graphs with fundamentally different meaning and insight. Finally, it is our hope that HFGT serves to overcome many of the theoretical and modeling limitations that have hindered our ability to systematically understand the structure and function of smart cities.
A History of Aerodynamics
by John D. Anderson Jr.From the Foreword: 'John Anderson's book represents a milestone in aviation literature. For the first time aviation enthusiasts - both specialists and popular readers alike - possess an authoritative history of aerodynamic theory. Not only is this study authoritative, it is also highly readable and linked to the actual (and more familiar) story of how the airplane evolved. The book touches on all the major theorists and their contributions and, most important, the historical context in which they worked to move the science of aerodynamics forward. ' Von Hardesty, Smithsonian Institution From the reviews: 'Something of the unexpected quality of this book can be inferred from its full title A History of Aerodynamics and Its Impact on Flying Machines. Pilots tend to suppose that the science of aerodynamics began empirically, somewhere around the time of Lilienthal and the Wrights, and that aerodynamics and manned flight are roughly coeval. It is therefore surprising to come upon a photograph of the Wright Flyer as late as page 242 of the 478-page volume. ' Peter Garrison, Flying 'This book successfully straddles the boundary that separates a text book from a history book. It is of equal interest to both the aerodynamicist and the layman. The textual balance achieved by the author has resulted in a book that is enjoyable and educational. ' Earl See, American Aviation Historical Society Newsletter
A History of Ancient Chinese Geoscience (Understanding China)
by Wenheng Yang Qinye YangThis book studies the history of geoscience in ancient China. Building on a comprehensive review of the historical development of Chinese geoscience, the authors map out the trends and patterns in the development of geoscience, thereby filling a research gap in this field and laying the groundwork for a systematic study of the history of Chinese geoscience. The Chinese version of this book was selected as a key national book planning project under China’s 12th Five-Year Plan and was funded by the National Publication Foundation. It also won the 6th China Outstanding Publication Award. Encompassing historical accounts of both geography and geology, the book explores the origin, development and prosperity of ancient Chinese geoscience. It introduces a wide range of topics covering a time span from the primitive societies to the Late Qing dynasty. In each time period, as well as discussion of the contexts, topics include the mainstream schools of thought, scientific discoveries and their significance, scholarly works, well-known experts, major research activities, research institutes, educational programmes, academic journals, scientific instruments, and knowledge exchange. The book also deals with the history of several neighbouring disciplines such as climatology, cartology, hydrology, geomorphology and mineral petrology. The authors provide an exceptionally detailed description of geoscience in embryo – the forming of early knowledge of the Earth in primitive society. For the first time, philosophers’ geoscientific understanding of the world and the findings of historical mineralogy and petrology are brought to the fore, supported by data from various sources including ancient literature, archives and documentation, archaeological sites, cultural artefacts and modern experimental evidence. The novel design of contextualising each phase of development in its unique social-political conditions is unprecedented and of high academic and social value. Marked by its specialised interpretation and scientific rigour, this work proves to be unparalleled in revealing the reciprocity between scientific innovation and societal transformation, thus providing valuable lessons and inspiration for future geoscientists. As a reference book on the history of geoscience, it aims to provide specialist guidance for professionals in the field of geoscience, geoscience historians and researchers, university teachers and students in relevant disciplines, and teachers of geography or science in primary or secondary schools.
A History of Anthropology
by Thomas Hylland Eriksen Finn Sivert NielsenThis is a thoroughly updated and revised edition of a popular classic of modern anthropology. The authors provide summaries of ‘Enlightenment’, ‘Romantic’ and ‘Victorian’ anthropology, from the cultural theories of Morgan and Taylor to the often neglected contributions of German scholars. The ambiguous relationship between anthropology and national cultures is also considered. The book provides an unparalleled account of theoretical developments in anthropology from the 1920s to the present, including functionalism, structuralism, hermeneutics, neo-Marxism and discourse analysis. There are brief biographies of major anthropologists and coverage of key debates including totemism, kinship and globalisation. This essential text on anthropology is highly engaging, authoritative and suitable for students at all levels.
A History of Astronomy (Routledge Revivals)
by Walter W. BryantA History of Astronomy, first published in 1907, offers a comprehensive introduction to the steady development of the science since its inception in the ancient world up to the momentous progress of the nineteenth century. It includes biographical material relating to the most famous names in the study of astronomy – Copernicus, Galileo, Newton, Herschel – and their contributions, clear and accessible discussions of key discoveries, as well as detailing the incremental steps in technology with which many of the turning points in astronomy were intimately bound up.
