From the editors

Editoria

Autoimmune channelopathies: new antibody-mediated disorders of the central nervous system

Contrary to established wisdom, there now appear to be antibody-mediated central nervous system (CNS) disorders. Over the last few years, a number of patients have been defined with antibodies to voltage-gated (VGKC) or ligand-gated (NMDAR, GlyR) ion channels or ungated water (AQP4) channels. Some of the disorders improve spontaneously over time, others may be more chronic and relapsing-remitting, but immunotherapies reduce antibody levels and improve clinical outcomes. These are exciting developments that herald a new era of immunotherapy-responsive CNS diseases, and they raise interesting questions regarding the aetiological and pathogenic mechanisms mediating these conditions

Myasthenia research over the last 50 years – a personal perspective

Myasthenia gravis (MG) research has, in many respects, been a trail blazer for the growing number of autoantibody-mediated disorders that affect the nervous system. The breakthroughs in MG understanding were made in the 1970s and even 50 years later, MG still remains a topic which scientists, clinicians and, most recently Pharma, return to as the most common and well-studied disorder.  Here, some of the main discoveries will be reviewed very briefly focusing on how the knowledge of the disease evolved during the first decades after the discovery of acetylcholine receptor antibodies.  It should be noted that this is a personal perspective and not a systematic or fully referenced review

From the Editors

Editoria

Stress and the Common Cold

Stress is very common among people especially in today’s world. People also seem to be getting colds much more often than they used to. Does stress cause people to get sick more often? In the present study 40 participants, all Lindenwood University students ages 18 to 29 years old took a stress test and a health questionnaire in an attempt to determine whether or not the more stressed a person is the more often they will get sick. The participants were asked to spare five minutes of their time to complete the two surveys. This study determined that there is a link between the levels of stress a person is under and how often they encounter symptoms of a cold. This study lets further experimentation take place to find a way to decrease stress in the people of today’s society

MSE lower bounds for deterministic parameter estimation

This paper presents a simple approach for deriving computable lower bounds on the MSE of deterministic parameter estimators with a clear interpretation of the bounds. We also address the issue of lower bounds tightness in comparison with the MSE of ML estimators and their ability to predict the SNR threshold region. Last, as many practical estimation problems must be regarded as joint detection-estimation problems, we remind that the estimation performance must be conditional on detection performance

Modelling flexible thrust performance for trajectory prediction applications in ATM

Reduced thrust operations are of widespread use nowadays due to their inherit benefits for engine conservation. Therefore, in order to enable realistic simulation of air traffic management (ATM) scenarios for purposes such as noise and emissions assessment, a model for reduced thrust is required. This paper proposes a methodology for modelling flexible thrust by combining an assumed temperature (AT) polynomial model identified from manufacturer take-off performance data and public thrust models taken from typical ATM performance databases. The advantage of the proposed AT model is that it only depends on the take-off conditions —runway length, airport altitude, temperature, wind, etc. The results derived from this methodology were compared to simulation data obtained from manufacturer’s take-off performance tools and databases. This comparison revealed that the polynomial model provides AT estimations with sufficient accuracy for their use in ATM simulation. The Base of Aircraft Data (BADA) and the Aircraft Noise and Performance (ANP) database were chosen as representative of aircraft performance models commonly used in ATM simulation. It was observed that there is no significant degradation of the overall accuracy of their thrust models when using AT, while there is a correct capture of the corresponding thrust reduction.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version