Showing papers by "University of Groningen published in 1995"

Modified disease activity scores that include twenty-eight-joint counts : development and validation in a prospective longitudinal study of patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract: Objective. The development and validation of Modified Disease Activity Scores (DAS) that include different 28-joint counts. Methods. These scores were developed by canonical discriminant analyses and validated for criterion, correlational, and construct validity. The influence of disease duration on the composition of the DAS was also investigated. Results. No influence of disease duration was found. The Modified DAS that included 28-joint counts were able to discriminate between high and low disease activity (as indicated by clinical decisions of rheumatologists). Conclusion. The Modified DAS are as valid as disease activity scores that include more comprehensive joint counts.

An introduction to infinite-dimensional linear systems theory

Abstract: 1 Introduction.- 1.1 Motivation.- 1.2 Systems theory concepts in finite dimensions.- 1.3 Aims of this book.- 2 Semigroup Theory.- 2.1 Strongly continuous semigroups.- 2.2 Contraction and dual semigroups.- 2.3 Riesz-spectral operators.- 2.4 Delay equations.- 2.5 Invariant subspaces.- 2.6 Exercises.- 2.7 Notes and references.- 3 The Cauchy Problem.- 3.1 The abstract Cauchy problem.- 3.2 Perturbations and composite systems.- 3.3 Boundary control systems.- 3.4 Exercises.- 3.5 Notes and references.- 4 Inputs and Outputs.- 4.1 Controllability and observability.- 4.2 Tests for approximate controllability and observability.- 4.3 Input-output maps.- 4.4 Exercises.- 4.5 Notes and references.- 5 Stability, Stabilizability, and Detectability.- 5.1 Exponential stability.- 5.2 Exponential stabilizability and detectability.- 5.3 Compensator design.- 5.4 Exercises.- 5.5 Notes and references.- 6 Linear Quadratic Optimal Control.- 6.1 The problem on a finite-time interval.- 6.2 The problem on the infinite-time interval.- 6.3 Exercises.- 6.4 Notes and references.- 7 Frequency-Domain Descriptions.- 7.1 The Callier-Desoer class of scalar transfer functions.- 7.2 The multivariable extension.- 7.3 State-space interpretations.- 7.4 Exercises.- 7.5 Notes and references.- 8 Hankel Operators and the Nehari Problem.- 8.1 Frequency-domain formulation.- 8.2 Hankel operators in the time domain.- 8.3The Nehari extension problem for state linear systems.- 8.4 Exercises.- 8.5 Notes and references.- 9 Robust Finite-Dimensional Controller Synthesis.- 9.1 Closed-loop stability and coprime factorizations.- 9.2 Robust stabilization of uncertain systems.- 9.3 Robust stabilization under additive uncertainty.- 9.4 Robust stabilization under normalized left-coprime-factor uncertainty.- 9.5 Robustness in the presence of small delays.- 9.6 Exercises.- 9.7 Notes and references.- A. Mathematical Background.- A.1 Complex analysis.- A.2 Normed linear spaces.- A.2.1 General theory.- A.2.2 Hilbert spaces.- A.3 Operators on normed linear spaces.- A.3.1 General theory.- A.3.2 Operators on Hilbert spaces.- A.4 Spectral theory.- A.4.1 General spectral theory.- A.4.2 Spectral theory for compact normal operators.- A.5 Integration and differentiation theory.- A.5.1 Integration theory.- A.5.2 Differentiation theory.- A.6 Frequency-domain spaces.- A.6.1 Laplace and Fourier transforms.- A.6.2 Frequency-domain spaces.- A.6.3 The Hardy spaces.- A.7 Algebraic concepts.- A.7.1 General definitions.- A.7.2 Coprime factorizations over principal ideal domains.- A.7.3 Coprime factorizations over commutative integral domains.- References.- Notation.

