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Showing papers by "University of London published in 1984"


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a superstring theory for E 8 × 8 × E 8 has been constructed, based on SO(32) and the remaining pieces of all the anomalies cancel if the gauge group is SO (32) or E 8×E 8.

2,550 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
01 May 1984

2,493 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the Whitehall study, 17 530 civil servants were classified according to employment grade, and their mortality was recorded over 10 years, showing a steep inverse relation between grade and mortality.

1,437 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The children of psychiatric patients had an increased rate of persistent emotional/behavioural disturbance, which tended to involve disorders of conduct, and boys showing temperamental risk features were most vulnerable to the ill-effects associated with parental mental disorder.
Abstract: A 4-year prospective study was undertaken of the families of 137 newly referred English speaking psychiatric patients with children at home aged under 15 years. The group comprised a representative sample of such patients living in one inner London borough. Teacher questionnaires were obtained yearly for all children of school age in the families, and for age-, sex- and classroom-matched controls. Detailed standardized interviews were undertaken yearly with parent-patients and with their spouses. A comparison was also made with a control group of families in the general population with 10-year-old children. Patients' families differed in terms of a higher rate of psychiatric disorder in spouses and a much higher level of family discord. Both parental mental disorder and marital discord tended to persist over the 4-year period, but persistence of both was much more marked when the parent had a personality disorder. The children of psychiatric patients had an increased rate of persistent emotional/behavioural disturbance, which tended to involve disorders of conduct. The psychiatric risk to the children was greatest in the case of personality disorders associated with high levels of exposure to hostile behaviour. Boys showing temperamental risk features were most vulnerable to the ill-effects associated with parental mental disorder.

842 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Recent studies of young abused children which show the development of similar behavioral characteristics as early as 1-3 years of age are reviewed, suggesting a continuum of psychological process from the experience of "normal" rejection to theExperience of actual abuse by the parent.

581 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A novel method of liposome preparation has been developed which is simple to use, employs mild conditions and is capable of efficient entrapment of a wide range of materials.
Abstract: A novel method of liposome preparation has been developed which is simple to use, employs mild conditions and is capable of efficient entrapment of a wide range of materials. Conditions have been established to allow optimum levels of entrapment; typically 40–50% for the protocols used here, though this can be increased by using additional lipid. The procedure is based on induction of fusion of preformed vesicles by means of dehydration and controlled rehydration. Preliminary evidence suggests that the liposomes are primarily oligo and multilamellar. Scale-up of the procedure for industrial use is expected to be straightforward.

554 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the derivation of gap equations and Ginzburg-Landau free energies for relativistic fermion systems is reviewed and the cases of superfluid neutron matter, superconducting electrons and superconducted and colour super-conducting quark matter are described in detail.

494 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is suggested that alphaxalone and pentobarbitone share a common mode of action on the GABA system, which may be relevant to the mechanisms by which these drugs produce anaesthesia.