A History of Balance, 1250-1375
by Joel KayeThe ideal of balance and its association with what is ordered, just, and healthful remained unchanged throughout the medieval period. The central place allotted to balance in the workings of nature and society also remained unchanged. What changed within the culture of scholasticism, between approximately 1280 and 1360, was the emergence of a greatly expanded sense of what balance is and can be. In this groundbreaking history of balance, Joel Kaye reveals that this new sense of balance and its potentialities became the basis of a new model of equilibrium, shaped and shared by the most acute and innovative thinkers of the period. Through a focus on four disciplines - scholastic economic thought, political thought, medical thought, and natural philosophy - Kaye's book reveals that this new model of equilibrium opened up striking new vistas of imaginative and speculative possibility, making possible a profound re-thinking of the world and its workings.
A History of Biology: A History Of The Molecular Revolution
by Michel MorangeA comprehensive history of the biological sciences from antiquity to the modern eraThis book presents a global history of the biological sciences from ancient times to today, providing needed perspective on the development of biological thought while shedding light on the field's upheavals and key breakthroughs through the ages. Michel Morange brings to life the dynamic interplay of science, society, and biology’s many subdisciplines, enabling readers to better appreciate the interdisciplinary exchanges that have shaped the field over the centuries.Each chapter of this incisive book focuses on a specific period in the history of biology, describing the major transformations that occurred, the enduring scientific concerns behind these changes, and the implications of yesterday's science for today's. Morange covers everything from the first cell theory to the origins of the concept of ecosystems, and offers perspectives on areas that are often neglected by historians of biology, such as ecology, ethology, and plant biology. Along the way, he highlights the contributions of technology, the important role of hypothesis and experimentation, and the cultural contexts in which some of the most breathtaking discoveries in biology were made.Unrivaled in scope and written by a world-renowned historian of science, A History of Biology is an ideal introduction for students and experts alike, and essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the present state of biological knowledge.
A History of Biophysics in Contemporary China (SpringerBriefs in History of Science and Technology)
by Christine Yi Lai LukThis book gives a concise history of biophysics in contemporary China, from about 1949 to 1976. It outlines how a science specialty evolved from an ambiguous and amorphous field into a fully-fledged academic discipline in the socio-institutional contexts of contemporary China. The book relates how, while initially consisting of cell biologists, the Chinese biophysics community redirected their disciplinary priorities toward rocket science in the late 1950s to accommodate the national interests of the time. Biophysicists who had worked on biological sounding rockets were drawn to the military sector and continued to contribute to human spaceflight in post-Mao China. Besides the rocket-and-space missions which provided the material context for biophysics to expand in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Chinese biophysicists also created research and educational programs surrounding biophysics by exploiting the institutional opportunities afforded by the policy emphasis on science's role to drive modernization. The book explores and demonstrates the collective achievements and struggles of Chinese biophysicists in building their scientific discipline.
A History of British Eugenics since 1865: From Francis Galton to Designer Babies (Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History)
by David RedvaldsenThis book examines British eugenics from its origins in 1865 to the early 1990s. It considers the two institutions promoting the doctrine: the Galton Laboratory attached to the University of London; and the Eugenics Society. It charts internal and ideological changes across more than a century, seeing eugenics as primarily a political movement. The doctrine had influence on British society and guided adherents ranging from scientists to charitable ladies. The Galton Laboratory published detailed studies of heredity. It transformed itself into a centre for medical genetics after the Second World War. As early as the 1920s, the Eugenics Society was the mainspring of the doctrine, formulating what became the British version of an international ideology. It began as applied social Darwinism, later incorporating a greater degree of meritocracy and amelioration. Its support for sterilization in the 1930s eroded the kudos it had gained in policy-making circles. From the 1960s, organized eugenics was especially a forum for learned and popular discussion of biology and sociology. Medical advances after 1970 aided its continuation, notably the growth of assisted reproductive technologies. The book presents British eugenics as mostly shaped by domestic concerns, offering new revelations and interpretations with the capacity to readjust historical thinking. It also covers contemporary bioethical and political issues aligned to eugenics.
