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 & Context (language use). The organization has 36346 authors who have published 69116 publications receiving 2940370 citations. The organization is also known as: Rijksuniversiteit Groningen & RUG.

Common Mental Disorders and Disability Across Cultures: Results From the WHO Collaborative Study on Psychological Problems in General Health Care

Abstract: Objective. —To examine the impact of common mental illness on functional disability and the cross-cultural consistency of this relationship while controlling for physical illness. A secondary objective was to determine the level of disability associated with specific psychiatric disorders. Design. —A cross-sectional sample selected by two-stage sampling. Setting. —Primary health care facilities in 14 countries covering most major cultures and languages. Patients. —A total of 25916 consecutive attenders of these facilities were screened for psychopathology using the General Health Questionnaire (96% response). Screened patients were sampled from the General Health Questionnaire score strata for the second-stage Composite International Diagnostic Interview administered to 5447 patients (62% response). Main Outcome Measures. —Patient-reported physical disability, number of disability days, and interviewer-rated occupational role functioning. Results. —After controlling for physical disease severity, psychopathology was consistently associated with increased disability. Physical disease severity was an independent, although weaker, contributor to disability. A dose-response relationship was found between severity of mental illness and disability. Disability was most prominent among patients with major depression, panic disorder, generalized anxiety, and neurasthenia; disorder-specific differences were modest after controlling for psychiatric comorbidity. Results were consistent across disability measures and across centers. Conclusions. —The consistent relationship of psychopathology and disability indicates the compelling personal and socioeconomic impact of common mental illnesses across cultures. This suggests the importance of impairments of higher-order human capacities (eg, emotion, motivation, and cognition) as determinants of functional disability. (JAMA. 1994;272:1741-1748)

Cloning of the mycobacterial epitope recognized by T lymphocytes in adjuvant arthritis

Abstract: Adjuvant arthritis (AA) is a chronic disease inducible in rats by immunization with an antigen of Mycobacterium tuberculosis1. After the isolation of arthritogenic T-cell lines2 and clones3, it became possible to demonstrate that the critical M. tuberculosis antigen contained an epitope cross-reactive with a self-antigen in joint cartilage4–6. Like AA rats, patients suffering from rheumatoid arthritis demonstrated specific T-lymphocyte reactivity to the M. tuberculosis fraction containing the cross-reactive epitope7. To characterize the critical M. tuberculosis epitope we used AA T-cell clones to screen mycobacterial antigens expressed in Escherichia coli and genetically engineered truncated proteins and synthetic peptides. The AA T-cell clones recognized an epitope formed by the amino acids at positions 180–188 in the sequence of a Mycobacterium bovis BCG antigen8. Administration of this antigen to rats induced resistance to subsequent attempts to produce AA.

Comparison of risk prediction using the CKD-EPI equation and the MDRD study equation for estimated glomerular filtration rate.

Abstract: 2) was reducedfrom8.7%to6.3%.InestimatedGFRof45to59mL/min/1.73m 2 bytheMDRD Study equation, 34.7% of participants were reclassified to estimated GFR of 60 to 89 mL/min/1.73m 2 bytheCKD-EPIequationandhadlowerincidencerates(per1000personyears) for the outcomes of interest (9.9 vs 34.5 for all-cause mortality, 2.7 vs 13.0 for cardiovascular mortality, and 0.5 vs 0.8 for ESRD) compared with those not reclassified. The corresponding adjusted hazard ratios were 0.80 (95% CI, 0.74-0.86) for all-cause mortality, 0.73 (95% CI, 0.65-0.82) for cardiovascular mortality, and 0.49 (95% CI, 0.270.88) for ESRD. Similar findings were observed in other estimated GFR categories by the MDRD Study equation. Net reclassification improvement based on estimated GFR categories was significantly positive for all outcomes (range, 0.06-0.13; all P.001). Net reclassificationimprovementwassimilarlypositiveinmostsubgroupsdefinedbyage(65 years and 65 years), sex, race/ethnicity (white, Asian, and black), and presence or absence of diabetes and hypertension. The results in the high-risk and CKD cohorts were largely consistent with the general population cohorts. Conclusion The CKD-EPI equation classified fewer individuals as having CKD and more accurately categorized the risk for mortality and ESRD than did the MDRD Study equation across a broad range of populations.