484 citations


Journal Article
TL;DR: Theoretical calculations based on data show that breastfeeding promotion can reduce diarrhea morbidity rates by 8-20% and diarrhea mortality rates by 24-27% in the 1st 6 months of life.
Abstract: The feeding literature on the relative risks of diarrhea morbidity to infants on different modes suffers from several methodological problems. 35 studies from 14 countries were reviewed; 83% found that exclusive breastfeeding was protective compared to partial breastfeeding 88% that exclusive breastfeeding was protective compared to no breastfeeding and 76% that partial breastfeeding was protective compared to no breastfeeding. When infants receiving no breastmilk are contrasted with infants on exclusive or partial breastfeeding the median relative risks are 3.0 for those ages 0-2 months 2.4 for those 3-5 months and 1.3-1.5 for those 6-11 months. Above 1 year of age no protective effort of breastfeeding on diarrhea morbidity was evident. When infants receiving no breastmilk are contrasted with those exclusively breastfed median relative risks are 3.5-4.9 in the 1st 6 months of life. The literature does not suggest that the relative risks of diarrhea morbidity for bottlefed infants are higher in poor families than in those wealthier. The protective efforts of breastfeeding do not appear to continue after breastfeeding cessation. There is evidence of considerably increased diarrhea severity among bottlefed infants. There is a limited and mostly pre-1950 literature on the relative risks of diarrhea mortality to infants on different feeding modes. 9 studies from 5 countries were reviewed most of which showed that breastfeeding protects substantially against death from diarrhea. When infants receiving no breastmilk are contrasted with those on exclusive breastfeeding the median relative risk of death from diarrhea during the 1st 6 months of life is 25. When partially and exclusively breastfed infants are contrasted the median relative risk of death from diarrhea is 8.6. Breastfeeding can be promoted by changes in hospital routine and by giving information and support to mothers. A review of 21 studies from 8 countries shows that by such promotion the most likely reductions in the prevalence of nonbreastfed infants are 40% among infants ages 0-2 months 30% among those 3-5 months and 10% among those between 6 months-1 year. Theoretical calculations based on these data show that such promotion can reduce diarrhea morbidity rates by 8-20% and diarrhea mortality rates by 24-27% in the 1st 6 months of life. For children ages 0-59 months diarrhea morbidity rates would be reduced by 1-4% and mortality rates by 8-9%. A recent study in Costa Rica has documented a substantial impact of breastfeeding promotion on neonatal diarrhea morbidity and mortality and on diarrhea morbidity in infants 0-5 months. The Costa Rican data show good agreement with the theoretical computations presented in this paper. Several important aspects of breastfeeding and diarrhea remain to be clarified by research. However the need for this research should not delay action to promote breastfeeding and to monitor its effect upon feeding practice and diarrhea. (authors modified) (summary in FRE)

421 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Gudjonsson suggestibility scale (GSS) as discussed by the authors was developed to measure individual susceptibility to suggestion and can be used as a clinical tool or as a research instrument for obtaining greater understanding of the nature and mechanisms of interrogative suggestibility.

414 citations


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Polymeri phospholipids represent a new class of hybrid biomaterials with characteristics both of biomembranes (polar surfaces, nonthrombogenic, low antigenic potential and low permeability) and of synthetic polymers (chemical and physical stability).

