A Mathematical Approach to Multilevel, Multiscale Health Interventions

A Mathematical Approach to Multilevel, Multiscale Health Interventions

Author: Rodrick Wallace

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2013

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1848169973

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This book, based on published studies, takes a unique perspective on the 30-year collapse of pharmaceutical industry productivity in the search for small molecule OC magic bulletOCO interventions. The relentless escalation of inflation-adjusted cost per approved medicine in the United States OCo from $200 million in 1950 to $1.2 billion in 2010 OCo has driven industry giants to, at best, slavish imitation in drug design, and at worst, abandonment of research and embracing of widespread fraud in consumer marketing.The book adapts formalism across a number of disciplines to the strategy for design of mutilevel interventions, focusing first on molecular, cellular, and larger scale examples, and then extending the argument to the simplifications provided by the dominant role of social and cultural structures and processes in individual and population patterns of health and illness.In place of OC magic bulletsOCO, we must now apply OC magic strategiesOCO that act across both the scale and level of organization. This book provides an introductory roadmap to the new tools that will be needed for the design of such strategies."


Mathematical Approach To Multilevel, Multiscale Health Interventions, A: Pharmaceutical Industry Decline And Policy Response

Mathematical Approach To Multilevel, Multiscale Health Interventions, A: Pharmaceutical Industry Decline And Policy Response

Author: Rodrick Wallace

Publisher: World Scientific

Published: 2013-01-28

Total Pages: 238

ISBN-13: 1848169981

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This book, based on published studies, takes a unique perspective on the 30-year collapse of pharmaceutical industry productivity in the search for small molecule “magic bullet” interventions. The relentless escalation of inflation-adjusted cost per approved medicine in the United States — from $200 million in 1950 to $1.2 billion in 2010 — has driven industry giants to, at best, slavish imitation in drug design, and at worst, abandonment of research and embracing of widespread fraud in consumer marketing.The book adapts formalism across a number of disciplines to the strategy for design of mutilevel interventions, focusing first on molecular, cellular, and larger scale examples, and then extending the argument to the simplifications provided by the dominant role of social and cultural structures and processes in individual and population patterns of health and illness.In place of “magic bullets”, we must now apply “magic strategies” that act across both the scale and level of organization. This book provides an introductory roadmap to the new tools that will be needed for the design of such strategies./a


Computational Psychiatry

Computational Psychiatry

Author: Rodrick Wallace

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2017-04-20

Total Pages: 243

ISBN-13: 3319539108

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This book explores mental disorders from a uniquely evolutionary perspective. Although there have been many attempts to mathematically model neural processes and, to some extent, their dysfunction, there is very little literature that models mental function within a sociocultural, socioeconomic, and environmental context. Addressing this gap in the extant literature, this book explores essential aspects of mental disorders, recognizing the ubiquitous role played by the exaptation of crosstalk between cognitive modules at many different scales and levels of organization, the missing heritability of complex diseases, and cultural epigenetics. Further, it introduces readers to valuable control theory tools that permit the exploration of the environmental induction of neurodevelopmental disorders, as well as the study of the synergism between culture, psychopathology and sleep disorders, offering a distinctively unique resource.


Introducing the Oscillations Based Paradigm

Introducing the Oscillations Based Paradigm

Author: Darius Plikynas

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-06-16

Total Pages: 341

ISBN-13: 3319390406

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The book presents a conceptually novel oscillations based paradigm, the Oscillation-Based Multi-Agent System (OSIMAS), aimed at the modelling of agents and their systems as coherent, stylized, neurodynamic processes. This paradigm links emerging research domains via coherent neurodynamic oscillation based representations of the individual human mind and society (as a coherent collective mind) states. Thus, this multidisciplinary paradigm delivers an empirical and simulation research framework that provides a new way of modelling the complex dynamics of individual and collective mind states. This book addresses a conceptual problem – the lack of a multidisciplinary, connecting paradigm, which could link fragmented research in the fields of neuroscience, artificial intelligence (AI), multi-agent system (MAS) and the social network domains. The need for a common multidisciplinary research framework essentially arises because these fields share a common object of investigation and simulation, i.e., individual and collective human behavior. Although the fields of research mentioned above all approach this from different perspectives, their common object of investigation unites them. By putting the various pathways of research as they are interrelated into perspective, this book provides a philosophical underpinning, experimental background and modelling tools that the author anticipates will reveal new frontiers in multidisciplinary research. Fundamental investigation of the implicit oscillatory nature of agents’ mind states and social mediums in general can reveal some new ways of understanding the periodic and nonperiodic fluctuations taking place in real life. For example, via agent states-related diffusion properties, we could investigate complex economic phenomena like the spread of stock market crashes, currency crises, speculative oscillations (bubbles and crashes), social unrest, recessionary effects, sovereign defaults, etc. All these effects are closely associated with social fragility, which follows and is affected by cycles such as production, political, business and financial. Thus, the multidisciplinary OSIMAS paradigm can yield new knowledge and research perspectives, allowing for a better understanding of social agents and their social organization principles.