Interannual extremes in the rate of rise of atmospheric carbon dioxide since 1980

Abstract: OBSERVATIONS of atmospheric CO2 concentrations at Mauna Loa, Hawaii, and at the South Pole over the past four decades show an approximate proportionality between the rising atmospheric concentrations and industrial CO2 emissions1. This proportionality, which is most apparent during the first 20 years of the records, was disturbed in the 1980s by a disproportionately high rate of rise of atmospheric CO2, followed after 1988 by a pronounced slowing down of the growth rate. To probe the causes of these changes, we examine here the changes expected from the variations in the rates of industrial CO2 emissions over this time2, and also from influences of climate such as El Nino events. We use the13C/12C ratio of atmospheric CO2 to distinguish the effects of interannual variations in biospheric and oceanic sources and sinks of carbon. We propose that the recent disproportionate rise and fall in CO2 growth rate were caused mainly by interannual variations in global air temperature (which altered both the terrestrial biospheric and the oceanic carbon sinks), and possibly also by precipitation. We suggest that the anomalous climate-induced rise in CO2 was partially masked by a slowing down in the growth rate of fossil-fuel combustion, and that the latter then exaggerated the subsequent climate-induced fall.

Quantitative fluorescence in situ hybridization of Bifidobacterium spp. with genus-specific 16S rRNA-targeted probes and its application in fecal samples.

Abstract: Three 16S rRNA hybridization probes were developed and tested for genus-specific detection of Bifidobacterium species in the human fecal flora. Variable regions V2, V4, and V8 of the 16S rRNA contained sequences unique to this genus and proved applicable as target sites for oligodeoxynucleotide probes. Determination of the genus specificity of the oligonucleotides was performed by whole-cell hybridization with fluorescein isothiocyanate-labelled probes. To this end, cells were fixed on glass slides, hybridized with the probes, and monitored by videomicroscopy. In combination with image analysis, this allowed quantification of the fluorescence per cell and objective evaluation of hybridization experiments. One of the probes developed was used to determine the population of Bifidobacterium spp. in human fecal samples. A comparison was made with results obtained by cultural methods for enumeration. Since both methods gave similar population estimates, it was concluded that all bifidobacteria in feces were culturable. However, since the total culturable counts were only a fraction of the total microscopic counts, the contribution of bifidobacteria to the total intestinal microflora was overestimated by almost 10-fold when cultural methods were used as the sole method for enumeration.

Glutaraldehyde as a crosslinking agent for collagen-based biomaterials

Abstract: The formation of Schiff bases during crosslinking of dermal sheep collagen (DSC) with glutaraldehyde (GA), their stability and their reactivity towards GA was studied. All available free amine groups had reacted with GA to form a Schiff base within 5 min after the start of the reaction under the conditions studied (0.5% (w/w) GA). Before crosslinks are formed the hydrolysable Schiff bases initially present were stabilized by further reaction with GA molecules. An increase in shrinkage temperature (Ts) from 56°C for non-crosslinked DSC (N-DSC) to 78°C for GA crosslinked DSC (G-DSC) was achieved after crosslinking for 1 h. From the relationship between the free amine group content and the Ts during crosslinking it was concluded that higher GA concentrations and longer reaction times will result in the introduction of pendant-GA-related molecules rather than crosslinks. After 24 h crosslinking an average uptake of 3 GA molecules per reacted amine group was found. No increase in the tensile strength of the materials was observed after crosslinking, which may be a result of formation of crosslinks within the fibres rather than in between fibres. Aligning of the fibres by applying a pre-strain to the samples and subsequent crosslinking yielded materials with an increased tensile strength.

Optimal Selection for Direct Mail

Abstract: Direct marketing mail is a growing area of marketing practice, yet the academic journals contain very little research on this topic. The most important issue for direct marketers is how to sample targets from a population for a direct mail campaign. Although some selection methods are described in the literature, there seems to be not a single paper discussing the analytical and statistical aspects involved. The objective of this paper is to introduce a comprehensive methodology for the selection of targets from a mailing list for direct mail. At least theoretically, this methodology leads to more efficient selection procedures than the existing ones. The latter are not based on an optimal selection strategy, whereas we explicitly take the profit function into account. By equating marginal costs and marginal returns we determine which households should receive a mailing in order to maximize expected profit. In the empirical part we show that our methodology has great predictive accuracy and generates higher net returns than traditional approaches.