A History of Chemistry From Earliest Times to the Present Day
by Ernst Sigismund Von MeyerThis work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work. <P><P>This work is in the public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. <P><P>As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
A History of Chinese Science and Technology: Volume 3
by Yongxiang LuA History of Chinese Science and Technology (Volumes 1, 2 & 3) presents 44 individual lectures, beginning with Ancient Chinese Science and Technology in the Process of Human Civilizations and an Overview of Chinese Science and Technology, and continuing with in-depth discussions of several issues in the History of Science and the Needham Puzzle, interspersed with topics on Astronomy, Arithmetic, Agriculture and Medicine, The Four Great Inventions, and various technological areas closely related to clothing, food, shelter and transportation. This book is the most authoritative work on the history of Chinese Science and Technology. It is the Winner of the China Book Award, the Shanghai Book Award (1st prize), and the Classical China International Publishing Project (GAPP, General Administration of Press and Publication of China) and offers an essential resource for academic researchers and non-experts alike. It originated with a series of 44 lectures presented to top Chinese leaders, which received very positive feedback. Written by top Chinese scholars in their respective fields from the Institute for the History of Natural Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences and many other respected Chinese organizations, the book is intended for scientists, researchers and postgraduate students working in the history of science, philosophy of science and technology, and related disciplines. Yongxiang Lu is a professor, former president and member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) and Chinese Academy of Engineering (CAE), and Vice Chairman of the National Congress of China.
A History of Cyber Security Attacks: 1980 to Present
by Bruce MiddletonStories of cyberattacks dominate the headlines. Whether it is theft of massive amounts of personally identifiable information or the latest intrusion of foreign governments in U.S. government and industrial sites, cyberattacks are now important. For professionals and the public, knowing how the attacks are launched and succeed is vital to ensuring cyber security. The book provides a concise summary in a historical context of the major global cyber security attacks since 1980. Each attack covered contains an overview of the incident in layman terms, followed by a technical details section, and culminating in a lessons learned and recommendations section.
A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication
by Howard Wainer Michael FriendlyA comprehensive history of data visualization—its origins, rise, and effects on the ways we think about and solve problems. With complex information everywhere, graphics have become indispensable to our daily lives. Navigation apps show real-time, interactive traffic data. A color-coded map of exit polls details election balloting down to the county level. Charts communicate stock market trends, government spending, and the dangers of epidemics. A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication tells the story of how graphics left the exclusive confines of scientific research and became ubiquitous. As data visualization spread, it changed the way we think. Michael Friendly and Howard Wainer take us back to the beginnings of graphic communication in the mid-seventeenth century, when the Dutch cartographer Michael Florent van Langren created the first chart of statistical data, which showed estimates of the distance from Rome to Toledo. By 1786 William Playfair had invented the line graph and bar chart to explain trade imports and exports. In the nineteenth century, the “golden age” of data display, graphics found new uses in tracking disease outbreaks and understanding social issues. Friendly and Wainer make the case that the explosion in graphical communication both reinforced and was advanced by a cognitive revolution: visual thinking. Across disciplines, people realized that information could be conveyed more effectively by visual displays than by words or tables of numbers. Through stories and illustrations, A History of Data Visualization and Graphic Communication details the 400-year evolution of an intellectual framework that has become essential to both science and society at large.
A History of Energy Flows: From Human Labor to Renewable Power
by Anthony N. PennaThis book presents a global and historical perspective of energy flows during the last millennium. The search for sustainable energy is a key issue dominating today’s energy regime. This book details the historical evolution of energy, following the overlapping and slow flowing transitions from one regime to another. In doing so it seeks to provide insight into future energy transitions and the means of utilizing sustainable energy sources to reduce humanity’s fossil fuel footprint. The book begins with an examination of the earliest and most basic forms of energy use, namely, that of humans metabolizing food in order to work, with the first transition following the domestication and breeding of horses and other animals. The book also examines energy sources key to development during the industrialization and mechanization, such as wood and coal, as well as more recent sources, such as crude oil and nuclear energy. The book then assesses energy flows that are at the forefront of sustainability, by examining green sources, such as solar, wind power and hydropower. While it is easy to see energy flows in terms of “revolutions,” transitions have taken centuries to evolve, and transitions are never fully global, as, for example, wood remains the primary fuel source for cooking in much of the developing world. This book not only demonstrates the longevity of energy transitions but also discusses the possibility for reducing transition times when technological developments provide inexpensive and safe energy sources that can reduce the dependency on fossil fuels. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of energy transitions, sustainable energy and environmental and energy history.
