Health is a journey. However, we often desire instant gratification and expect results as soon as we put any effort. A muscle isn’t strengthened by inactivity, our health is the same, it has to be challenged, allowed to respond, adapt and then become stronger through the process. When we decide to make our health a priority, we think differently, we act differently and our potential increases. Our relationships are deeper and longer lasting, our energy improves, the connections we make are greater and our life experiences are richer. Use this book as a guide, a resource, for motivation and for implementation. Successful people do what unsuccessful people do not want to do. So be successful, be consistent, be focused and achieve what you deserve. You are amazing, you are capable of great health and a great life; decide now to improve your health, your life and your legacy. And, enjoy the journey!

Health is a journey. However, we often desire instant gratification and expect results as soon as we put any effort. A muscle isn’t strengthened by inactivity, our health is the same, it has to be challenged, allowed to respond, adapt and then become stronger through the process. When we decide to make our health a priority, we think differently, we act differently and our potential increases. Our relationships are deeper and longer lasting, our energy improves, the connections we make are greater and our life experiences are richer. Use this book as a guide, a resource, for motivation and for implementation. Successful people do what unsuccessful people do not want to do. So be successful, be consistent, be focused and achieve what you deserve. You are amazing, you are capable of great health and a great life; decide now to improve your health, your life and your legacy. And, enjoy the journey!

Since the late 18th century, when it emerged as a source of heating and, later, steam power, coal has brought untold benefits to mankind. Even today, coal generates almost 45 percent of the world's power. Our modern technological society would be inconceivable without coal and the energy it provides. Unfortunately, that society will not survive unless we wean ourselves off coal. The largest single source of greenhouse gases, coal is responsible for 43 percent of the world's carbon emissions. Richard Martin, author of SuperFuel, argues that to limit catastrophic climate change, we must find a way to power our world with less polluting energy sources, and we must do it in the next couple of decades—or else it is "game over." It won't be easy: as coal plants shut down across the United States, and much of Europe turns to natural gas, coal use is growing in the booming economies of Asia— particularly China and India. Even in Germany, where nuclear power stations are being phased out in the wake of the Fukushima accident, coal use is growing. Led by the Sierra Club and its ambitious "Beyond Coal" campaign, environmentalists hope to drastically reduce our dependence on coal in the next decade. But doing so will require an unprecedented contraction of an established, lucrative, and politically influential worldwide industry. Big Coal will not go gently. And its decline will dramatically change lives everywhere—from Appalachian coal miners and coal company executives to activists in China's nascent environmental movement. Based on a series of journeys into the heart of coal land, from Wyoming to West Virginia to China's remote Shanxi Province, hundreds of interviews with people involved in, or affected by, the effort to shrink the industry, and deep research into the science, technology, and economics of the coal industry, Coal Wars chronicles the dramatic stories behind coal's big shutdown—and the industry's desperate attempts to remain a global behemoth. A tour de force of literary journalism, Coal Wars will be a milestone in the climate change battle.

Health care reform has dominated public discourse over the past several years, and the recent passage of the Affordable Care Act, rather than quell the rhetoric, has sparked even more debate. Donald A. Barr reviews the current structure of the American health care system, describing the historical and political contexts in which it developed and the core policy issues that continue to confront us today. This comprehensive analysis introduces the various organizations and institutions that make the U.S. health care system work—or fail to work, as the case may be. A principal message of the book is the seeming paradox of the quality of health care in this country—on the one hand it is the best medical care system in the world, on the other it is one of the worst among developed countries because of how it is organized. Barr introduces readers to broad cultural issues surrounding health care policy, such as access, affordability, and quality. He discusses specific elements of U.S. health care, including insurance, especially Medicare and Medicaid, the shift to for-profit managed care, the pharmaceutical industry, issues of long-term care, the plight of the uninsured, medical errors, and nursing shortages. The latest edition of this widely adopted text updates the description and discussion of key sectors of America’s health care system in light of the Affordable Care Act.