The Multidimensionality of Schizotypy

Abstract: We present an overview of self-report scales for measuring schizotypy and a review of factor-analytical studies of these scales. These studies show that schizotypy is a multidimensional construct consisting of three or four factors. Positive Schizotypy, Negative Schizotypy, Nonconformity, and possibly Social Anxiety/Cognitive Disorganization. Clinical and external validation studies provide support for the construct validity of the Positive Schizotypy and Negative Schizotypy factors, but as yet fail to support the Nonconformity and Social Anxiety/Cognitive Disorganization factors. In accordance with this multidimensional structure, the scales for measuring schizotypy can be classified as factor-specific scales. We consider the striking similarities between the multidimensionality of schizotypal traits and the multidimensionality of schizophrenic symptoms. We also look at the similarities and differences between schizotypy and normal personality traits. Some practical and theoretical implications of these relationships are discussed.

A system to generate chromosomal mutations in Lactococcus lactis which allows fast analysis of targeted genes.

Abstract: A system for generating chromosomal insertions in lactococci is described. It is based on the conditional replication of lactococcal pWV01-derived Ori+ RepA- vector pORI19, containing lacZ alpha and the multiple cloning site of pUC19. Chromosomal AluI fragments of Lactococcus lactis were cloned in pORI19 in RepA+ helper strain Escherichia coli EC101. The frequency of Campbell-type recombinants, following introduction of this plasmid bank into L. lactis (RepA-), was increased by combining the system with temperature-sensitive pWV01 derivative pVE6007. Transformation of L. lactis MG1363 (pVE6007) with the pORI19 bank of lactococcal chromosomal fragments at the permissive temperature allowed replication of several copies of a recombinant plasmid from the bank within a cell because of the provision in trans of RepA-Ts from pVE6007. A temperature shift to 37 degrees C resulted in loss of pVE6007 and integration of the pORI19 derivatives at high frequencies. A bank of lactococcal mutants was made in this way and successfully screened for the presence of two mutations: one in the monocistronic 1.3-kb peptidoglycan hydrolase gene (acmA) and one in the hitherto uncharacterized maltose fermentation pathway. Reintroduction of pVE6007 into the Mal- mutant at 30 degrees C resulted in excision of the integrated plasmid and restoration of the ability of ferment maltose. The integration plasmid (pMAL) was rescued by using the isolated plasmid content of a restored Mal+ colony to transform E. coli EC101. Nucleotide sequencing of the 564-bp chromosomal fragment in pMAL revealed an internal part of an open reading frame of which the translated product showed significant homology with ATP-binding proteins MalK of E. coli, Salmonella typhimurium, and Enterobacter aerogenes and MsmK of Streptococcus mutans. This combined use of two types of conditional replicating pWV01-derived vectors represents a novel, powerful tool for chromosomal gene inactivation, targeting, cloning, and sequencing of the labelled gene.

Stereochemistry of Chitin Hydrolysis by a Plant Chitinase/Lysozyme and X-ray Structure of a Complex with Allosamidin : Evidence for Substrate Assisted Catalysis

Abstract: The plant enzyme hevamine has both chitinase and lysozyme activity. HPLC analysis of the products of the hydrolysis of chitopentaose shows that hevamine acts with retention of the configuration, despite the absence of a nucleophilic or stabilizing carboxylate. To analyze the stabilization of a putative oxocarbonium ion intermediate, the X-ray structure of hevamine complexed with the inhibitor allosamidin was determined at 1.85 A resolution. This structure supports the role of Glu127 as a proton donor. The allosamizoline group binds in the center of the active site, mimicking a reaction intermediate in which a positive charge at C1 is stabilized intramolecularly by the carbonyl oxygen of the N-acetyl group at C2.

