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Given the global surge in autoimmune diseases, it is critical to evaluate emerging therapeutic interventions. Despite numerous new targeted immunomodulatory therapies, comprehensive approaches to apply and evaluate the effects of these treatments longitudinally are lacking. Here, we leveraged advances in programmable-phage immunoprecipitation methodology to explore the modulation, or lack thereof, of autoantibody profiles, proteome-wide, in both health and disease. Using a custom set of over 730,000 human-derived peptides, we demonstrated that each individual, regardless of disease state, possesses a distinct and complex constellation of autoreactive antibodies. For each individual, the set of resulting autoreactivites constituted a unique immunological fingerprint, or "autoreactome," that was remarkably stable over years. Using the autoreactome as a primary output, we evaluated the relative effectiveness of various immunomodulatory therapies in altering autoantibody repertoires. We found that therapies targeting B cell maturation antigen (BCMA) profoundly altered an individual's autoreactome, while anti-CD19 and anti-CD20 therapies had minimal effects. These data both confirm that the autoreactome comprises autoantibodies secreted by plasma cells and strongly suggest that BCMA or other plasma cell- targeting therapies may be highly effective in treating currently refractory autoantibody-mediated diseases., Introduction Autoantibodies have been identified in a wide range of autoimmune diseases (1-4). In many cases these autoantibodies are directly pathogenic (5-10), while in others they amplify or support T [...]

The Event Analysis for Systemic Teamwork (EAST) methodology is developed to extract data from complex and diverse C4i scenarios. The ultimate aim of EAST is to provide data to develop generic models of C4i activity and to improve the design of systems aimed at increasing the management infrastructure.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.apergo.2005.02.001 Byline: Paul Salmon (a)(b), Neville Stanton (a)(b), Guy Walker (a)(b), Damian Green (a)(b) Keywords: Situation awareness; Measurement; C4i systems Abstract: The construct of situation awareness (SA) has become a core theme within the human factors (HF) research community. Consequently, there have been numerous attempts to develop reliable and valid measures of SA but there is a lack of techniques developed specifically for the assessment of SA in command, control, communication, computers and intelligence (C4i) environments. During the design, development and evaluation of novel systems, technology and procedures, valid and reliable situation awareness measurement techniques are required for the assessment of individual and team SA, in order to determine the improvements (or in some cases decrements) resulting from proposed design and technological interventions. The paper presents a review of existing situation awareness measurement techniques for their suitability for use in the assessment of SA in C4i environments. Seventeen SA measures were evaluated against a set of HF methods criteria. It was concluded that current SA measurement techniques are inadequate by themselves for use in the assessment of SA in C4i environments, and a multiple-measure approach utilising different approaches is recommended. Author Affiliation: (a) Defence Technology Centre for Human Factors Integration (DTC-HFI), Brunel University, UK (b) BIT Lab, School of Engineering and Design, Uxbridge, Middlesex UB8 3PH, UK Article History: Received 8 June 2004; Accepted 1 February 2005

The construct of situation awareness (SA) has become a core theme within the human factors (HF) research community. Consequently, there have been numerous attempts to develop reliable and valid measures of SA but there is a lack of techniques developed specifically for the assessment of SA in command, control, communication, computers and intelligence (C4i) environments. During the design, development and evaluation of novel systems, technology and procedures, valid and reliable situation awareness measurement techniques are required for the assessment of individual and team SA, in order to determine the improvements (or in some cases decrements) resulting from proposed design and technological interventions. The paper presents a review of existing situation awareness measurement techniques for their suitability for use in the assessment of SA in C4i environments. Seventeen SA measures were evaluated against a set of HF methods criteria. It was concluded that current SA measurement techniques are inadequate by themselves for use in the assessment of SA in C4i environments, and a multiple-measure approach utilising different approaches is recommended. Keywords: Situation awareness; Measurement; C4i systems

The shadow education secretary for the Conservative Party in the UK examines his party's education policy, arguing that the Conservatives will ditch the Labour Party's dogma and deliver a fair deal for universities and students. Under the Conservatives, the Labour Party's tuition fees would be scrapped, as would the target of 50% participation in higher education.