Stellar chemical signatures and hierarchical galaxy formation

Abstract: To compare the chemistries of stars in the Milky Way dwarf spheroidal (dSph) satellite galaxies with stars in the Galaxy, we have compiled a large sample of Galactic stellar abundances from the literature. When kinematic information is available, we have assigned the stars to standard Galactic components through Bayesian classification based on Gaussian velocity ellipsoids. As found in previous studies, the [α/Fe] ratios of most stars in the dSph galaxies are generally lower than similar metallicity Galactic stars in this extended sample. Our kinematically selected stars confirm this for the Galactic halo, thin-disk, and thick-disk components. There is marginal overlap in the low [α/Fe] ratios between dSph stars and Galactic halo stars on extreme retrograde orbits (V < -420 km s-1), but this is not supported by other element ratios. Other element ratios compared in this paper include r- and s-process abundances, where we find a significant offset in the [Y/Fe] ratios, which results in a large overabundance in [Ba/Y] in most dSph stars compared with Galactic stars. Thus, the chemical signatures of most of the dSph stars are distinct from the stars in each of the kinematic components of the Galaxy. This result rules out continuous merging of low-mass galaxies similar to these dSph satellites during the formation of the Galaxy. However, we do not rule out very early merging of low-mass dwarf galaxies, since up to one-half of the most metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] ≤ -1.8) have chemistries that are in fair agreement with Galactic halo stars. We also do not rule out merging with higher mass galaxies, although we note that the LMC and the remnants of the Sgr dwarf galaxy are also chemically distinct from the majority of the Galactic halo stars. Formation of the Galaxy's thick disk by heating of an old thin disk during a merger is also not ruled out; however, the Galaxy's thick disk itself cannot be comprised of the remnants from a low-mass (dSph) dwarf galaxy, nor of a high-mass dwarf galaxy like the LMC or Sgr, because of differences in chemistry. The new and independent environments offered by the dSph galaxies also allow us to examine fundamental assumptions related to the nucleosynthesis of the elements. The metal-poor stars ([Fe/H] ≤ -1.8) in the dSph galaxies appear to have lower [Ca/Fe] and [Ti/Fe] than [Mg/Fe] ratios, unlike similar metallicity stars in the Galaxy. Predictions from the α-process (α-rich freeze-out) would be consistent with this result if there have been a lack of hypernovae in dSph galaxies. The α-process could also be responsible for the very low Y abundances in the metal-poor stars in dSph's; since [La/Eu] (and possibly [Ba/Eu]) are consistent with pure r-process results, the low [Y/Eu] suggests a separate r-process site for this light (first-peak) r-process element. We also discuss SNe II rates and yields as other alternatives, however. In stars with higher metallicities ([Fe/H] ≥ -1.8), contributions from the s-process are expected; [(Y, La, and Ba)/Eu] all rise as expected, and yet [Ba/Y] is still much higher in the dSph stars than similar metallicity Galactic stars. This result is consistent with s-process contributions from lower metallicity AGB stars in dSph galaxies, and is in good agreement with the slower chemical evolution expected in the low-mass dSph galaxies relative to the Galaxy, such that the build-up of metals occurs over much longer timescales. Future investigations of nucleosynthetic constraints (as well as galaxy formation and evolution) will require an examination of many stars within individual dwarf galaxies. Finally, the Na-Ni trend reported in 1997 by Nissen & Schuster is confirmed in Galactic halo stars, but we discuss this in terms of the general nucleosynthesis of neutron-rich elements. We do not confirm that the Na-Ni trend is related to the accretion of dSph galaxies in the Galactic halo.

Observation of $J/\psi p$ Resonances Consistent with Pentaquark States in $\Lambda_b^0 \to J/\psi K^- p$ Decays

Abstract: Observations of exotic structures in the J/ψp channel, that we refer to as pentaquark-charmonium states, in Λ0b→J/ψK−p decays are presented. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 3/fb acquired with the LHCb detector from 7 and 8 TeV pp collisions. An amplitude analysis is performed on the three-body final-state that reproduces the two-body mass and angular distributions. To obtain a satisfactory fit of the structures seen in the J/ψp mass spectrum, it is necessary to include two Breit-Wigner amplitudes that each describe a resonant state. The significance of each of these resonances is more than 9 standard deviations. One has a mass of 4380±8±29 MeV and a width of 205±18±86 MeV, while the second is narrower, with a mass of 4449.8±1.7±2.5 MeV and a width of 39±5±19 MeV. The preferred JP assignments are of opposite parity, with one state having spin 3/2 and the other 5/2.