Tooth Color and Reflectance as Related to Light Scattering and Enamel Hardness

Abstract: Tooth color is determined by the paths of light inside the tooth and absorption along these paths. This paper tests the hypothesis that, since the paths are determined by scattering, a relation between color and scattering coefficients exists. One hundred and two extracted incisors were fixed in formalin, mounted in a standardized position in brass holders, and pumiced. A facet was prepared near the incisal edge on the labial plane to allow for Knoop hardness measurements with a 500-gram load. Light scattering by the enamel was measured in a 45°/0° geometry; light scattering by both enamel and dentin was measured in a 0°/0° geometry. The reflection spectrum of the tooth was measured from the labial plane with a spectroradiometer in a 45°/0° geometry, with standard illuminant A and standard illuminant D65. To include all volume-reflected light, we used entire-tooth illumination and small-area measurement. CIELAB color coordinates were calculated from the spectra. Neither spectra nor coordinates showed evid...

Strategies and mechanisms in nonselective and selective inhibitory motor control

Abstract: Motor inhibition was studied in 3 versions of the stop-signal paradigm, with the stop signal requiring inhibition of any response (stop-all), a fixed alternative response (stop-change), or selective inhibition of only 1 of the responses (selective-stop). The lateralized readiness potential was used in Experiment 1 to distinguish between a selective, central, and a global peripheral inhibition mechanism. Inhibition was found to be effected by the central mechanism in the stop-change condition and by the peripheral mechanism in the other conditions. Manipulation of stimulus discriminability in Experiment 2 strongly affected the speed of selective motor inhibition, confirming that such inhibition was achieved by conditionally engaging the peripheral mechanism. These results support the idea that functionally distinct mechanisms and strategies are involved in inhibitory motor control in different situations.

A mixture likelihood approach for generalized linear models

Abstract: A mixture model approach is developed that simultaneously estimates the posterior membership probabilities of observations to a number of unobservable groups or latent classes, and the parameters of a generalized linear model which relates the observations, distributed according to some member of the exponential family, to a set of specified covariates within each Class. We demonstrate how this approach handles many of the existing latent class regression procedures as special cases, as well as a host of other parametric specifications in the exponential family heretofore not mentioned in the latent class literature. As such we generalize the McCullagh and Nelder approach to a latent class framework. The parameters are estimated using maximum likelihood, and an EM algorithm for estimation is provided. A Monte Carlo study of the performance of the algorithm for several distributions is provided, and the model is illustrated in two empirical applications.

Direct selection on life-span in drosophila-melanogaster

Abstract: An important issue in the study of the evolution of aging in Drosophila melanogaster is whether decreased early fecundity is inextricably coupled with increased life span in selection experiments on age at reproduction. Here, this problem has been tackled using an experimental design in which selection is applied directly to longevity. Selection appeared successful for short and long life, in females as well as males. Progeny production of females selected for long life was lower than for short-lived females throughout their whole life. No increase of late-life reproduction in long-lived females occurred, as has been found in selection experiments on age at reproduction. This discrepancy is explained in terms of the inadequacy of the latter design to separate selection on life span from selection on late-life fecundity. Moreover, starvation resistance and fat content were lower for adults selected for short life. In general, the data support the negative-pleiotropy-disposable-soma theory of aging, and it is hypothesized that the pleiotropic allocation of resources to maintenance versus to reproduction as implicated in the theory might involve lipid metabolism. It is argued that further research on this suggestion is urgent and should certainly comprise observations on male reproduction because these are for the greater part still lacking. In conclusion, the longevity of D. melanogaster can be genetically altered in a direct-selection design, and such an increase is accompanied by a decreased general reproduction and thus early reproduction.

