School of Mathematics and Statistics - Research Publications
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ItemCERVICAL CYTOLOGY REPORTED AS NEGATIVE AND RISK OF ADENOCARCINOMA OF THE CERVIX - NO STRONG EVIDENCE OF BENEFIT(NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, 1995-04)The relationship between negative cervical cytology reports and risk of adenocarcinoma of the cervix was evaluated in a case-control study of 113 cases and 452 controls. All cases and controls had received at least two negative cytology reports. There was no significant difference between the cases and controls in the number of negative cytology reports or in history of cervical abnormality; while a test for trend in the time since last negative cytology report was significant (P < 0.001), the estimated benefit was very modest. Although the estimates of relative protection were higher in women aged less than 35 years than in women aged 35-69 years, this difference was not statistically significant. These results suggest that cervical screening as practised in the 1970s and 1980s was much less effective in preventing adenocarcinoma than squamous carcinoma of the cervix.
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ItemThe cost of breast cancer recurrences.(Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 1992-03)Information about the costs of recurrent breast cancer is potentially important for targeting cost containment strategies and analysing the cost-effectiveness of breast cancer control programmes. We estimated these costs by abstracting health service and consumable usage data from the medical histories of 128 patients, and valuing each of the resources used. Resource usage and costs were summarised by regarding the recurrence as a series of episodes which were categorised into five anatomical site-based groups according to the following hierarchy: visceral, central nervous system (CNS), bone, local and other. Hospital visits and investigations comprised 78% of total costs for all episodes combined, and there were significant differences between the site-based groups in the frequency of hospital visits and most investigations. Total costs were most accurately described by separate linear regression models for each group, with the natural logarithm of the cost of the episode as the dependent variable, and predictor variables including the duration of the episode, duration squared, duration cubed and a variable indicating whether the episode was fatal. Visceral and CNS episodes were associated with higher costs than the other groups and were more likely to be shorter and fatal. A fatal recurrence of duration 15.7 months (the median for our sample) was predicted to cost $10,575 (Aus + 1988; or 4,877 pounds). Reduction of the substantial costs of recurrent breast cancer is likely to be a sizable economic benefit of adjuvant systemic therapy and mammographic screening. We did not identify any major opportunities for cost containment during the management of recurrences.
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ItemBioconductor: open software development for computational biology and bioinformatics(BMC, 2004)The Bioconductor project is an initiative for the collaborative creation of extensible software for computational biology and bioinformatics. The goals of the project include: fostering collaborative development and widespread use of innovative software, reducing barriers to entry into interdisciplinary scientific research, and promoting the achievement of remote reproducibility of research results. We describe details of our aims and methods, identify current challenges, compare Bioconductor to other open bioinformatics projects, and provide working examples.
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ItemA new rodent model to assess blood stage immunity to the Plasmodium falciparum antigen merozoite surface protein 119 reveals a protective role for invasion inhibitory antibodies(ROCKEFELLER UNIV PRESS, 2003-09-15)Antibodies capable of inhibiting the invasion of Plasmodium merozoites into erythrocytes are present in individuals that are clinically immune to the malaria parasite. Those targeting the 19-kD COOH-terminal domain of the major merozoite surface protein (MSP)-119 are a major component of this inhibitory activity. However, it has been difficult to assess the overall relevance of such antibodies to antiparasite immunity. Here we use an allelic replacement approach to generate a rodent malaria parasite (Plasmodium berghei) that expresses a human malaria (Plasmodium falciparum) form of MSP-119. We show that mice made semi-immune to this parasite line generate high levels of merozoite inhibitory antibodies that are specific for P. falciparum MSP-119. Importantly, protection from homologous blood stage challenge in these mice correlated with levels of P. falciparum MSP-119-specific inhibitory antibodies, but not with titres of total MSP-119-specific immunoglobulins. We conclude that merozoite inhibitory antibodies generated in response to infection can play a significant role in suppressing parasitemia in vivo. This study provides a strong impetus for the development of blood stage vaccines designed to generate invasion inhibitory antibodies and offers a new animal model to trial P. falciparum MSP-119 vaccines.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableAsymmetrically gauged WZNW models(WILEY-V C H VERLAG GMBH, 2003)Abstract Many interesting exactly solvable backgrounds can be obtained by gauging WZNW models asymmetrically. These include the base of the conifold and the time dependent Nappi‐Witten background in which a 3‐dimensional universe passes through a series of big‐bang big‐crunch singularities. In this short note we review recent results on the conformal field theory description of asymmetric cosets. In particular, we present formulas for their bulk modular invariant partition functions and for a large number of D‐brane boundary states.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableAn algorithm for twisted fusion rules(International Press of Boston, 2002-01-01)
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ItemNo Preview AvailableBranching rules of semi-simple Lie algebras using affine extensions(IOP PUBLISHING LTD, 2002-04-26)
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ItemNo Preview AvailableAsymmetric cosets(SPRINGER, 2003-02)
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ItemNo Preview AvailableOn the hierarchy of symmetry breaking D-branes in group manifolds(SPRINGER, 2002-12)