Tumour necrosis factor-alpha inhibitors (TNF-blockers) are recommended for the treatment of predominantly axial spondyloarthritis (SpA), after failure of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). TNF-blockers are very effective drugs and also show a sustained and stable long-term response in axial SpA. A few trials indicated that withdrawal of TNF-blockers in longstanding ankylosing spond...

TwoTowers is a software tool for the functional verification and performance evaluation of computer, communication and software systems represented through stochastic process algebra (SPA). In this paper we describe a novel version (3.0), in which the modeling language is no longer a pure SPA, but a SPA-based architectural description language called Æmilia. We show that TwoTowers 3.0 improves ...

We investigate bidders’ and seller’s responses to ambiguity about the number of bidders in the first price auction (FPA) and the second price auction (SPA) with independent private valuations. We model ambiguity aversion using the maxmin expected utility model. We find that bidders prefer the number of bidders to be revealed in the FPA, are indifferent between revealing and concealing in the SP...

In this paper, the multicast protection problem on elastic optical networks (EONs) for the single link-failure case is studied. The segment-based protection is used as the multicast protection scheme and two algorithms are proposed to solve this problem, they are Low Spectrum First Segmented Protection Algorithm (LSF-SPA) and K-Tree Segmented Protection Algorithm (KT-SPA). The proposed algorith...

Inhibition of the potassium channels TREK-1 by spadin (SPA) is currently thought to be a promising therapeutic target for the treatment of depression. Since these channels are expressed in pancreatic β-cells, we investigated their role in the control of insulin secretion and glucose homeostasis. In this study, we confirmed the expression of TREK-1 channels in the insulin secreting MIN6-B1 β-cel...

This study examined gender differences on body image measures, and tested a model where self-esteem influences social physique anxiety (SPA), which in turn influences drive for muscularity and drive for thinness in a sample of adolescents (N=329; 58% boys). Multi-group invariance analyses indicated that the measurement and structural models were partially invariant for boys and girls, allowing ...

Interactions between proteins are a key feature of many biochemical processes, for example cell signalling. In the absence of any enzymatic activity, measurement of protein:protein interactions has presented problems. Scintillation Proximity Assay (SPA) technology permits the direct measurement of binding of one protein to another. In addition, in cases where the dissociation rate of the intera...

EEG sleep spindle activity (SpA) during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep has been reported to be associated with measures of intelligence and overnight performance improvements. The reticular nucleus of the thalamus is generating sleep spindles in interaction with thalamocortical connections. The same system enables efficient encoding and processing during wakefulness. Thus, we examined if t...

We reported a case of a 71-year-old woman with progressive low back pain and neurologic symptoms of lower extremities, who in the background had the coexistence of spondyloarthritis (SpA) and non Hodgkin's lymphoma of the paravertebral location. This example describes a situation where SpA with minimal sacroiliac joints affection has nevertheless led to the overt axial SpA. This situation inclu...

A single-layer graphene film was grown on copper foil by chemical vapor deposition and transferred onto a silicon-pillar-array (SPA) substrate to make a Schottky junction solar cell. The SPA substrate was specifically designed to suppress reflectance and enhance light absorption. The energy conversion efficiency of the prepared graphene/SPA solar cells achieved a maximum of 2.90% with a junctio...