The interplay between host and pathogen is a complex co-evolutionary battle of surveillance and evasion. The pathogen continuously develops mechanisms to subvert the immune response in order to establish infection while the immune system responds with novel mechanisms of detection. Because the majority of Lyme disease pathology is due to an over-exuberant immune response, much research in Borrelia burgdorferi pathogenesis has been devoted to understanding the mammalian host response to the bacterium. Immunological studies continue to be an active area of research employing emerging techniques, such as intra-vital imaging. These studies have furthered our understanding of inflammatory processes during long-term infection and provided some surprising insights, such as the continued presence of bacterial products after clearance. The field of Lyme disease has long debated the etiology of long-term inflammation and recent studies in the murine host have shed light on relevant cell types and inflammatory mediators that participate in the pathology of Lyme arthritis. Live imaging and bioluminescent studies have allowed for a novel view of the bacterial life cycle, including the tick mid-gut, tick-to-mammal transmission and dissemination throughout a mouse. A number of tick and bacterial proteins have been shown to participate in the completion of the enzootic cycle. Novel mechanisms of gene regulation are continuously being identified. However, B. burgdorferi lacks many traditional virulence factors, such as toxins or specialized secretion systems. Many genes in the B. burgdorferi genome have no known homolog in other bacteria. Therefore, studies focusing on host-pathogen interactions have therefore been limited by an incomplete understanding of the repertoire of bacterial virulence factors. Questions such as how the pathogen causes disease, colonizes the tick and evades host immune-surveillance have been difficult to address. Genetic studies involving single gene deletions have identified a number of important bacterial proteins, but a large-scale genomics approach to identify virulence factors has not been attempted until recently. The generation of a site-directed mutagenesis library is an important step towards a detailed analysis of the B. burgdorferi genome and pathogenome. Using this library, high-throughput genomic studies, utilizing techniques such as massively parallel sequencing have been promising and could be used to identify novel virulence determinants of disease in the mammalian host or persistence in the tick vector. Continued research on this unique pathogen and its specific interaction with host and vector may have far reaching consequences and provide insights for diverse disciplines including ecology, infectious disease, and immunology. Here, several reviews will discuss the most recent advances and future studies to be undertaken in the field of B. burgdorferi biology.

Coxiella burnetii is the etiological agent of Q fever, a zoonotic disease found worldwide. The bacterium is a fascinating example of intracellular parasitism that has uniquely evolved to thrive in the most inhospitable of cellular compartments-the phagolysosome. Understanding how C. burnetii resists the degradative functions of this vacuole, and the host cell functions coopted for successful parasitism, are central to understanding Q fever pathogenesis. Recent achievements in glycomics and proteomics are guiding development of enhanced detection schemes for the bacterium in addition to shedding light on the host immune response to the pathogen. Several chapters survey immune functions that control or potentially exacerbate Coxiella infection and delve into correlates of protective immunity elicited by vaccination. Comparative genomics is also the foundation of chapters discussing diagnostic antigen discovery and molecular typing of the bacterium, with significance for development of new clinical, epidemiologic, and forensic tools.

Tick-Borne Diseases—Advances in Research and Treatment: 2012 Edition is a ScholarlyBrief™ that delivers timely, authoritative, comprehensive, and specialized information about Tick-Borne Diseases in a concise format. The editors have built Tick-Borne Diseases—Advances in Research and Treatment: 2012 Edition on the vast information databases of ScholarlyNews.™ You can expect the information about Tick-Borne Diseases in this eBook to be deeper than what you can access anywhere else, as well as consistently reliable, authoritative, informed, and relevant. The content of Tick-Borne Diseases—Advances in Research and Treatment: 2012 Edition has been produced by the world’s leading scientists, engineers, analysts, research institutions, and companies. All of the content is from peer-reviewed sources, and all of it is written, assembled, and edited by the editors at ScholarlyEditions™ and available exclusively from us. You now have a source you can cite with authority, confidence, and credibility. More information is available at http://www.ScholarlyEditions.com/.

