We have known about the strong association between AS and the HLA-B*27 (B*27) gene for the past 40 years; however, the mechanism with which only some allomorphs of the HLA-B27 molecule, as well as some other HLA class I molecules, are involved in the occurrence of SpAs is still unclear [1]. In this issue of Rheumatology, Cauli et al. [2] present data that may aid our understanding of this mecha...

Joseph Leonard Doob was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, USA on 27 February 1910. In an interview Joe gave for Statistical Science (see Snell (1997)), he said that in grammar school he built a crystal set and in high school operated a radio transmitter. This led him to think he would major in mathematical physics when he entered Harvard in 1926. However, after taking two physics courses, Doob decided ...

Let K denote a field, and let V denote a vector space over K with finite positive dimension. By a Leonard pair on V we mean an ordered pair of linear transformations A : V → V and A∗ : V → V that satisfy the following two conditions: (i) There exists a basis for V with respect to which the matrix representing A is irreducible tridiagonal and the matrix representing A∗ is diagonal. (ii) There ex...

Let K denote a field and let V denote a vector space over K with finite positive dimension. We consider an ordered pair of linear transformations A : V → V and B : V → V which satisfy both (i), (ii) below. (i) There exists a basis for V with respect to which the matrix representing A is irreducible tridiagonal and the matrix representing B is diagonal. (ii) There exists a basis for V with respe...

Sir, The recent paper of Siristatidis and Bhattacharya (2007) argues that the term unexplained infertility (UI) appears sustainable from a clinical and practical perspective, in spite of some fuzziness. I agree with this conclusion having in mind complicated multi-step processes of gametogenesis, meiosis and fertilization. The UI term leaves a door open for diverse unexpected scenarios of repro...

This article demonstrates the invalidity of Theorem VI in Gödel’s 1931, showing that propositions (15) and (16), derived from the definition 8.1, in its proof, are false in PA. Introduction. Developed as a consequence of the crisis of the foundation of mathematics due to the discovery of the antinomies, Hilbert’s formalism planned as criterions of adequacy for the axiomatic systems, the achieve...