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It has not proved possible to show that any of these differences account for the higher CHD risk of abstainers, and an increased intake is therefore not recommended as a community measure for CHD prevention.
Abstract: The data on two questions are reviewed: does heavy alcohol intake increase the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD)? And, is moderate intake protective? Identified alcoholics and problem drinkers have an increased risk of CHD, and in Britain there is a correlation among 22 towns, between the proportion of heavy drinkers in a town and CHD mortality. Of seven longitudinal studies reviewed, one shows heavy drinkers to have an increased CHD incidence. An inverse association between alcohol consumption and CHD mortality is seen in international comparisons and in time trends in the USA. Of six case-control studies reviewed from England and the USA, all show an inverse association between CHD and alcohol consumption which persists after control for other risk factors. Longitudinal studies, in Japanese-Americans, white American men and women, British civil servants, Puerto Ricans, Yugoslavs and Australians, all show moderate drinkers to have a lower CHD risk than abstainers. Abstainers are likely to differ from moderate drinkers in a number of ways. To date it has not proved possible to show that any of these differences account for the higher CHD risk of abstainers. The apparent protective effect is not large (RR = 0.5) but the consistency of the association and the existence of plausible mechanisms increase the likelihood that the negative association is causal. However, if alcohol intake were to increase in the population the social and medical consequences would be large. An increased intake is therefore not recommended as a community measure for CHD prevention.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: British people born in the Indian subcontinent showed a mortality pattern intermediate between that of the Indians and the England and Wales average, supporting the argument that environmental rather than genetic determinants may be involved in the principal chronic diseases.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Good quantitative agreement was found when the microspectrophoto-metrically measured absorbance spectra were used to predict the behavioural sensitivity of individual animals to long wavelengths and suggests that the behavioural variation arises from variation in the retinal photopigments.
Abstract: The squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus) exhibits a polymorphism of colour vision: some animals are dichromatic, some trichromatic, and within each of these classes there are subtypes that resemble the protan and deutan variants of human colour vision. For each of ten individual monkeys we have obtained (i) behavioural measurements of colour vision and (ii) microspectrophotometric measurements of retinal photopigments. The behavioural tests, carried out in Santa Barbara, included wavelength discrimination, Rayleigh matches, and increment sensitivity at 540 and 640 nm. The microspectrophotometric measurements were made in London, using samples of fresh retinal tissue and a modified Liebman microspectrophotometer: the absorbance spectra for single retinal cells were obtained by passing a monochromatic measuring beam through the outer segments of individual rods and cones. The two types of data, behavioural and microspectrophotometric, were obtained independently and were handed to a third party before being interchanged between experimenters. From all ten animals, a rod pigment was recorded with $\lambda \_{\max}$ (wavelength of peak absorbance) close to 500 nm. In several animals, receptors were found that contained a short-wave pigment (mean $\lambda \_{\max}$ = 433.5 nm): these violet-sensitive receptors were rare, as in man and other primate species. In the middle- to long-wave part of the spectrum, there appear to be at least three possible Saimiri photopigments (with $\lambda \_{\max}$ values at about 537, 550 and 565 nm) and individual animals draw either one or two pigments from this set, giving dichromatic or trichromatic colour vision. Thus, those animals that behaviourally resembled human protanopes exhibited only one pigment in the red--green range, with $\lambda \_{\max}$ = 537 nm; other behaviourally dichromatic animals had single pigments lying at longer wavelengths and these were the animals that behaviourally had higher sensitivity to long wavelengths. Four of the monkeys were behaviourally judged to be trichromatic. None of the latter animals exhibited the two widely separated pigments (close to 535 and 567 nm) that are found in the middle- and long-wave cones of macaque monkeys. But the spread of $\lambda \_{\max}$ values for individual cones was greater in the trichromatic squirrel monkeys than in the dichromats; than in the case of three, behaviourally deuteranomalous, trichromats there was clear evidence that the distribution of $\lambda \_{\max}$ values was bimodal, suggesting photopigments at approximately 552 and 565 nm. The fourth, behaviourally protanomalous, trichromat exhibited a spread of individual $\lambda _{\max}$ values that ranged between 530 and 550 nm. Good quantitative agreement was found when the microspectrophotometrically measured absorbance spectra were used to predict the behavioural sensitivity of individual animals to long wavelengths. The concordance of the two sets of measurements places beyond question the existence of a polymorphism of colour vision in Saimiri sciureus and suggests that the behavioural variation arises from variation in the retinal photopigments. Heterozygous advantage may explain the polymorphism.

Journal ArticleDOI

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: If one aim of a study is to detect interactions, the size of the study will have to be at least four times larger than if attention were confined to detecting main effects of the same magnitude.
Abstract: This paper considers quantitatively the extent to which the interaction or confounding effects of covariates may influence the design of case-control studies with particular reference to sample requirements and the role of matching. For the most part, attention is confined to a dichotomous exposure variable, and a single dichotomous covariate. Adjustment for confounding variables appears to have little effect on the power of a study unless they are strongly (odds ratio of 5 or more) related to both the disease and the exposure of interest, and only in similar circumstances will matching be of appreciable value. Matching also makes only a small improvement in the power to detect interaction effects, except under fairly extreme conditions. Both to control confounding and to detect interaction, the effect of matching may sometimes be to reduce the power of a study. The difference in power between matched and unmatched studies diminishes rapidly as the control-to-case ratio is increased. The implications of interaction effects for sample size requirements are more important. If one aim of a study is to detect interactions, the size of the study will have to be at least four times larger than if attention were confined to detecting main effects of the same magnitude. These conclusions are based on a quantitative evaluation of a wide range of possible situations.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is shown that the design of case-control studies to measure vaccine efficacy is dependent upon which model is considered appropriate and, under the second model, individuals who have already had the disease under study should not be excluded from the control group.
Abstract: Case-control and cohort studies may be employed to assess the protective efficacy of vaccines. The appropriate measure of vaccine efficacy is shown to depend upon the mode of action of the vaccination. Two models of vaccine action are considered. In the first, vaccination is assumed to reduce the instantaneous disease-rate in the total vaccinated population by a constant proportion and, in the second, vaccination is assumed to render a constant proportion of individuals totally immune from the disease. The implications of these two models on the behaviour of different measures of vaccine efficacy in cohort studies is explored. It is shown that the design of case-control studies to measure vaccine efficacy is dependent upon which model is considered appropriate. In particular, under the second model, individuals who have already had the disease under study should not be excluded from the control group.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Chloroplasts isolated from broad bean (Vicia faba) show major structural reorganisations on heating to temperatures above 35°C, which are consistent with the idea that they play a role in the packaging of the light-harvesting complexes within the thylakoid membrane.

