The United Nations World Assembly on Aging has made advancing health and well-being into old age a worldwide call for action. And this text at hand shows us what researchers worldwide are doing to answer that call. Here, three of America's most esteemed experts on aging lead a global team of contributors - each an expert in his or her country - to show us what the top challenges of each nation are, and what top research is being done there to meet those. While we cannot predict with absolute certainty all of the issues that will arise over the next 20 years, we can anticipate some and we must start now to prepare for these challenges, an expert from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services warned at a recent UN World Assembly on Aging. Needed response to the global population shift is not just the responsibility of governments, but will be a product of wise, long-term decisions made by individuals and societies, she explained. In most nations globally, populations are graying and the number of people aged 65 and older is vastly increasing, creating a larger segment of senior citizens than the world has ever before seen. Across human history, the elderly accounted for no more than 3 percent of the world population. By the year 2030, the elderly are expected to make up about 25 percent of the world population. And while longevity is of course seen as a great success, longer lifespan for such masses also creates dilemmas. For example, the incidence of dementia has already increased significantly with an 11-fold increase in people aged 65 and older in the US since the turn of the century, and a similar increase in aged people in Scotland has researchers there scrambling to find treatments for what they expect will be a 75 percent increase in dementia over the next 25 years. Chronic diseases that come with aging are already taxing health care systems in the US and around the world to Japan, with most experts aware their current health systems would be overrun and lack enough staff and facilities to handle the needs of an elderly population multiplying largely in the coming two decades. Increases in psychological issues such as dealing with the depression often striking aged people are impending, too, as are social issues such as how families, and public policies, will deal with the changing shape of the family.

Around the globe, people now engage with media content across multiple platforms, following stories, characters, worlds, brands and other information across a spectrum of media channels. This transmedia phenomenon has led to the burgeoning of transmedia studies in media, cultural studies and communication departments across the academy. The Routledge Companion to Transmedia Studies is the definitive volume for scholars and students interested in comprehending all the various aspects of transmediality. This collection, which gathers together original articles by a global roster of contributors from a variety of disciplines, sets out to contextualize, problematize and scrutinize the current status and future directions of transmediality, exploring the industries, arts, practices, cultures, and methodologies of studying convergent media across multiple platforms.

« Le présent rapport final est le point culminant des travaux du Comité et présente un ensemble de recommandations visant à harmoniser l'aide financière en cas de catastrophe avec les objectifs plus larges de réduction des risques de catastrophe et d'adaptation aux changements climatiques afin d'accroître la résilience du Canada »--page 17.

"On December 7, 2011, President Obama and Prime Minister Harper released the Beyond the Border (BTB) Action Plan, which set out joint priorities and specific initiatives for cross-border collaboration. A common goal within this partnership focused on enhancing the coordination of responses during binational disasters ... To this end, the Canada-U.S. Resiliency II Experiment (CAUSE II) addressed this common goal in addition to several other initiatives ... This report provides an overview of the CAUSE II experimental methodology, a summary of the key findings and a number of recommendations for advancing the development and implementation of integrated SA tools"--Abstract.

Resilience research has been growing several decades but has not addressed a national Canadian population. This study constructed a Structural Equation Model (SEM) of resilience using secondary data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth. The sample used for analysis consisted of English speaking Canadians born in 1987 and 1988. The model analyzed two groups: Primary (642 332 female, 310 male) and Supplemental (298 146 female, 152 male). The model contained measures for Biological Sex and Family Income (ages 7-8), Praise, Quality Time, and Verbal Abuse (ages 9-10), Physical Abuse and Parental Alcohol Use (ages 11-12), Community Size, close relationships, and anti-social behavior (ages 13-14), and Optimism and Problem Solving (ages 21-22). Results suggest that resilience functions for Canadians as it does for previously studied American, European, and Asian populations and underscores the contributions of close relationships throughout childhood and positive Problem Solving skills in adolescence for Resilience in young adulthood. --leaf ii.