The book will cover the most important zoonoses with a public health impact and debate actual developments in this field from a One Health perspective. The outline of the book follows a “setting” approach, i.e. special settings of zoonoses with a public health aspect, rather than presenting a simple textbook of an encyclopedic character. Main chapters will deal with zoonoses in the food chain including a special focus on the emerging issue of antibiotic resistance, with zoonoses in domestic and pet animals, in wildlife animal species (including bats as an important infectious agent multiplier), influenza and tuberculosis as most prominent zoonoses, and zoonotic pathogens as bioterroristic agents. Special interest chapters debate non-resolved and currently hotly debated zoonoses (e.g. M. Crohn/paratuberculosis, chronic botulism) as well as the economic and ecological aspects of zoonoses.

Principles of Epidemiology for Advanced Practice Nurses provides students and practitioners with an overview of epidemiology concepts as well as the history, models and frameworks in use today.

In recent years the field of entomology, due in part to the penetration of other disciplines, has made rapid progress. “Recent Advances in Entomological Research: From Molecular Biology to Pest Management” includes 25 chapters contributed by more than 40 distinguished entomologists and introduces the latest progress in entomology, from molecular biology, insect-plant interactions and insecticide toxicology, to emerging technologies in pest management. Not only is the book interesting and informative, but it provides useful, innovative research advances and will serve as a valuable resource for entomologists, zoologists, botanists and other researchers in the field of plant protection. Tong-Xian Liu is a professor of entomology at the College of Plant Protection, Northwest A&F University, China. Le Kang is a professor of entomology at the Institute of Zoology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China.

While many doctors claim that Lyme disease—a tick-borne bacterial infection—is easily diagnosed and treated, other doctors and the patients they care for argue that it can persist beyond standard antibiotic treatment in the form of chronic Lyme disease. In Divided Bodies, Abigail A. Dumes offers an ethnographic exploration of the Lyme disease controversy that sheds light on the relationship between contested illness and evidence-based medicine in the United States. Drawing on fieldwork among Lyme patients, doctors, and scientists, Dumes formulates the notion of divided bodies: she argues that contested illnesses are disorders characterized by the division of bodies of thought in which the patient's experience is often in conflict with how it is perceived. Dumes also shows how evidence-based medicine has paradoxically amplified differences in practice and opinion by providing a platform of legitimacy on which interested parties—patients, doctors, scientists, politicians—can make claims to medical truth.

An excellent resource for graduate nursing students in master's and doctoral programs! Philosophical and Theoretical Perspectives for Advanced Nursing Practice focuses on the theoretical and philosophical perspectives necessary to guide advanced nursing practice. The expertly written chapters are diverse in content and emphasize evidence-based practice, values, person-centered care and global perspectives, and explores the interrelationships between theory, practice, and research.

Total Quality Management (TQM) and systems thinking are being used to improve all aspects of human health. This first book in a two-volume set details how the healthcare community is working with patients and their caregivers to improve healthcare and reduce its costs. Systems-based thinking encourages us to work together to look at the effects of new drugs on entire systems and not just single molecular targets. It also leads us to a better understanding of genetics and epigenetics, as well as the deep ecology of the human body. The healthcare community is developing targeted therapies that stimulate our own bodies to cure ourselves and eliminate the need for animal testing. This book will appeal to specialists, who will find recommendations on safer materials for 3D bioprinting and ways to analyze dietary supplements for toxic contaminants, and physicians, pharmacists and non-professionals, who will learn the important different ways that dietary supplements and prescription drugs are developed, sold and marketed.

Entomology is a super science, embracing interdisciplinary approaches in genomics, proteomics, and interdependent fields of biochemistry, physiology, molecular entomology, and biotechnology. An urgent need to manage available resources for the benefit of the planet and humankind has led to remarkable progress since publication of the fruit fly genome in 2000. “Short Views on Insect Genomics and Proteomics” presents multiple perspectives of recognized experts from around the world in genomics, bioinformatics, molecular biology, biochemistry, physiology, and immunology, emphasizing fast-moving areas of current research on insects and other arthropods. Concise, accessible, topical reviews include body lice and white fly genome projects, aphid phenotypic plasticity, insect regulatory genomics, the complex tick sialome, protein expression systems, therapeutic potential of insect antimicrobial peptides, nanoparticle insecticides, and novel uses for recombinant and synthetic spider silks.