Ovarian antibodies as detected by indirect immunofluorescence are unreliable in the diagnosis of autoimmune premature ovarian failure: a controlled evaluation

BACKGROUND: Ovarian antibodies as detected by indirect immunofluorescence have been used to detect ovarian autoimmunity, but to our knowledge the rate of false positive findings using this method has never been reported. METHODS: Here we examine whether a commercially available ovarian antibody test system, using cynomologous monkey ovary, might be useful in the diagnosis of autoimmune premature ovarian failure. The test was performed in a blinded manner in 26 young women with 46,XX spontaneous premature ovarian failure, in 26 control women with regular menstrual cycles (matched for age, race, and parity) and 26 control men (matched for age and race). We also compared the frequency of other autoantibodies associated with ovarian autoimmunity. RESULTS: As a group young women with premature ovarian failure had an increased incidence of thyroid and gastric parietal cell autoimmunity (p < 0.05). Unexpectedly, however, nearly one third (31%) of normal control women had ovarian antibodies using the commercially available test. One half of young women with premature ovarian failure were found to have ovarian antibodies (P = 0.26). In our own laboratory we found similar results and we were unable to improve the specificity of the test. None of 26 men were found to have ovarian antibodies (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Since approximately one third of normal women were found to have ovarian antibodies using the system under study, we conclude that ovarian antibodies as detected by this indirect immunofluorescence method have poor specificity. The specificity of any ovarian antibody test should be established before it is used clinically

Cyclic Iterative Method for Strictly Pseudononspreading in Hilbert Space

Let {Ti}i=1N be N strictly pseudononspreading mappings defined on closed convex subset C of a real Hilbert space H. Consider the problem of finding a common fixed point of these mappings and introduce cyclic algorithms based on general viscosity iteration method for solving this problem. We will prove the strong convergence of these cyclic algorithm. Moreover, the common fixed point is the solution of the variational inequality 〈(γf-μB)x*,v-x*〉≤0, ∀v∈⋂i=1NFix(Ti)

Cyclic Iterative Method for Strictly Pseudononspreading in Hilbert Space

Let {T i } N i 1 be N strictly pseudononspreading mappings defined on closed convex subset C of a real Hilbert space H. Consider the problem of finding a common fixed point of these mappings and introduce cyclic algorithms based on general viscosity iteration method for solving this problem. We will prove the strong convergence of these cyclic algorithm. Moreover, the common fixed point is the solution of the variational inequality γf − μB x * , v − x * ≤ 0, ∀v ∈ N i 1 F ix T i

Measuring the anomalous quartic gauge couplings in the W+W−→W+W−W^+W^-\to W^+W^- process at muon collider using artificial neural networks

The muon collider provides a unique opportunity to study the vector boson scattering processes and dimension-8 operators contributing to anomalous quartic gauge couplings. Because of the cleaner final state, it is easier to decode subprocess and certain operator couplings at a muon collider. We attempt to identify the anomalous $WWWW$ coupling in $WW\to WW$ scattering in this paper. The vector boson scattering process corresponding to the anomalous $WWWW$ coupling is $\mu^+\mu^-\to \nu\nu\bar{\nu}\bar{\nu}\ell^+\ell^-$, with four (anti-)neutrinos in the final state, which pose difficulties for phenomenological studies. In this paper, the machine learning method is used to tackle this problem. We find that, the artificial neural network can be used to extract the $W^+W^-\to W^+W^-$ contribution, and is useful to reconstruct the center of mass energy of the subprocess which is important in the study of the Standard Model effective field theory. The sensitivities and the expected constraints on the dimension-8 operators at the muon collider with $\sqrt{s}=30$ TeV are presented. The artificial neural networks exhibit great potential in the phenomenological study of processes with multiple neutrinos in the final state.Comment: 26 pages, 11 figures, 7 table

Protective efficacy of a broadly cross-reactive swine influenza DNA vaccine encoding M2e, cytotoxic T lymphocyte epitope and consensus H3 hemagglutinin

BACKGROUND: Pigs have been implicated as mixing reservoir for the generation of new pandemic influenza strains, control of swine influenza has both veterinary and public health significance. Unlike human influenza vaccines, strains used for commercially available swine influenza vaccines are not regularly replaced, making the vaccines provide limited protection against antigenically diverse viruses. It is therefore necessary to develop broadly protective swine influenza vaccines that are efficacious to both homologous and heterologous virus infections. In this study, two forms of DNA vaccines were constructed, one was made by fusing M2e to consensus H3HA (MHa), which represents the majority of the HA sequences of H3N2 swine influenza viruses. Another was made by fusing M2e and a conserved CTL epitope (NP147-155) to consensus H3HA (MNHa). Their protective efficacies against homologous and heterologous challenges were tested. RESULTS: BALB/c mice were immunized twice by particle-mediated epidermal delivery (gene gun) with the two DNA vaccines. It was shown that the two vaccines elicited substantial antibody responses, and MNHa induced more significant T cell-mediated immune response than MHa did. Then two H3N2 strains representative of different evolutional and antigenic clusters were used to challenge the vaccine-immunized mice (homosubtypic challenge). Results indicated that both of the DNA vaccines prevented homosubtypic virus infections completely. The vaccines’ heterologous protective efficacies were further tested by challenging with a H1N1 swine influenza virus and a reassortant 2009 pandemic strain. It was found that MNHa reduced the lung viral titers significantly in both challenge groups, histopathological observation showed obvious reduction of lung pathogenesis as compared to MHa and control groups. CONCLUSIONS: The combined utility of the consensus HA and the conserved M2e and CTL epitope can confer complete and partial protection against homologous and heterologous challenges, respectively, in mouse model. This may provide a basis for the development of universal swine influenza vaccines