A History of Folding in Mathematics: Mathematizing The Margins (Science Networks. Historical Studies #59)
by Michael FriedmanWhile it is well known that the Delian problems are impossible to solve with a straightedge and compass – for example, it is impossible to construct a segment whose length is the cube root of 2 with these instruments – the discovery of the Italian mathematician Margherita Beloch Piazzolla in 1934 that one can in fact construct a segment of length the cube root of 2 with a single paper fold was completely ignored (till the end of the 1980s). This comes as no surprise, since with few exceptions paper folding was seldom considered as a mathematical practice, let alone as a mathematical procedure of inference or proof that could prompt novel mathematical discoveries. A few questions immediately arise: Why did paper folding become a non-instrument? What caused the marginalisation of this technique? And how was the mathematical knowledge, which was nevertheless transmitted and prompted by paper folding, later treated and conceptualised? Aiming to answer these questions, this volume provides, for the first time, an extensive historical study on the history of folding in mathematics, spanning from the 16th century to the 20th century, and offers a general study on the ways mathematical knowledge is marginalised, disappears, is ignored or becomes obsolete. In doing so, it makes a valuable contribution to the field of history and philosophy of science, particularly the history and philosophy of mathematics and is highly recommended for anyone interested in these topics.
A History of Genomics across Species, Communities and Projects (Medicine and Biomedical Sciences in Modern History)
by Miguel García-Sancho James LoweThis open access book offers a comprehensive overview of the history of genomics across three different species and four decades, from the 1980s to the recent past. It takes an inclusive approach in order to capture not only the international initiatives to map and sequence the genomes of various organisms, but also the work of smaller-scale institutions engaged in the mapping and sequencing of yeast, human and pig DNA. In doing so, the authors expand the historiographical lens of genomics from a focus on large-scale projects to other forms of organisation. They show how practices such as genome mapping, sequence assembly and annotation are as essential as DNA sequencing in the history of genomics, and argue that existing depictions of genomics are too closely associated with the Human Genome Project. Exploring the use of genomic tools by biochemists, cell biologists, and medical and agriculturally-oriented geneticists, this book portrays the history of genomics as inseparably entangled with the day-to-day practices and objectives of these communities. The authors also uncover often forgotten actors such as the European Commission, a crucial funder and forger of collaborative networks undertaking genomic projects. In examining historical trajectories across species, communities and projects, the book provides new insights on genomics, its dramatic expansion during the late twentieth-century and its developments in the twenty-first century. Offering the first extensive critical examination of the nature and historicity of reference genomes, this book demonstrates how their affordances and limitations are shaped by the involvement or absence of particular communities in their production.
A History of Global Health: Interventions into the Lives of Other Peoples
by Randall M. PackardA sweeping history explores why people living in resource-poor areas lack access to basic health care after billions of dollars have been invested in international-health assistance.Over the past century, hundreds of billions of dollars have been invested in programs aimed at improving health on a global scale. Given the enormous scale and complexity of these lifesaving operations, why do millions of people in low-income countries continue to live without access to basic health services, sanitation, or clean water? And why are deadly diseases like Ebola able to spread so quickly among populations?In A History of Global Health, Randall M. Packard argues that global-health initiatives have saved millions of lives but have had limited impact on the overall health of people living in underdeveloped areas, where health-care workers are poorly paid, infrastructure and basic supplies such as disposable gloves, syringes, and bandages are lacking, and little effort has been made to address the underlying social and economic determinants of ill health. Global-health campaigns have relied on the application of biomedical technologies—vaccines, insecticide-treated nets, vitamin A capsules—to attack specific health problems but have failed to invest in building lasting infrastructure for managing the ongoing health problems of local populations.Designed to be read and taught, the book offers a critical historical view, providing historians, policy makers, researchers, program managers, and students with an essential new perspective on the formation and implementation of global-health policies and practices.
A History of Health & Fitness: Implications for Policy Today
by Roy J. ShephardThis book provides a unique and succinct account of the history of health and fitness, responding to the growing recognition of physicians, policy makers and the general public that exercise is the most potent form of medicine available to humankind. Individual chapters present information extending from the earliest reaches of human history to the present day, arranged in the form of 30 thematic essays covering topics from the supposed idyll of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle and its posited health benefits to the evolution of health professionals and the possible contribution of the Olympic movement to health and fitness in our current society. Learning objectives are set for each topic, and although technical language is avoided as far as possible, a thorough glossary explains any specialized terms that are introduced in each chapter. The critical thinking of the reader is stimulated by a range of questions arising from the text context, and each chapter concludes with a brief discussion of some of the more important implications for public policies on health and fitness today and into the future. The material will be of particular interest to graduate and undergraduate students in public health, health promotion, health policy, kinesiology, physical education, but will be of interest also to many studying medicine, history and sociology.