University of Groningen

About: University of Groningen is a education organization based out in Groningen, Groningen, Netherlands. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 36346 authors who have published 69116 publications receiving 2940370 citations. The organization is also known as: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen & RUG.

Unity of Cosmological Inflation Attractors

Abstract: Recently, several broad classes of inflationary models have been discovered whose cosmological predictions, in excellent agreement with Planck, are stable with respect to significant modifications of the inflaton potential. Some classes of models are based on a nonminimal coupling to gravity. These models, which we call xi attractors, describe universal cosmological attractors (including Higgs inflation) and induced inflation models. Another class describes conformal attractors (including Starobinsky inflation and T models) and their generalization to alpha attractors. The aim of this Letter is to elucidate the common denominator of these attractors: their robust predictions stem from a joint pole of order 2 in the kinetic term of the inflaton field in the Einstein frame formulation prior to switching to the canonical variables. Model-dependent differences only arise at subleading level in the kinetic term. As a final step towards the unification of the different attractors, we introduce a special class of xi attractors which is fully equivalent to a attractors with the identification alpha = 1 + (1/6 xi). While r is generically predicted to be of the order 1/N-2, there is no theoretical lower bound on r in this class of models.

NoiseTube: Measuring and mapping noise pollution with mobile phones

Abstract: In this paper we present a new approach for the assessment of noise pollution involving the general public. The goal of this project is to turn GPS-equipped mobile phones into noise sensors that enable citizens to measure their personal exposure to noise in their everyday environment. Thus each user can contribute by sharing their geo-localised measurements and further personal annotation to produce a collective noise map.

Deletion of a DNA sequence at the chromosomal region 3p21 in all major types of lung cancer

Abstract: In childhood malignancies such as retinoblastoma and Wilms tumour, of which both familial and sporadic forms exist, recessive mutations of presumed differentiation genes have been implicated in tumorigenesis1,2. A proportion of cases appear with microscopically visible chromosome deletions which indicate the regions where the genes concerned are located. Mutation or loss of one allele causes a cancer predisposition. For tumour development functional loss of the remaining normal allele is also required. In cancers with both familial and sporadic forms, molecular-genetic studies have shown that deletion is often one of the mutational events2–5.Although familial and sporadic forms have never been distinguished in lung cancer, deletions of the short arm of chromosome 3 have been described for small cell lung cancer (SCLC) (refs 6, 7), but their general occurrence in SCLC has been disputed8–10. Using a molecular-genetic approach, we here present evidence for a consistent deletion at the chromosomal region 3p21, not only in SCLC11, but in all major types of lung cancer.