Aryl sulfatase A in acute nonlymphocytic leukemia.

To ascertain whether estimation of urinary aryl sulfatase A (ASA) is a reliable noninvasive technique for monitoring disease activity in adult acute nonlymphocytic leukemia, we studied the excretion pattern of this enzyme during active disease, partial remission, and complete remission in ten patients and compared the results with those of ten healthy volunteers. There was no significant difference in enzyme excretion between complete remission cases and the control group. Patients with partial remission and active disease had significantly different urinary enzyme levels from each other and from the control and complete remission groups. Estimation of urinary ASA is a useful noninvasive method of monitoring disease activity in adult acute nonlymphocytic leukemia.

Population, food and nutrition during the remainder of this century: Part I. World prospects.

People mainly depend on food that can be produced on arable land. However, the amount of this land is strictly limited and is less than is generally assumed. Particularly in the developing countries it is usually very fully exploited, but the crop yields obtained are poor and all too often the productive capacity is steadily decreasing. Efforts to improve conditions were often successful, but they have been largely arrested by the rapid rise in the cost of energy. These improvements were partly responsible for a slight rise in the standard of living, sufficient to cause a corresponding slight reduction in the awesome rate at which the population was increasing. For the same reason this encouraging tendency can no longer be expected; indeed it will be reversed. Other adverse effects must be expected from this new factor which will increase the gravity of a situation already so very serious. More and more people cannot be nourished by land that is becoming less and less productive. But how can the nations be awakened from their mutual suspicions and fears? From their preoccupation with creating ever more deadly tools of destruction? How can they be made to see the magnitude of the danger which will affect them all? Is there not an urgent need for them to draw on their immense resources and engage in a concerted effort, on an adequate scale, to win what is becoming a war for survival?

Population, food and nutrition during the remainder of this century: Part II. South Africa.

Whether South Africa can grow enough food over the next 20 years to meet the needs of a population estimated to be increasing by up to 1 million a year depends primarily on the extent, nature and condition of its natural resources and secondly on how they will be conserved and used. These, together with other relevant matters, are the subjects considered for both White and Black areas, especially as they affect the production of our basic foodstuff--maize. The maize production potential of the homelands is considerable, but at present they are largely dependent on imports obtained from White farms. Possible reasons for this unhealthy state of affairs are discussed. What can be done to enable the homelands to make their contribution to the food supplies of the country?

The trace elements: A new chapter in nutrition.

Formerly reported by analysts as being present as "traces", the minute amounts of many elements present in plant and animal materials can now be detected and estimated with a remarkable degree of sensitivity and accuracy. Some of this heterogenous group of metals and nonmetals have been shown to be essential for life or for the well-being of animals, including man; others possess toxic properties, while yet others are probably there as contaminants. Although present in such extremely small quantities, those known to be essential play highly individualistic as well as astonishingly varied roles in our metabolic processes; they must, therefore, take their place with the other nutrients needed in our diet.