An overview of allostasis, the process by which the body maintains overall viability under normal and adverse conditions.

Publisher Description

This work offers a comprehensive re-examination and elaboration of homeostasis, a guiding principle in physiology that has received surprisingly little critical evaluation. Among the key topics addressed are questions concerning the competing demands of different regulatory systems within the body and the problem of maintaining equilibrium in such circumstances. The author makes the important point that the body does not always seek constancy of its internal environment, nor does it always react in ways that prevent change. On the contrary, sometimes physiological mechanisms actively promote change. These changes in regulated levels--termed "rheostasis"--are seen as having an adaptive value beyond a simple failure of homeostasis. This book compares and categorizes examples of rheostasis for a variety of physiological variables, and presents what is known about conflicts between different regulatory systems and their role in promoting the occurrence of rheostasis. Among other topics covered are weight loss during hibernation, calcium storage and reproduction, fever, and rates of fat deposition in adults. The work of an outstanding scholar, this integrative study represents a refreshing and essential new approach to one of the basic concepts in physiological science.

How better information and better access to it improves the quality of our decisions and makes for a more vibrant participatory society. Information is power. It drives commerce, protects nations, and forms the backbone of systems that range from health care to high finance. Yet despite the avalanche of data available in today's information age, neither institutions nor individuals get the information they truly need to make well-informed decisions. Faulty information and sub-optimal decision-making create an imbalance of power that is exaggerated as governments and corporations amass enormous databases on each of us. Who has more power: the government, in possession of uncounted terabytes of data (some of it obtained by cybersnooping), or the ordinary citizen, trying to get in touch with a government agency? In Missed Information, David Sarokin and Jay Schulkin explore information—not information technology, but information itself—as a central part of our lives and institutions. They show that providing better information and better access to it improves the quality of our decisions and makes for a more vibrant participatory society. Sarokin and Schulkin argue that freely flowing information helps systems run more efficiently and that incomplete information does just the opposite. It's easier to comparison shop for microwave ovens than for doctors or hospitals because of information gaps that hinder the entire health-care system. Better information about such social ills as child labor and pollution can help consumers support more sustainable products. The authors examine the opacity of corporate annual reports, the impenetrability of government secrets, and emerging techniques of “information foraging.” The information imbalance of power can be reconfigured, they argue, with greater and more meaningful transparency from government and corporations.