The NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Experimental Embryology in Aquatic Plant and Animal Organisms" was attended by more than 70 participants, including 15 invited main lecturers from 18 different countries. In accordance with the main purpose of the meeting, senior scientists, postdoctoral investigators and graduate students working in areas of descriptive and experimental embryology, classical, molecular and developmental biology, physiology and biochemistry etc., were brought together for two weeks as a community with a strong common interest in "development"; that is, the multiple...

The success of vaccination in controlling infectious diseases is well documented. However, low profitability, expense and liability have hindered research and development of vaccines. Recently, increasing realization (enhanced by the AIDS pandemic) of the need to overcome such difficulties has led to steps being taken by national authorities, non-profit and commercial organizations to resolve them. This has been facilitated by developments in recombinant DNA techniques, the advent of monoclonal anti- bodies and progress in the understanding of the immunological structure of proteins which...

In recent years the field of DNA repair has flourished due to new findings on DNA repair mechanisms and the molecular basis of cancer. This volume covers the most recent developments in this research field and contains contributions from scientists working in various fields.

TheNATO AdvancedStudiesInstituteseries"TargetingofDrugs"wasoriginatedin 1981. It is nowamajorinternationalforum, heldeverytwo yearsin CapeSounion, Greece, in whichthepresentandthefutureofthisimportantareaofresearch in drugdeliveryisdiscussed in greatdepth. PreviousASIsoftheseriesdealtwith drugcarriersofnaturalandsynthetic origin, theirinteractionswith thebiologicalmilieu, waysby whichthefunctionofdrugcarriers iscircumvented and, morerecently, with avarietyofapproaches to carrierdesignor modificationthatcontributeto optimalcarrierfunction. Thepresentbookcontainsthe proceedings ofthe8thNATO...

A NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Active Defence Mechanisms in Plants" was held at Cape Sounion, Greece, 21 April - 3 May 1981. It succeeded a similar Institute held at Porte Conte, Sardinia in 1975 on "Specificity in Plant Diseases. " What are active defence mechanisms in the context of plant disease in which a plant, the host, may be damaged by a pathogen? Defence mechanisms comprise properties of the host that decrease this damage. The mechanisms are passive when they are independent of the pathogen. They are active when they follow changes in the host caused by the pathogen. Thus for a...

Dramatic shortfalls in crop production in various regions of the world have led some people to question the relatively inefficient use of cereal grains for feeding meat animals instead of their direct use for human food. There is no doubt, however, that meat offers a nutritionally valuable, attractive and widely accepted food, the world demand for which increases daily. Thus it is not enough simply to condemn the consumption of meat as an irresponsible extravagance; rather it is preferable to examine how the demand for meat can be met most efficiently and effectively, which requires a...

This publication contains the Review Lectures given at a joint NATO Advanced Study Institute and a FEB S Advanced Study Course, held at Sogesta (Nr. Urbino), Italy from the 7th - 18th May 1979. The Course entitled "Nucleoside Analogues: Chemistry, Biology and Medical Applications" was held for several reasons. In the past few years, many useful and potentially-useful nucleoside analogues have either reached the stage of clinical use or are undergoing clinical trials. Many more compounds have been synthesised by the organic chemist and little more has been done with them other than possibly a...

This book collects all the lectures presented during the NATO Advanced Study Institute on "Photoreception and Sensory Transduction in Aneura1 Organisms," held in Villa Le Pianore (Versi1ia, Italy), September 3-14, 1979. In order to publish the lectures in the shortest possible time, we had to make the decision not to include the free communications, the informal seminars, and the panel discussions, notwithstanding their very high scientific level and interest. Only the final panel discussion has been summarized by Prof. W. Haupt (whose effort we gratefully acknowledge), because it gives a...

Among the major components of human diet, edible fats and oils are typically produced through various forms of technological manipulation of naturally available starting material. It is also generally recognized that dietary fat, namely the type and amount, playa significant role in modulating the health stat s of large population groups in econ omically advanced countries, and that, more specifically, the onset and progression of a number of diseases of wide incidence and large socio-economical relevance, such as hyperlipidaemias, diabetes, hyper tension, are significantly affected by...

Although nematodes had long been suspected as vectors of soil- borne plant diseases, unequivocal proof of their implication was not forthcoming until 1958 when Professor William Hewitt and his colleagues in California demonstrated experimentally that Xiphinema was the vector of grapevine fanleaf virus. This opened up a new and exciting field in plant pathology and discoveries quickly followed of other nematode species associated with soil-borne diseases of many different crops and in several countries. After the initial enthusiasm of discovering new vectors and new viruses there followed a...