This book examines the nature, extent and implications of rapid strides digitalization has made in India since the turn of the millennium. These have been examined not merely in the sphere of information and communication technology (ICT) but its multifarious applications spreading across almost all aspects of production, services and institutions which have profound repercussions for the transformation of the society and economy at the micro, meso and macro levels. With contributions from both ICT scholars and social scientists, this book presents diverse scenarios and unravels challenges faced in the process of technical applications, access by the users of these disruptive technologies (automation, e-commerce, big data analytics & algorithms, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, etc.) which, unlike heavy machines (embodied technology), mostly defy physical space, pace of mobility and inoperability between technologies. Chapters in this volume address challenges and possibilities in establishing and operating intricate engineering infrastructure, technical and societal constraints encountered in broad-basing digitalization across layers of educational and social skills conducive to difficult geographies. Issues dealt within this book include farming, healthcare, education, food processing, e-commerce, labour, rural community development, open source data and information democracy. The chapters also reflect upon implications on local economy and society, of the very global nature of these seamless technologies where inter-operability remains the quintessential advantage of digitalization whether promoted or spearheaded through the state, private sector or global capital. The book critiques policy inadequacies and suggests plausible policy approaches to reduce the adverse impacts of fast digitalization and broad-base potential benefits across space and levels of socio-economic development of regions and society. This book would be of interest to scholars, practitioners, technocrats, industry analysts, policy makers and civil society agencies.

Thanks to remarkable advances in modern health care attributable to science, engineering, and medicine, it is now possible to cure or manage illnesses that were long deemed untreatable. At the same time, however, the United States is facing the vexing challenge of a seemingly uncontrolled rise in the cost of health care. Total medical expenditures are rapidly approaching 20 percent of the gross domestic product and are crowding out other priorities of national importance. The use of increasingly expensive prescription drugs is a significant part of this problem, making the cost of biopharmaceuticals a serious national concern with broad political implications. Especially with the highly visible and very large price increases for prescription drugs that have occurred in recent years, finding a way to make prescription medicinesâ€"and health care at largeâ€"more affordable for everyone has become a socioeconomic imperative. Affordability is a complex function of factors, including not just the prices of the drugs themselves, but also the details of an individual's insurance coverage and the number of medical conditions that an individual or family confronts. Therefore, any solution to the affordability issue will require considering all of these factors together. The current high and increasing costs of prescription drugsâ€"coupled with the broader trends in overall health care costsâ€"is unsustainable to society as a whole. Making Medicines Affordable examines patient access to affordable and effective therapies, with emphasis on drug pricing, inflation in the cost of drugs, and insurance design. This report explores structural and policy factors influencing drug pricing, drug access programs, the emerging role of comparative effectiveness assessments in payment policies, changing finances of medical practice with regard to drug costs and reimbursement, and measures to prevent drug shortages and foster continued innovation in drug development. It makes recommendations for policy actions that could address drug price trends, improve patient access to affordable and effective treatments, and encourage innovations that address significant needs in health care.

The Orenda approach: We describe the foundational base and health and education process to interface science and health learning for vulnerable adolescents, who live in extreme urban poverty in the US, 'the forgotten children', to manage emotional and social barriers at this critical stage of their lives. These children live in neighborhoods concentrated with dysfunctional families many with Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs). They are at risk for complications of personal and environmental factors while still adolescents. They lack the opportunity to build resilience and leadership to overcome these challenges. We integrate experiential learning approaches between contemporary physician health and K-12 science learning pedagogy to emphasize the value of science to a community. Our experiences are presented of challenges faced and barriers overcome over 4-years in over 100 adolescents in different extreme neighborhoods of poverty in the rust belt city of Pittsburgh. Mission: 1. To experience the social skills in an ethical framework for critical thinking and leadership by conducting successful community research in forgotten children. 2. To improve the local culture of health care to reduce health disparities in underserved neighborhoods. The Orenda Approach, An Iroquois adjective, denotes the goal of developing leadership in adolescents. The approach is by organizing health sciences clubs for at-risk adolescents as an after-school activity with trained mentors. Small teams select and identify locally relevant health disparities micro-Community-Based Participatory Research (mCBPR) projects. Using the 5 steps of mCBPR scientific process. with a mantra of 'learn, decide and do' at each step, they conduct a wide range of practices to extend skills promoted by STEM disciplines by adding arts and science as STREAM learning, The mCBPR projects are used to draw inferences and present recommendations to reduce barriers posed by the local community. Fitted into an academic school year in weekly OST club meetings with an end-of-academic-year, the results are shared in a local community health fair. Long term objectives: We offer a model for a city-wide network of clubs, targeted to the most underserved neighborhoods, as an approach to improve city-wide health equity. If sustained. This could contribute multiple topics for a cumulative increased awareness to enhance the local culture of health. Without help, these forgotten children are destined to the local cycle of failure; a societal lost opportunity. With help, each year a cohort of students would be trained in problem-solving as an increased societal opportunity as community leaders for the future.