John Cornell – författare

Improving the health of the population requires a public health perspective. We have written this book to demonstrate its nature. Improving the population’s health is the occupational raison d''etre of public health professionals. However, because the population’s health is affected by all facets of society’s activities (see Figure A), possessing a public health perspective is relevant to a wide variety of other professions and disciplines. Although doctors and nurses, social workers, teachers, etc., work with individuals, this book provides new insights for them to consider individuals within the wider context and offers increased possibilities for problem solving. For example, poor living conditions adversely affect school- work, dysfunctional families militate against a patient’s recovery and fear of violence on a housing estate limits the social life of an older person, which in turn creates isolation, loneliness and health deterioration. Given this broader perspective, the solution to a problem may lie in improving the wider environment rather than focusing on the symptoms exhibited by the individual. Taking a public health perspective therefore increases the opportunities for improving the population’s health and well-being.  We aim to demonstrate to readers, through practical examples, the network of knowledge and skills required to tackle the challenges that daily confront all professionals concerned with people’s health. Each chapter is devoted to exploring one of the ten areas of public health competence as defined by the Faculty of Public Health Medicine.1 This has been achieved using a problem- based, self-directed learning model. Each of the chapter authors was given a broad brief but with some leeway and licence in how they presented their work. This reflects the reality of public health practice. Foreward.

Improving the health of the population requires a public health perspective. We have written this book to demonstrate its nature. Improving the population’s health is the occupational raison d''etre of public health professionals. However, because the population’s health is affected by all facets of society’s activities (see Figure A), possessing a public health perspective is relevant to a wide variety of other professions and disciplines. Although doctors and nurses, social workers, teachers, etc., work with individuals, this book provides new insights for them to consider individuals within the wider context and offers increased possibilities for problem solving. For example, poor living conditions adversely affect school- work, dysfunctional families militate against a patient’s recovery and fear of violence on a housing estate limits the social life of an older person, which in turn creates isolation, loneliness and health deterioration. Given this broader perspective, the solution to a problem may lie in improving the wider environment rather than focusing on the symptoms exhibited by the individual. Taking a public health perspective therefore increases the opportunities for improving the population’s health and well-being.  We aim to demonstrate to readers, through practical examples, the network of knowledge and skills required to tackle the challenges that daily confront all professionals concerned with people’s health. Each chapter is devoted to exploring one of the ten areas of public health competence as defined by the Faculty of Public Health Medicine.1 This has been achieved using a problem- based, self-directed learning model. Each of the chapter authors was given a broad brief but with some leeway and licence in how they presented their work. This reflects the reality of public health practice. Foreward.

This book is a collection of talks presented at the First International African Symposium on Exotic Nuclei (IASEN-2013). The symposium was held at Cape Town, South Africa from 2 – 6 December 2013. The IASEN2013 was dedicated to the problems of producing and investigating nuclei far from the line of stability. The symposium was organized by two scientific centers: iThemba LABS, South Africa and the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research (Dubna).The main goal of the Symposium was to discuss the latest results on the production and study of the properties of the lightest to heaviest nuclei, as well as the plans for future joint investigations in the field of exotic nuclei. The talks were presented by the leading scientists in the field. Among the topics of the symposium were the following: production and study of properties of nuclei in extreme states, strongly deformed nuclei, highly excited and nuclei far from the line of stability as well as nuclei having large angular momenta. New results of the investigations are presented in this book. In particular, the latest results on the synthesis of new superheavy elements are also presented. At the Symposium were talks devoted to existing detecting devices and accelerators of exotic nuclei as well as to the future projects for the creation of similar set-ups.