Showing papers by "Peter Simmonds published in 1988"

HIV antigen and antibody detection: variable responses to infection in the Edinburgh haemophiliac cohort

Abstract: Sequential serum samples from 18 haemophiliac patients exposed simultaneously to human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV 1) in early 1984 were tested retrospectively for serological markers of infection. Assay for total antibodies to HIV established that the time to seroconversion might be as long as 110 days after exposure to contaminated factor VIII; serum samples were also tested by Western blotting, by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for specific antibodies to envelope and core proteins, and for p24 antigen by two assay systems during the two years after infection. The studies showed that five of the 12 patients for whom serum samples obtained between exposure and seroconversion were available had transient p24 antigenaemia. Although amounts of total antibody to HIV and of antibodies to envelope proteins rose continuously during the two years of the study, amounts of antibody to the core protein were variable and tended to decline in patients who became symptomatic. Two patients had persistent p24 antigenaemia that began four months after seroconversion; these patients remained asymptomatic. One patient who developed the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) had transient antigenaemia at the time of seroconversion but failed to show any antigen for the rest of the study; progression to AIDS was accompanied by an increase in antibodies to envelope proteins. Much of the variability in the course of infection with HIV must represent the differences in the susceptibility of the patients to infection.

Carbon tetrachloride lifetimes and emissions determined from daily global measurements during 1978–1985

Abstract: Seven years of daily gas chromatographic measurements of CCl4 at the five globally distributed ALE/GAGE surface sites are reported. It is determined that CCl4 has been accumulating in the atmosphere at a rate of 1.3±0.1%/yr over the period 1978–1985 and that the releases of CCl4 into the atmosphere have remained fairly constant, with the smallest releases in 1981–1982. Using an inversion scheme based on a nine box model of the atmosphere, we infer a CCl4 lifetime of approximately 40 yr, an inventory on 1 July 1978 of (2.08±0.07)×109 kg and an average rate of release over the period 1978–1985 of (0.9±0.9)×107 kg/yr. These results produce excellent agreement with a release scenario derived from global production estimates for CCl4 and the major CCl4 byproduct, the chlorofluorocarbons. However, to obtain this consistency, it is necessary that our current ALE/GAGE absolute calibration standard be reduced approximately 25% thus bringing it into agreement with measurements by Yokohata et al. (1985) and Hanst et al. (1975).