Supramolecular structure of the photosystem II complex from green plants and cyanobacteria

Abstract: Photosystem II (PSII) complexes, isolated from spinach and the thermophilic cyanobacterium Synechococcus elongatus, were characterized by electron microscopy and single-particle image-averaging analyses. Oxygen-evolving core complexes from spinach and Synechococcus having molecular masses of about 450 kDa and dimensions of approximately 17.2 x 9.7 nm showed twofold symmetry indicative of a dimeric organization. Confirmation of this came from image analysis of oxygen-evolving monomeric cores of PSII isolated from spinach and Synechococcus having a mass of approximately 240 kDa. Washing with Tris at pH 8.0 and analysis of side-view projections indicated the possible position of the 33-kDa extrinsic manganese-stabilizing protein. A larger complex was isolated that contained the light-harvesting complex II (LHC-II) and other chlorophyll a/b-binding proteins, CP29, CP26, and CP24. This LHC-II-PSII complex had a mass of about 700 kDa, and electron microscopy revealed it also to be a dimer having dimensions of about 26.8 and 12.3 nm. From comparison with the dimeric core complex, it was deduced that the latter is located in the center of the larger particle, with additional peripheral regions accommodating the chlorophyll a/b-binding proteins. It is suggested that two LHC-II trimers are present in each dimeric LHC-II-PSII complex and that each trimer is linked to the reaction center core complex by CP24, CP26, and CP29. The results also suggest that PSII may exist as a dimer in vivo.

Possibility for an intermediate-spin ground state in the charge-transfer material SrCoO3

Abstract: We discuss the possibility of an intermediate-spin ground state for a ${\mathit{d}}^{5}$ (${\mathit{d}}^{6}$) system The intermediate-spin state is stabilized by the relative stability of the ligand hole state that it hybridizes with Using atomic multiplet calculations we showed that an intermediate-spin ground state is possible for ${\mathrm{Co}}^{4+}$ (${\mathit{d}}^{5}$) when the ${\mathit{d}}^{6}$L state dominates the ground state From a comparison of the experimental Co 2p x-ray absorption spectroscopy spectrum with the calculated one we assume an intermediate-spin ground state for ${\mathrm{SrCoO}}_{3}$ The intermediate-spin ground state is a highly symmetrical state with high-spin Co ${\mathit{d}}^{6}$ ions on each site Each oxygen then contributes 1/3 hole which is antiferromagnetically coupled to both neighboring Co ions In this way the itinerant oxygen holes couple the high-spin Co ${\mathit{d}}^{6}$ ions ferromagnetically With this model of oxygen holes that introduce ferromagnetic correlations we can also explain the spin-glass behavior for slightly doped ${\mathrm{LaCoO}}_{3}$

On diffraction by aperiodic structures

Abstract: This paper gives a rigorous treatment of some aspects of diffraction by aperiodic structures such as quasicrystals. It analyses diffraction in the limit of the infinite system, through an appropriately defined autocorrelation. The main results are a justification of the standard way of calculating the diffraction spectrum of tilings obtained by the projection method and a proof of a variation on a conjecture by Bombieri and Taylor.

Border-collision bifurcations for piecewise smooth one-dimensional maps

Abstract: We examine bifurcation phenomena for continuous one-dimensional maps that are piecewise smooth and depend on a parameter μ. In the simplest case, there is a point c at which the map has no derivative (it has two one-sided derivatives). The point c is the border of two intervals in which the map is smooth. As the parameter μ is varied, a fixed point (or periodic point) Eμ may cross the point c, and we may assume that this crossing occurs at μ=0. The investigation of what bifurcations occur at μ=0 reduces to a study of a map fμ depending linearly on μ and two other parameters a and b. A variety of bifurcations occur frequently in such situations. In particular, Eμ may cross the point c, and for μ 0 there may be a period-3 attractor or even a three-piece chaotic attractor which shrinks to E0 as μ→0. More generally, for every integer m≥2, bifurcations from a fixed point attractor to a period-m attractor, a 2m-piece chaotic attractor, an m-piece chaotic attractor, or a one-piece chaotic attractor can occur for piecewise smooth one-dimensional maps. These bifurcations are called border-collision bifurcations. For almost every point in the region of interest in the (a, b)-space, we state explicitly which border-collision bifurcation actually does occur. We believe this phenomenon will be seen in many applications.