Gene Expression and Its Discontents

Gene Expression and Its Discontents

Author: Rodrick Wallace

Publisher: Springer

Published: 2016-11-23

Total Pages: 344

ISBN-13: 3319480782

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This book describes how epigenetic context, in a large sense, affects gene expression and the development of an organism, using the asymptotic limit theorems of information theory to construct statistical models useful in data analysis. The approach allows deep understanding of how embedding context affects development. We find that epigenetic information sources act as tunable catalysts, directing ontogeny into characteristic pathways, a perspective having important implications for epigenetic epidemiology. In sum, environmental stressors can induce a broad spectrum of developmental dysfunctions, and the book explores a number of pandemic chronic diseases, using U.S. data at different scales and levels of organization. In particular, we find the legacy of slavery has been grossly compounded by accelerating industrial decline and urban decay. Individual chapters are dedicated to obesity and its sequelae, coronary heart disease, cancer, mental disorders, autoimmune dysfunction, Alzheimer’s disease, and other conditions. Developmental disorders are driven by environmental factors channeled by historical trajectory and are unlikely to respond to medical interventions at the population level in the face of persistent individual and community stress. Drugs powerful enough to affect deleterious epigenetic programming will likely have side effects leading to shortened lifespan. Addressing chronic conditions and developmental disorders requires significant large-scale changes in public policy and resource allocation.


Modeling the Interplay Between Human Behavior and the Spread of Infectious Diseases

Modeling the Interplay Between Human Behavior and the Spread of Infectious Diseases

Author: Piero Manfredi

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-01-04

Total Pages: 329

ISBN-13: 1461454743

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This volume summarizes the state-of-the-art in the fast growing research area of modeling the influence of information-driven human behavior on the spread and control of infectious diseases. In particular, it features the two main and inter-related “core” topics: behavioral changes in response to global threats, for example, pandemic influenza, and the pseudo-rational opposition to vaccines. In order to make realistic predictions, modelers need to go beyond classical mathematical epidemiology to take these dynamic effects into account. With contributions from experts in this field, the book fills a void in the literature. It goes beyond classical texts, yet preserves the rationale of many of them by sticking to the underlying biology without compromising on scientific rigor. Epidemiologists, theoretical biologists, biophysicists, applied mathematicians, and PhD students will benefit from this book. However, it is also written for Public Health professionals interested in understanding models, and to advanced undergraduate students, since it only requires a working knowledge of mathematical epidemiology.


Oxford Textbook of Global Public Health

Oxford Textbook of Global Public Health

Author: Roger Detels

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 1717

ISBN-13: 019881013X

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Sixth edition of the hugely successful, internationally recognised textbook on global public health and epidemiology, with 3 volumes comprehensively covering the scope, methods, and practice of the discipline


The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate

The Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate

Author: Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Published: 2022-04-30

Total Pages: 755

ISBN-13: 9781009157971

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is the leading international body for assessing the science related to climate change. It provides policymakers with regular assessments of the scientific basis of human-induced climate change, its impacts and future risks, and options for adaptation and mitigation. This IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate is the most comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of the observed and projected changes to the ocean and cryosphere and their associated impacts and risks, with a focus on resilience, risk management response options, and adaptation measures, considering both their potential and limitations. It brings together knowledge on physical and biogeochemical changes, the interplay with ecosystem changes, and the implications for human communities. It serves policymakers, decision makers, stakeholders, and all interested parties with unbiased, up-to-date, policy-relevant information. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.


COVID-19 in New York City

COVID-19 in New York City

Author: Deborah Wallace

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2020-11-10

Total Pages: 77

ISBN-13: 3030596249

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This book is the first social epidemiological study of COVID-19 spread in New York City (NYC), the primary epicenter of the United States. New York City spread COVID-19 throughout the United States. The context of epicenter formation determined the rapid, extreme rise of NYC case and mortality rates. Decades of public policies destructive of poor neighborhoods of color heavily determined the spread within the City. Premature mortality rates revealed the "weathering" of policy-targeted communities: accelerated aging due to chronic stress. COVID attacks the elderly more severely than those under the age of 60. Communities with high proportions of prematurely aged residents proved fertile ground for COVID illness and mortality. The very public policies that created swaths of white wealth across much of Manhattan and parts of Brooklyn destroyed the human diversity needed to ride out crises. Topics covered within the chapters include: Premature Death Rate Geography in New York City: Implications for COVID-19 NYC COVID Markers at the ZIP Code Level Prospero's New Castles: COVID Infection and Premature Mortality in the NY Metro Region Pandemic Firefighting vs. Pandemic Fire Prevention Conclusion: Scales of Time in Disasters An exemplary study in health disparities, COVID-19 in New York City: An Ecology of Race and Class Oppression is essential reading for social epidemiologists, public health researchers of health disparities, those in public service tasked with addressing these problems, and infectious disease scientists who focus on spread in human populations of new zoonotic diseases. The brief also should appeal to students in these fields, civil rights scholars, science writers, medical anthropologists and sociologists, medical and public health historians, public health economists, and public policy scientists.