Ten years ago the Sunnner Institute on "Trends in Particle The- ory" was held in Bonn. Among other subj ects J. Wess spoke on his work wi th B. ZlDllino on "Fermi - Bose-Supersymmetry". In the meantime this subject has developed into one of the most exciting fields of research and the Bonn Summer Institute (August 20 - August 31 1984) was devoted exclusively to supersymmetry. The main aim of the Summer Institute was to provide a compre- hensive introduction for mainly young post-doctoral theoretical physicists to the currently most discussed subjects in supersynnne- try and supergravity. The intention was to emphasize the pedagogi- cal presentation. The seminars given in addition to the introduc- tory lectures treat more specialized subjects and are closer to research reports. Since the topics, ranging fromalgebraic structures to experimental implications do not arrange easily in a one-dimension- al array, the lectures are reproduced in alphabetic order of the lec- turers. The Summer Institute was made possible by the NATO Advanced Study Programme, additional support was granted by the Bundesmi- nisterium fur Forschung und Technologie and the Ministerium fur Wissenschaft und Forschung of Nordrhein-Westfalen. We gratefully acknowledge their cooperation. It is a pleasure to thank the lecturers and seminar speakers for the effort invested in the presentation of the lectures and in their collaboration in preparing the written notes.

for the design of control programs; in extreme cases (as dis cussed below, by Fine et al., this volume, and elsewhere) it can happen that immunization programs, although they protect vaccinated individuals, actually increase the overall incidence of a particular disease. The possibility that many nonhuman animal populations may be regulated by parasitic infections is another topic where it may be argued that conventional disciplinary boundaries have retarded investigation. While much ecological research has been devoted to exploring the extent to which competition or predator-prey interactions may regulate natural populations or set their patterns of geographical distribution, few substan tial studies have considered the possibility that infectious diseases may serve as regulatory agents (1,8). On the other hand, the many careful epidemiological studies of the trans mission and maintenance of parasitic infections in human and other animal populations usually assume the host population density to be set by other considerations, and not dynamically engaged with the disease (see, for example, (1,2)). With all these considerations in mind, the Dahlem Workshop from which this book derives aimed to weave strands together -- testing theoretical analysis against empirical facts and patterns, and identifying outstanding problems -- in pursuit of a better un derstanding of the overall population biology of parasitic in fections. For the purpose of the workshop, the term "parasite" was de fined widely to include viruses, bacteria, protozoans, fungi, and helminths."

Die 32. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft fur Medizinische Dokumentation, Informatik und Statistik e.V. fand vom 4. bis 6. Oktober 1987 an der Universitat Tubingen statt. Es war das erste Mal, dal3 die GMDS ihre Jahrestagung nach Tubingen vergeben hatte, obwohl Tubingen auf dem Fachgebiet der medizinischen Biometrie und Informationsverarbeitung schon eine relativ lange Tradition besitzt. 1964 wurden dort an der medizinischen Fakul tat einer der ersten Lehrstuhle fur medizinische Biometrie und 1968 eine der ersten Abteilungen fur medizinische Dokumentation und Datenverarbeitung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland eingerichtet. Der vorliegende Band enthal t die wichtigsten Referate und Poster dieser Tagung, die unter dem Thema "Medizinische Informa tionsverarbeitung und Epidemiologie im Dienste der Gesundheit" stand und uber 500 Teilnehmer anlockte. Diese grol3e Zahl von Teilnehmern war uberraschend und erfreulich zugleich, zeigt sie doch, dal3 die Bedeutung der Epidemiologie und der nformationsverarbeitung in der Fachoffentlichkeit immer mehr erkannt wird. Die Erfassung und Bewertung von Gesundheitsschaden durch Umwelteinflusse, die Evaluierung von Vorsorgemal3nahmen, die Qualitatssicherung arztlichen Handelns oder das Verstandnis der Ausbreitungsdynamik von AIDS sind nur einige der Themen, zu denen die Methoden der medizinischen Biometrie und Informationsverarbeitung wesentliche Beitrage leisten konnen. Die Themen zeigen aber auch, dal3 im Vordergrund epidemiologischen Bemuhens immer die gesundhei tlichen Probleme der Bevolkerung stehen."