Antibody engineering to develop new antirheumatic therapies

There has been a therapeutic revolution in rheumatology over the past 15 years, characterised by a move away from oral immuno-suppressive drugs toward parenteral targeted biological therapies. The potency and relative safety of the newer agents has facilitated a more aggressive approach to treatment, with many more patients achieving disease remission. There is even a prevailing sense that disease 'cure' may be a realistic goal in the future. These developments were underpinned by an earlier revolution in molecular biology and protein engineering as well as key advances in our understanding of rheumatoid arthritis pathogenesis. This review will focus on antibody engineering as the key driver behind our current and developing range of antirheumatic treatments

Disease activity and cognition in rheumatoid arthritis : an open label pilot study

Acknowledgements This work was supported in part by NIHR Newcastle Biomedical Research Centre. Funding for this study was provided by Abbott Laboratories. Abbott Laboratories were not involved in study design; in the collection, analysis and interpretation of data; or in the writing of the report.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

An automatic reagent dispenser for shipboard use

Recent work on modification of the molybdenum-blue method for determination of dissolved inorganic phosphate in sea water (Wooster and Rakestraw, 1951) showed the need for a simple rugged device sui table for rapid and precise delivery of small quantities of reagents at sea. The two reagents used for phosphat e determination impose addit ional requirements on this device. Molybdic acid solution must be protected from the light and must not be allowed to come in contact with rubber;·stannous chloride solution must be protected from contact with the atmosphere

Patient and researcher perspectives on facilitating patient and public involvement in rheumatology research

No abstract available

Corn as a Grazing Crop: An Option for Extending the Grazing Season in Kentucky

Grazing is the cheapest way to feed cattle on a cost per pound of nutrient basis. However, producers with limited land resources in Kentucky have been able to use commodities or grain by-products to increase cattle numbers due to low cost and availability of these inputs. Extending the grazing season is one solution that would enable producers to reduce cost and expand production with little or no impact on the environment

Towards a conversational agent for threat detection in the internet of things.

A conversational agent to detect anomalous traffic in consumer IoT networks is presented. The agent accepts two inputs in the form of user speech received by Amazon Alexa enabled devices, and classified IDS logs stored in a DynamoDB Table. Aural analysis is used to query the database of network traffic, and respond accordingly. In doing so, this paper presents a solution to the problem of making consumers situationally aware when their IoT devices are infected, and anomalous traffic has been detected. The proposed conversational agent addresses the issue of how to present network information to non-technical users, for better comprehension, and improves awareness of threats derived from the mirai botnet malware