Curious about the images of the city that have been evolving in the different social sciences, we did what academics often do in such a situa 1 tion: we set up a seminar on "Images of the City in the Social Sciences." From the start, we counted on the help of specialists in other fields to pursue their interests. Of the persons who agreed to participate, all but two came from the United States, and their analyses, in the main, reflect the experience of Western countries and the United States. In our formal instructions to our collaborators, we took fi>r granted that a variety of images of the...

The problem that virtually all cells have in discriminating between "self" and "non-self" molecules and cells has been considered at great length in immuno biology. However, cells that clearly are incapable of carrying out mammalian type immune functions can exhibit exquisite specificity in their capacity to discriminate among syngeneic, allogeneic, and xenogeneic cells. In this volume of Contemporary Topics in Immunobiology we have chosen to consider the general problem of self/non-self discrimination as it is manifest in recognition reactions of plants and invertebrates and in the...

This second volume of Contemporary Topics in Immunobiology considers many aspects of thymus dependency in order to exemplify the role of the thy- mus in different species and different immunological responses. It is not in- tended to be a compendium of the responses which have been shown to be thymus dependent but rather to illustrate for the reader the criteria he should apply in thinking about the significance of the thymus in immune responses. We are grateful to the editors and publishers of the Annals of the New York Academy of Science, the Australian Journal of Experimental Biology and...

This fourth volume of Contemporary Topics In Immunobiology treats in vertebrate immunity. Specifically, the results represent several approaches to humoral and cellular immunity. It is evident that invertebrates do have function ing immune systems. For example, cellular immunity is characterized by both specificity and memory, but it is still problematical whether vertebrate immune capacity evolved directly from invertebrates. Most of the manuscripts were formally presented at the International Symposium on Invertebrate Pathology, University of Minnesota, August 1972, held in connection with...

It has long been suspected, and recently confirmed, that there is an etiologic relationship between several viruses and naturally occurring neoplasias. Virus precursors in the form of nucleic acids or antigens have consistently been associated with certain neoplasias. However, the role of these virus-specified precursors in etiology remains obscure. Recent studies of virus-associated neo plasias have led to advances in molecular techniques, which have yielded increas ingly sensitive assays for detection of virus-specific nucleic acids, and which have enabled the disruption of virus particles...

And even I can remember A day when historians left blanks in their writings, I mean for things they didn't know. -Ezra Pound, Canto XIII * The prefaces to the previous volumes of this series have all expressed in various ways the actual motivation behind these collective efforts. There was agreement in most instances that we are facing some kind of publication explosion, and that the present type of compact and personalized reviews may be of help, from both a conceptual and a purely informational standpoint. The aims of the series were, and still are, to focus attention on the rapidly...

There was a time, not all that long ago, when scientific study of the cell was called cytology, and the workers in the field named themselves cytologists. When I was a medical student, lectures in cytology were a special, segregated part of the curriculum in the histology course, given along with general anatomy, and they were, as I recall, the surest of cures for insomnia. I still possess Cowdry's three-volume set entitled Special Cytology, published in 1934, and leafing through these books today is rather like examining a medieval manuscript. You could never have guessed what was going to...

Although the field of contemporary immunobiology continues to diversify and encompass an increasing array of biomedical disciplines and topics, there are frequently several themes that will receive special emphasis and prominence at any given time. It is our hope that this series will reflect these themes and pro- vide an appropriate venue for exposure of such topics at a useful time. Although this particular volume is not designated as one of the special topics volumes in this series, the selected topics have in essence come together to con- sider aspects of two major areas of considerable...

Immune Complexes and Human Cancer, the fifteenth volume of Contem- porary Topics in Immunobiology, is a compilation of information derived from recent studies on the role of circulating immune complexes (CIC) in the patho- genic manifestations of a variety of human cancers. Technical improvements in the detection of CIC in body fluids have resulted in data that indicate that CIC do occur in different types of cancer. In addition, tumor-associated antigens and antibodies have been detected in immune complexes of cancer patients' sera. Until recently the exact role and clinical relevance of...