Dark Matter Search with CUORE-0 and CUORE

The Cryogenic Underground Observatory for Rare Events (CUORE) is a ton-scale experiment made of TeO2 bolometers that will probe the neutrinoless double beta decay of 130Te. Excellent energy resolution, low threshold and low background make CUORE sensitive to nuclear recoils, allowing a search for dark matter interactions. With a total mass of 741 kg of TeO2, CUORE can search for an annual modulation of the counting rate at low energies. We present data obtained with CUORE-like detectors and the prospects for a dark matter search in CUORE-0, a 40-kg prototype, and CUORE

Gene expression identifies patients who develop inflammatory arthritis in a clinically suspect arthralgia cohort

Background: Established rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients display differentially expressed genes coding for cytokine/chemokine-mediated immunity compared to healthy controls. It is unclear, however, if in the pre-arthritis phase of clinically suspect arthralgia (CSA) expression of immune genes differ between patients who do or do not develop clinically evident inflammatory arthritis (IA). Methods: Two hundred thirty-six consecutive patients presenting with arthralgia clinically suspected for progression to RA were followed until IA development or else for median 24 months (IQR 12–26). Baseline whole blood RNA expression was determined for a previously identified set of 133 genes associated with the innate and adaptive immune system by dual-color reverse-transcription multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (dcRT-MLPA) profiling. Cox proportional hazard models were used. Results: Twenty percent of CSA patients developed IA. After correction for multiple testing, expression levels of six genes (IFNG, PHEX, IGF-1, IL-7R, CD19, CCR7) at the time of presentation wer

Correction to: Gene expression identifies patients who develop inflammatory arthritis in a clinically suspect arthralgia cohort (Arthritis Research & Therapy, (2020), 22, 1, (266), 10.1186/s13075-020-02361-2)

Following publication of the original article [1], a typesetting error was reported. The equal contribution note for this article was incorrect. The corrected statement is given below. † Ellis Niemantsverdriet and Erik B. van den Akker contributed equally and are joint first authors. † Annemieke Geluk and Annette H. M. van der Helm-van Mil contrib

Gene expression identifies patients who develop inflammatory arthritis in a clinically suspect arthralgia cohort

Background: Established rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients display differentially expressed genes coding for cytokine/chemokine-mediated immunity compared to healthy controls. It is unclear, however, if in the pre-arthritis phase of clinically suspect arthralgia (CSA) expression of immune genes differ between patients who do or do not develop clinically evident inflammatory arthritis (IA). Methods: Two hundred thirty-six consecutive patients presenting with arthralgia clinically suspected for progression to RA were followed until IA development or else for median 24 months (IQR 12–26). Baseline whole blood RNA expression was determined for a previously identified set of 133 genes associated with the innate and adaptive immune system by dual-color reverse-transcription multiplex ligation-dependent probe amplification (dcRT-MLPA) profiling. Cox proportional hazard models were used. Results: Twenty percent of CSA patients developed IA. After correction for multiple testing, expression levels of six genes (IFNG, PHEX, IGF-1, IL-7R, CD19, CCR7) at the time of presentation were associated with progression to IA. PHEX and IGF-1 were highly correlated with each other (ρ = 0.97). In multivariable analysis correcting for the different genes, expressions of IL-7R and IGF-1 were independently associated with IA development (p = 0.025, p = 0.046, respectively). Moreover, IL-7R and IGF-1 remained significantly associated even after correction for known predictors (ACPA, CRP, imaging-detected subclinical joint inflammation; p = 0.039, p = 0.005, respectively). These genes are also associated with RA development. Conclusions: IL-7R and IGF-1 were differentially expressed between CSA patients who did or did not progress to IA, independent from regularly used predictors. These biomarkers may become helpful in prognostication of CSA patients. Furthermore, because both genes are associated with T cell functioning, T cell dysregulation may mediate progression from arthralgia to arthritis.Pattern Recognition and Bioinformatic

Correction to: Gene expression identifies patients who develop inflammatory arthritis in a clinically suspect arthralgia cohort (Arthritis Research & Therapy, (2020), 22, 1, (266), 10.1186/s13075-020-02361-2)

Following publication of the original article [1], a typesetting error was reported. The equal contribution note for this article was incorrect. The corrected statement is given below. † Ellis Niemantsverdriet and Erik B. van den Akker contributed equally and are joint first authors. † Annemieke Geluk and Annette H. M. van der Helm-van Mil contributed equally and are joint last authors. The original article [1] has been corrected.Pattern Recognition and Bioinformatic

On the uniform learnability of approximations to non-recursive functions

Abstract. Blum and Blum (1975) showed that a class B of suitable recursive approximations to the halting problem is reliably EX-learnable. These investigations are carried on by showing that B is neither in NUM nor robustly EX-learnable. Since the definition of the class B is quite natural and does not contain any self-referential coding, B serves as an example that the notion of robustness for learning is quite more restrictive than intended. Moreover, variants of this problem obtained by approximating any given recursively enumerable set A instead of the halting problem K are studied. All corresponding function classes U(A) are still EX-inferable but may fail to be reliably EX-learnable, for example if A is non-high and hypersimple. Additionally, it is proved that U(A) is neither in NUM nor robustly EX-learnable provided A is part of a recursively inseparable pair, A is simple but not hypersimple or A is neither recursive nor high. These results provide more evidence that there is still some need to find an adequate notion for “naturally learnable function classes.” 1