The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of IgG, IgA and IgM anti‐β2‐GPI antibodies in anti‐phospholipid syndrome (APS), and to establish the clinical significance of IgA type antibodies ...compared with the other isotypes. Anti‐β2‐GPI antibodies were measured in the sera of 70 patients by solid‐phase enzyme immunoassay in γ‐irradiated polystyrene plates coated with human purified β2‐GPI. Thirty‐three out of the 70 patients were classified as having APS: three of them had primary, and 30 had secondary APS related to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). The remaining 37 patients had SLE without APS. Anti‐β2‐GPI antibodies of IgG, IgA and IgM isotypes were present in 84.8%, 59.3% and 51.5% of patients with APS. Both the frequency and the level of each isotype were significantly higher in patients with APS. This association was very strong for IgA (P = 0.0004 for the antibody frequency and P < 0.0001 for the antibody level), as well as for IgG type antibodies (P < 0.0001 and P < 0.0001), whereas it was weaker for IgM (P = 0.01 and P = 0.04). A strong relationship was demonstrated between increased IgA anti‐β2‐GPI antibody levels and a history of venous thrombosis, thrombocytopenia, heart valve disease, livedo reticularis and epilepsy. IgG anti‐β2‐GPI antibodies were associated with the presence of lupus anticoagulant (LA) in addition to the main features of APS. However, antibodies of IgM isotype were related only to thrombocytopenia and heart valve disease. We recommend the evaluation of anti‐β2‐GPI antibodies of IgA isotype in addition to IgG in patients with clinical suspicion of APS.
Objective : to investigate the early immunological effects of Pneumococcus vaccination in SLE patients and healthy controls. Methods : First-four-week follow-up of 18 patients and 9 healthy controls ...by repeated measurements of anti-nuclear antibodies, anti-dsDNA, C-reactive protein, complement factor 3 (C3) and 4 (C4), total IgG, IgA and IgM. Specific antibody response, percentage of blood lymphocyte populations and whole blood chemiluminescence measurements were carried out in six patients and six controls. Results : No disease flare was detected in the vaccinated patients, all side effects were mild. The concentrations of serum IgG, IgA, C3 and C4 decreased significantly, but still remained within the normal range. The other changes were statistically non-significant. The specific antibody responses to 6B and 23F Pneumococcus serotypes showed striking individual differences. Conclusion : There was no short-term immunological effect of Pneumococcus vaccination in the patients with SLE. The non-responders, without any sign of disease activation should possibly be given more immunogenic, new vaccines to avoid life-threatening Pneumococcus infections.
Forwarding of user data is suspended for a short time at mobile handovers, but arriving packets are still buffered in the network. The resulting sudden peak in utilization may overflow the buffer, ...and the subsequent bursty packet loss will cause TCP connections to significantly degrade their throughput. We derive an analytical model for buffer overflow probability calculation, given the congestion window increase function and network parameters. Numeric results for current TCP variants and realistic network parameters show that congestion loss occurs with significant probability, even for very large buffer settings.
The four LEP collaborations, ALEPH, DELPHI, L3 and OPAL, have searched for pair-produced charged Higgs bosons in the framework of Two Higgs Doublet Models (2HDMs). The data of the four experiments ...have been statistically combined. The results are interpreted within the 2HDM for Type I and Type II benchmark scenarios. No statistically significant excess has been observed when compared to the Standard Model background prediction, and the combined LEP data exclude large regions of the model parameter space. Charged Higgs bosons with mass below 80
(Type II scenario) or 72.5
(Type I scenario, for pseudo-scalar masses above 12
) are excluded at the 95 % confidence level.
A novel coil design for inductive electromagnetic stimulation of neural cells has been simulated and experimentally tested. This coil improves the focal effect of a magnetic stimulator, and it ...reduces its inductance, hence the efficiency of the system is improved. The basic structure of the device is derived from the popular "Slinky" toy. The actual device is formed by winding different numbers of loops forming a helical coil on a half torus. The loops are bunched at the axis of the torus. The coil, due to its geometry, generates a unique distribution of eddy currents in nearby tissues which is favorable compared to a solenoid type stimulator. This renders the Slinky coil more selective than conventional coils used for magnetic stimulation. The distribution of eddy currents was analyzed using Matlab, following Faraday's Law of Induction. Improved focality permits the current through the coil to be reduced for the same effect. In addition, the reduced inductance of the Slinky coil decreases the power requirement; thus, the improved efficiency of the system may allow the generation of bursts of pulses, and expand the utilization of the system to possible functional activation of certain neuro-muscular structures when peripheral nerves are stimulated.< >
The PHENIX detector at RHIC has been designed to study central Au + Au collisions at 200 GeV per nucleon pair. PHENIX measures muons in two muon spectrometers located forward and backward of ...midrapidity, and measures hadrons, electrons and photons in two central spectrometer arms, each of which covers 90 degrees in azimuth and /spl plusmn/0.35 units of rapidity. The final component of each central arm spectrometer is an electromagnetic calorimeter, which precisely measures the energy and time of arrival of particles created in relativistic heavy ion collisions. The calorimeter also provides electron and hadron identification capabilities by energy-momentum matching with the tracking measurement. It is also used for triggering on high energy photons and electrons. The operation, monitoring, calibration and the analysis methods used to deal with the high multiplicity environment are described. Results on neutral pion and direct photon production will be presented.
Inclusive transverse momentum spectra of eta mesons have been measured within p(T)=2-10 GeV/c at midrapidity by the PHENIX experiment in Au+Au collisions at root s(NN) = 200 GeV. In central Au+Au the ...eta yields are significantly suppressed compared to peripheral Au+Au, d+Au, and p+p yields scaled by the corresponding number of nucleon-nucleon collisions. The magnitude, centrality, and p(T) dependence of the suppression is common, within errors, for eta and pi(0). The ratio of eta to pi(0) spectra at high p(T) amounts to 0.40 < R-eta/pi(0)< 0.48 for the three systems, in agreement with the world average measured in hadronic and nuclear reactions and, at large scaled momentum, in e(+)e(-) collisions.
The anisotropy parameter (v(2)), the second harmonic of the azimuthal particle distribution, has been measured with the PHENIX detector in Au+Au collisions at roots(NN)=200 GeV for identified and ...inclusive charged particle production at central rapidities (eta<0.35) with respect to the reaction plane defined at high rapidities (eta=3-4 ). We observe that the v(2) of mesons falls below that of (anti)baryons for p(T)>2 GeV/c, in marked contrast to the predictions of a hydrodynamical model. A quark-coalescence model is also investigated.
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