Books

Practicing clinicians, trainees, infection control practitioners, and allied health professionals will find the pocket-sized Clinician's Dictionary portable and easy to use. Coverage of pathogenic bacteria, mycobacteria, fungi, viruses, and parasites that affect humans is comprehensive, yet quick and concise. The dictionary provides clinicians with a convenient means of understanding clinical features of the microorganisms they encounter.

Brand new in the field of clinical microbiology, the Clinician's Dictionary features a cross reference of new and old terminology of pathogenic microorganisms and includes material on not only the most common pathogens, but also on those less frequently recovered from patients. No other portable source of information examines species that may be resistant to therapy, defines various infectious syndromes, and affords users easy access to often esoteric organisms. For accurate interpretation of laboratory reports that may include new or unfamiliar organism names, this reference will be the first source of practical information.

Paperback, 273 pages.

Since its first clinical appearance in an 1890s case report, Cryptococcus has dramatically advanced as a human fungal pathogen: it now infects approximately 1 million individuals per year, resulting in more than 600,000 annual mortalities, including one-third of all AIDS-associated deaths.

Featuring more than 100 expert authors from around the world, this book offers the full range of scientific and clinical perspectives needed to create this unique, comprehensive overview of Cryptococcus. It covers both the Cryptococcus neoformans and Cryptococcus gattii species, examining in detail the life cycle, pathophysiology, molecular biology, genetics, genomics, epidemiology, immunology, and clinical management of this encapsulated yeast. Among the 44 chapters, readers will find several in-depth discussions of the C. gattii outbreak that began on Vancouver Island in 1999 and then spread into the mainland of Canada and the United States, causing infections in both humans and animals.

This book’s detailed, thorough reviews of all the latest advances and progress in the field set a new standard for publications dedicated to a single fungal pathogen. While the book is dedicated to Cryptococcus, it does draw analogies to other pathogenic fungi and, more broadly, to other microbial pathogens. Moreover, this volume demonstrates why Cryptococcus has become a model system for the study and understanding of fungal pathogenesis. As a result, molecular biologists, microbiologists, public health officials, epidemiologists, and infectious disease clinicians will all find this clearly written, carefully referenced, and all-inclusive book to be a highly valuable resource.

Hardcover, 620 pages, full-color insert, illustrations, index.

Historic and culturally important objects, like all materials, are vulnerable to microbial attack. Over time, microorganisms can affect paint, wood, paper, glass, textiles, metal, wax, stone, polymers, and coatings. Microbial deterioration of heritage materials can be caused by the formation and growth of biofilms or by direct attack by a variety of microorganisms, all of which may be difficult to correct without also damaging the materials themselves. On the other hand, microbial processes can also be adapted to conserve and even restore heritage materials, pointing to the complex nature of microbial interactions with these irreplaceable materials.

Cultural Heritage Microbiology assembles over twenty scientific papers published during the past two decades, each presenting a major advance in some facet of this complex field. These seminal articles, by a wide range of international experts, are grouped by the historic material affected. Each section is introduced by a thorough review, written for this volume, which serves to introduce and synthesize these past studies and to combine them with the latest cutting-edge findings to present the most current state of the field. Extensive references in every chapter and article offer valuable resources for further investigation.

Cultural Heritage Microbiology is ideal for anyone concerned with recognizing and dealing with microbial deterioration of heritage materials. Professionals and students in microbiology, conservation science, archaeology, fine arts, architecture, museum conservation, and other fields will find here the most current knowledge and approaches to preserving cultural heritage objects for generations to come.

Key Features

• Provides a unique, single overview of the seminal literature in conservation microbiology
• Presents the current state of the art along with a synthesis of the major developments over the years
• Represents the findings of leading international experts and pioneers in the field
• Offers conservation scientists and conservators an inclusive view of the heritage conservation field plus extensive resources for further investigation

Hardcover, 348 pages, illustrations, color insert, index.