Erasmus University Rotterdam

About: Erasmus University Rotterdam is a education organization based out in Rotterdam, Zuid-Holland, Netherlands. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 35466 authors who have published 91288 publications receiving 4510972 citations. The organization is also known as: EUR.

Genome-wide association analyses identify 44 risk variants and refine the genetic architecture of major depression

Abstract: Major depressive disorder (MDD) is a common illness accompanied by considerable morbidity, mortality, costs, and heightened risk of suicide. We conducted a genome-wide association meta-analysis based in 135,458 cases and 344,901 controls and identified 44 independent and significant loci. The genetic findings were associated with clinical features of major depression and implicated brain regions exhibiting anatomical differences in cases. Targets of antidepressant medications and genes involved in gene splicing were enriched for smaller association signal. We found important relationships of genetic risk for major depression with educational attainment, body mass, and schizophrenia: lower educational attainment and higher body mass were putatively causal, whereas major depression and schizophrenia reflected a partly shared biological etiology. All humans carry lesser or greater numbers of genetic risk factors for major depression. These findings help refine the basis of major depression and imply that a continuous measure of risk underlies the clinical phenotype.

The SYNTAX Score: an angiographic tool grading the complexity of coronary artery disease.

Abstract: 1 Department of Interventional Cardiology, Erasmus Medical Center, Thoraxcenter Rotterdam, The Netherlands 2 Cardialysis BV, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 3 Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Erasmus Medical Center, Thoraxcenter, Rotterdam, The Netherlands 4 Institut Cardiovasculaire Paris Sud, Massy, France 5 San Raffaele Hospital, Milano, Italy 6 Southampton General Hospital, Southampton, UK 7 Ouderkerk aan den ijssel, The Netherlands 8 Boston Scientific Corporation, Maastricht, The Netherlands 9 Boston Scientific Corporation, Natick Massachusetts, USA 10 Herzzentrum, Leipzig, Germany

Complexity of machine scheduling problems

Abstract: We survey and extend the results on the complexity of machine scheduling problems. After a brief review of the central concept of NP-completeness we give a classification of scheduling problems on single, different and identical machines and study the influence of various parameters on their complexity. The problems for which a polynomial-bounded algorithm is available are listed and NP-completeness is established for a large number of other machine scheduling problems. We finally discuss some questions that remain unanswered.

Defining the role of common variation in the genomic and biological architecture of adult human height

Abstract: Using genome-wide data from 253,288 individuals, we identified 697 variants at genome-wide significance that together explained one-fifth of the heritability for adult height. By testing different numbers of variants in independent studies, we show that the most strongly associated ∼2,000, ∼3,700 and ∼9,500 SNPs explained ∼21%, ∼24% and ∼29% of phenotypic variance. Furthermore, all common variants together captured 60% of heritability. The 697 variants clustered in 423 loci were enriched for genes, pathways and tissue types known to be involved in growth and together implicated genes and pathways not highlighted in earlier efforts, such as signaling by fibroblast growth factors, WNT/β-catenin and chondroitin sulfate-related genes. We identified several genes and pathways not previously connected with human skeletal growth, including mTOR, osteoglycin and binding of hyaluronic acid. Our results indicate a genetic architecture for human height that is characterized by a very large but finite number (thousands) of causal variants.

Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy or Primary Surgery in Stage IIIC or IV Ovarian Cancer

Abstract: Of the 670 patients randomly assigned to a study treatment, 632 (94.3%) were eligible and started the treatment. The majority of these patients had extensive stage IIIC or IV disease at primary debulking surgery (metastatic lesions that were larger than 5 cm in diameter in 74.5% of patients and larger than 10 cm in 61.6%). The largest residual tumor was 1 cm or less in diameter in 41.6% of patients after primary debulking and in 80.6% of patients after interval debulking. Postoperative rates of adverse effects and mortality tended to be higher after primary debulking than after interval debulking. The hazard ratio for death (intention-to-treat analysis) in the group assigned to neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by interval debulking, as compared with the group assigned to primary debulking surgery followed by chemotherapy, was 0.98 (90% confidence interval [CI], 0.84 to 1.13; P = 0.01 for noninferiority), and the hazard ratio for progressive disease was 1.01 (90% CI, 0.89 to 1.15). Complete resection of all macroscopic disease (at primary or interval surgery) was the strongest independent variable in predicting overall survival. Conclusions Neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by interval debulking surgery was not inferior to primary debulking surgery followed by chemotherapy as a treatment option for patients with bulky stage IIIC or IV ovarian carcinoma in this study. Complete resection of all macroscopic disease, whether performed as primary treatment or after neoadjuvant chemotherapy, remains the objective whenever cytoreductive surgery is performed. (Funded by the National Cancer Institute; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00003636.)