Journal ArticleDOI
01 May 1984-Nature
TL;DR: X chromosome-specific recombinant DNA probes which can detect restriction fragment length polymorphisms have been used to localize the XLRP gene(s) to a subregion of the X chromosome using linkage analysis, and one of the probes, L1.28, has been shown to be closely linked to XLRP in five kindreds, indicating that this probe is potentially useful for carrier detection and early diagnosis in about 40% of cases.
Abstract: Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a group of retinal degenerations characterized by progressive visual field loss, night blindness and pigmentary retinopathy1. Its prevalence is in the region of 1–2 in 5,000 of the general population, making it one of the commoner causes of blindness in early and middle life2,3. Although 36–48% of RP patients are isolated cases, the remainder show autosomal dominant, autosomal recessive or X-linked modes of inheritance4,5. The X-linked variety (XLRP) is found in 14–22% of RP families in the UK2,5. In the present study, X chromosome-specific recombinant DNA probes which can detect restriction fragment length polymorphisms have been used to localize the XLRP gene(s) to a subregion of the X chromosome using linkage analysis. One of the probes, L1.28, has been shown to be closely linked to XLRP in five kindreds,, with 95% confidence limits of 0–15 centimorgans (maximum LOD score of 7.89 at a distance of 3 centimorgans). This suggests that the XLRP locus lies on the proximal part of the short arm of the X chromosome. This probe is potentially useful for carrier detection and early diagnosis in about 40% of cases, provided that genetic heterogeneity can be excluded by analysis of further families.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The institution-reared women showed a markedly increased rate of poor psychosocial functioning and of severe parenting difficulties in adult life, however, the support of a non-deviant spouse and of good living conditions in adultLife provided a powerful protective effect.
Abstract: A prospective follow-up study was undertaken of two groups of women first studied in the mid 1960s when they were children: 94 girls reared in institutions to which they had been admitted because of a breakdown in parenting, and 51 girls in a general population comparison group. Both groups were interviewed in detail when aged 21-27 years and home observations were undertaken for those with young children. The institution-reared women showed a markedly increased rate of poor psychosocial functioning and of severe parenting difficulties in adult life. However, the support of a non-deviant spouse and of good living conditions in adult life provided a powerful protective effect.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This review is concerned with rates of N flux in the living animal rather than with mechanisms of protein synthesis and breakdown at the cellular level, and methods of measuring protein turnover in the whole body are discussed, with special emphasis on studies in man.
Abstract: This review is concerned with rates of N flux in the living animal rather than with mechanisms of protein synthesis and breakdown at the cellular level. Methods of measuring protein turnover in the whole body are discussed, with special emphasis on studies in man, and results obtained by different methods have been compared. Aspects of whole body protein turnover which are of physiological interest include its relation to body size, growth and development, energy metabolism and food intake. There are substantial increases in protein turnover in injury, and changes that occur in exercise are beginning to be explored. From the physiological point of view these results point the need for future research along two main lines. The first is that of regulation: a wide variety of hormones stimulate or repress protein synthesis and breakdown, with varying actions in different tissues. These effects, however, do not in themselves explain the mechanism by which a balance between synthesis and breakdown is maintained. Secondly, the fact that all cellular proteins are in a dynamic state poses questions about the relation between structure and function in tissues such as muscle and brain, which physiologists have hardly begun to tackle.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the covariant two-dimensional action principle that describes the dynamics of free superstrings in a Minkowski background is reviewed, and covariant gauge conditions are formulated, which simplify the equations of motion of the superspace coordinates to free equations.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The mechanism of wood development records in varying degree the effects of both external and internal factors that are operating at the time of development, as a result, fossil woods spanning the last 370 million years represent a unique palaeo-environmental data-store.
Abstract: The mechanism of wood development records in varying degree the effects of both external and internal factors that are operating at the time of development. As a result, fossil woods spanning the last 370 million years represent a unique palaeo-environmental data-store. Data concerning external factors that can be reclaimed consist of: presence or absence of growth rings; ring widths; relative proportions of earlywood and latewood and the nature of the transition between them; “false” and “frost” rings and evidence of damage by animals or fire; occurrence of reaction wood. These effects have to be seen against a background of the influences of the internal factors. The development of wood involves the action of plant growth regulators. The production of an entire season’s growth of wood depends on a supply of photosynthate, partly stored from the previous year, and the remainder directly from photosynthesis during the current one. In any population of trees of the same species there will be genetic variation which will lead to differences in the wood formed by the individual trees even if they have all grown in a largely similar environment. However the external factors exert a much greater influence than the internal ones. Our earliest fossil woods (Upper Devonian) show either seasonless growth patterns or, if weak rings are perceptible, then the increments are extensive. This is consistent with the palaeo-equatorial position of all recorded Devonian woods. In the Carboniferous a few sites (marginal in the tropical belt?) show subdued (weak) growth rings. By the time of the Gondwana glaciation strong rings are shown in high southern latitudes, but most surprisingly there are sizeable increments well inside the palaeoantarctic circle. This phenomenon persists into the Mesozoic where lack of growth rings shows consistency with positions within the palaeo-equatorial latitudes. However occurrence of Cretaceous high latitude wood growth demonstrates that given an adequate ambient temperature, forest growth was possible close to both poles. It is shown that this is consistent with the total energy flux known to occur now in high latitudes.


Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, superstring field theories are formulated in terms of light-cone-gauge superfields that are functionals of string coordinates x ( σ ) and ϑ( σ ).

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The taxonomy, phytochemistry, ethnobotany, and pharmacology of the genus Tabernaemontana L. (Apocynaceae) is reviewed and the biogenesis and classification of the indole alkaloidal species is set out and some problems in the determination of their stereochemistry are discussed.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A method has been defined for infecting primary mouse peritoneal macrophages with amastigotes of Leishmania donovani in vitro, and analysing the response of the infected macrophage to treatment with drugs.
Abstract: A method has been defined for infecting primary mouse peritoneal macrophages with amastigotes of Leishmania donovani in vitro, and analysing the response of the infected macrophages to treatment with drugs. The growth of intracellular amastigotes was inhibited by all clinically used antileishmanial drugs. Toxic effects on macrophages were observed with some drugs. Other experimental antileishmanial compounds were active in this system. This test is proposed as an initial screening test for the discovery of novel antileishmanial compounds.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The fall of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in July 1979 could not have been achieved without the mass urban insurrections which brought the capital, Managua, and other key cities under the increasing control of the revolutionary forces.
Abstract: The fall of Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in July 1979 could not have been achieved without the mass urban insurrections which brought the capital, Managua, and other key cities under the increasing control of the revolutionary forces. This was the culmination of a process of growing popular opposition characterised by the incorporation of a wide cross-section of the population into political activity.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Bone cells isolated from mouse calvariae by a sequential digestion procedure have many osteoblast characteristics, but in confluent monolayer culture they do not secrete collagenase in appreciable quantities, unless stimulated with resorptive substances.

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A polynomial approximation scheme for an m-constraint 0–1 integer programming problem (m fixed) based on the use of the dual simplex algorithm for linear programming and the asymptotic properties of a particular random model are analyzed.