Spinal disorders in very young children may be caused by a variety of conditions. The treatment of such conditions is often challenging due to the age of the patient and the progressive nature of the deformity. There also may be associated problems such as congenital anomalies, respiratory insufficiency, and neurological problems. Depending on the etiology of the deformity, these children are often cared for by multiple specialists including pediatricians, pediatric orthopaedists or orthopaedic spine surgeons, neurologists, pediatric surgeons, pediatric neurosurgeons, oncologists, and/or pulmonologists. Health professionals in all of the mentioned disciplines are involved in the management of these patients, which is why compiling a comprehensive textbook that is not limited to orthopedic specialists is essential. This textbook will effectively help to standardize the care of these patients. Furthermore, other professionals such as nurses, physical therapists and healthcare professionals in training are usually not familiar with these conditions and are in need of a reference book to consult when caring for children with spinal deformities.

"Although efforts to examine the structure and function of the human brain stretch back centuries (Paluzzi et al, 2007), techniques allowing the study of living humans are a relatively recent development. Early investigators confined themselves to largely studying external features, with 18th century methodologies such as phrenology purporting to link extracranial proxies for brain size and structure to specific personality traits (Livianos-Aldana et al, 2007). However, these techniques did not prove useful for either clinical or research purposes. Two-dimensional x-ray imaging, while constituting an important medical advance, did not provide sufficient soft tissue contrast to be useful for studying "functional" psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder; techniques to enhance contrast, such as ventriculography and pneumoencephalography were similarly limited (Figure 1.1). Wide-spread in vivo studies of brain morphometry had to await the development of computed tomography imaging (CT) in the early 1970s. By the early 1980s CT was already being applied to the study of bipolar disorder (Pearlson et al, 1981)"--

Beginning with the foundations of community development, An Introduction to Community Development offers a comprehensive and practical approach to planning for communities. Road-tested in the authors’ own teaching, and through the training they provide for practicing planners, it enables students to begin making connections between academic study and practical know-how from both private and public sector contexts. An Introduction to Community Development shows how planners can utilize local economic interests and integrate finance and marketing considerations into their strategy. Most importantly, the book is strongly focused on outcomes, encouraging students to ask: what is best practice when it comes to planning for communities, and how do we accurately measure the results of planning practice? This newly revised and updated edition includes: increased coverage of sustainability issues, discussion of localism and its relation to community development, quality of life, community well-being and public health considerations, and content on local food systems. Each chapter provides a range of reading materials for the student, supplemented with text boxes, a chapter outline, keywords, and reference lists, and new skills based exercises at the end of each chapter to help students turn their learning into action, making this the most user-friendly text for community development now available.

1. THE BEGINNINGS OF HYDRATE RESEARCH Until very recently, our understanding of hydrate in the natural environment and its impact on seafloor stability, its importance as a sequester of methane, and its potential as an important mechanism in the Earth's climate change system, was masked by our lack of appreciation of the vastness of the hydrate resource. Only a few publications on naturally occurring hydrate existed prior to 1975. The first published reference to oceanic gas hydrate (Bryan and Markl, 1966) and the first publication in the scientific literature (Stoll, et a1., 1971) show how recently it has been since the topic of naturally occurring hydrate has been raised. Recently, however, the number of hydrate publications has increased substantially, reflecting increased research into hydrate topics and the initiation of funding to support the researchers. Awareness of the existence of naturally occurring gas hydrate now has spread beyond the few scientific enthusiasts who pursued knowledge about the elusive hydrate because of simple interest and lurking suspicions that hydrate would prove to be an important topic. The first national conference on gas hydrate in the U.S. was held as recently as April, 1991 at the U.S. National Center of the U.s. Geological Survey in Reston Virginia (Max et al., 1991). The meeting was co-hosted by the U.s. Geological Survey, the Naval Research Laboratory, and the U.S.

This book highlights the experiences of 14 high poverty communities in the rural South that accepted the invitation to be part of the Turning the Tide on Poverty (Tide) initiative. While history would suggest that impoverished places have limited capacity to make good things happen, Tide demonstrated otherwise. This volume is a testament to the positive work that can be realized when people from all walks of life are accorded the opportunity to discuss, deliberate, and act on strategies designed to improve the lives of rural people and places in the South. The message is clear: when local residents are provided a safe space to weigh in on local issues and asked to give respectful consideration to the views of others in their community, they create pathways for spurring positive changes. Simply put, civic engagement propels people to do more for their community and instils in them a sense of hope for what can be accomplished when local people work together. This book was originally published as a special issue of the journal Community Development.