Influence of peptidylarginine deiminase type 4 genotype and shared epitope on clinical characteristics and autoantibody profile of rheumatoid arthritis.

Background: Recent evidence suggests that distinction of subsets of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) depending on anticyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (anti-CCP) status may be helpful in distinguishing distinct aetiopathologies and in predicting the course of disease. HLA-DRB1 shared epitope (SE) and peptidylarginine deiminase type 4 (PADI4) genotype, both of which have been implicated in anti-CCP generation, are assumed to be associated with RA. Objectives: To elucidate whether PADI4 affects the clinical characteristics of RA, and whether it would modulate the effect of anti-CCPs on clinical course. The combined effect of SE and PADI4 on autoantibody profile was also analysed. Methods: 373 patients with RA were studied. SE, padi4_94C.T, rheumatoid factor, anti-CCPs and antinuclear antibodies (ANAs) were determined. Disease severity was characterised by cumulative therapy intensity classified into ordinal categories (CTI-1 to CTI-3) and by Steinbrocker score. Results: CTI was significantly associated with disease duration, erosive disease, disease activity score (DAS) 28 and anti-CCPs. The association of anti-CCPs with CTI was considerably influenced by padi4_94C.T genotype (C/C: ORadj=0.93, padj=0.92; C/T: ORadj=2.92, padj=0.093; T/T: ORadj=15.3, padj=0.002). Carriage of padi4_94T exhibited a significant trend towards higher Steinbrocker scores in univariate and multivariate analyses. An association of padi4_94C.T with ANAs was observed, with noteworthy differences depending on SE status (SE2: ORadj=6.20, padj,0.04; SE+: ORadj=0.36, padj=0.02) and significant heterogeneity between the two SE strata (p=0.006). Conclusions: PADI4 genotype in combination with anti- CCPs and SE modulates clinical and serological characteristics of RA

The average X-ray/gamma-ray spectrum of radio-quiet Seyfert 1s

We have obtained the average 1--500 keV spectrum of radio-quiet Seyfert 1s using data from EXOSAT, Ginga, HEAO, and GRO/OSSE. The spectral fit to the combined average EXOSAT and OSSE data is fully consistent with that for Ginga and OSSE, confirming results from an earlier Ginga/OSSE sample. The average spectrum is well-fitted by a power-law X-ray continuum with an energy spectral index of $\alpha \simeq 0.9$ moderately absorbed by an ionized medium and with a Compton reflection component. A high-energy cutoff (or a break) in the the power-law component at a few hundred keV or more is required by the data. We also show that the corresponding average spectrum from HEAO A1 and A4 is fully compatible with that obtained from EXOSAT, Ginga and OSSE. These results confirm that the apparent discrepancy between the results of Ginga (with $\alpha \simeq 0.9$) and the previous results of EXOSAT and HEAO (with $\alpha \simeq 0.7$) is indeed due to ionized absorption and Compton reflection first taken into account for Ginga but not for the previous missions. Also, our results confirm that the Seyfert-1 spectra are on average cut off in gamma-rays at energies of at least a few hundred keV, not at $\sim 40$ keV (as suggested earlier by OSSE data alone). The average spectrum is compatible with emission from either an optically-thin relativistic thermal plasma in a disk corona, or with a nonthermal plasma with a power-law injection of relativistic electrons.Comment: 7 pages, 3 Postscript figures, MNRAS accepte

Semantic Transformation of Web Services

Web services have become the predominant paradigm for the development of distributed software systems. Web services provide the means to modularize software in a way that functionality can be described, discovered and deployed in a platform independent manner over a network (e.g., intranets, extranets and the Internet). The representation of web services by current industrial practice is predominantly syntactic in nature lacking the fundamental semantic underpinnings required to fulfill the goals of the emerging Semantic Web. This paper proposes a framework aimed at (1) modeling the semantics of syntactically defined web services through a process of interpretation, (2) scop-ing the derived concepts within domain ontologies, and (3) harmonizing the semantic web services with the domain ontologies. The framework was vali-dated through its application to web services developed for a large financial system. The worked example presented in this paper is extracted from the se-mantic modeling of these financial web services

Phase separation due to quantum mechanical correlations

Can phase separation be induced by strong electron correlations? We present a theorem that affirmatively answers this question in the Falicov-Kimball model away from half-filling, for any dimension. In the ground state the itinerant electrons are spatially separated from the classical particles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure. Note: text and figure unchanged, title was misspelle

A complete devil's staircase in the Falicov-Kimball model

We consider the neutral, one-dimensional Falicov-Kimball model at zero temperature in the limit of a large electron--ion attractive potential, U. By calculating the general n-ion interaction terms to leading order in 1/U we argue that the ground-state of the model exhibits the behavior of a complete devil's staircase.Comment: 6 pages, RevTeX, 3 Postscript figure

Multiple Cyclotron Lines in the Spectrum of 4U 0115+63

We report phase resolved spectroscopy of the transient accreting pulsar, 4U0115+63. For the first time, more than two cylotron resonance scattering features are detected in the spectrum of an X-ray pulsar. The shape of the fundamental line appears to be complex, and this is in agreement with predictions of Monte-Carlo models. As in other pulsars, the line energies and optical depths are strong functions of pulse phase. One possible model for this is an offset of the dipole of the neutron star magnetic field.Comment: 5 pages. To appear in "Proceedings of the 5th Compton Symposium

Discovery of a New 89 Second X-ray Pulsar XTE J1906+09

We report on the discovery of a new pulsating X-ray source during Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer observations of a low galactic latitude field centered at RA (J2000) = 19 hr 05 m 43 s and Dec (J2000) = +08 deg 58 arcmin 48 arcsec. Significant pulsations were detected by both the PCA and HEXTE instruments aboard RXTE at a fundamental period of 89.17 +/- 0.02 seconds, with higher harmonics also visible in the 2-10 keV power spectrum. The folded lightcurve from the source is multiply peaked at lower energies, and changes to single peaked morphology above ~20 keV. The phase averaged spectrum from the source is well fit by strongly absorbed power law or thermal bremsstrahlung spectral models of photon index 1.9 +/- 0.1 or temperature 19.5 +/- 4.6 keV, respectively. The mean neutral hydrogen column density is approximately 10^23 cm^-2, suggesting a distance of >10 kpc to the source and a minimum 2-10 keV X-ray luminosity of 2*10^{35} ergs s^{-1}. By comparison with other pulsars with similar periods and luminosities, we suggest that XTE J1906+09 has a supergiant companion with an underfilled Roche lobe. We speculate further that one of the M stars in a peculiar M star binary system may be the companion.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures. Accepted by ApJ Letter

Phase Rotation, Cooling And Acceleration Of Muon Beams: A Comparison Of Different Approaches

Experimental and theoretical activities are underway at CERN with the aim of examining the feasibility of a very-high-flux neutrino source. In the present scheme, a high-power proton beam (some 4 MW) bombards a target where pions are produced. The pions are collected and decay to muons under controlled optical condition. The muons are cooled and accelerated to a final energy of 50 GeV before being injected into a decay ring where they decay under well-defined conditions of energy and emittance. We present the most challenging parts of the whole scenario, the muon capture, the ionisation-cooling and the first stage of the muon acceleration. Different schemes, their performance and the technical challenges are compared.Comment: LINAC 2000 CONFERENCE, paper ID No. THC1