Gi’r selvkørende biler mere plads på vejen?

Med den stadig voksende andel af biler med Lane Keeping Assist (LKA) og Automatic Cruise Control (ACC) vil der komme nye muligheder for udnyttelse af infrastrukturen. Vejdirektoratet har derfor undersøgt om og hvor meget ekstra kapacitet, der kan komme på vejene med disse to funktioner i bilerne. Vurderingen er foretaget på baggrund af VISSIM simuleringer af COWI. I simuleringerne ses på blandet kørsel, hvor der både er traditionelle biler og biler med ACC i trafikken. Der ses ligeledes på de trafikale effekter af at etablere smallere spor, dedikeret til biler med LKA. Den overordnede vurdering er, at flere biler med ACC kan give trafikale gevinster og mulighed for, at afvikle mere trafik på samme veje. Samtidigt tyder det på at der kan være kapacitetsgevinster, hvis man udbygger eksisterende veje med dedikerede spor, så længe de eksisterende spor ikke underlægges begrænsninger. Automatic Cruise Control (ACC) giver anledning til mere jævn kørsel og mulighed for, at bilerne kan køre tættere. Især jævn kørsel betyder mulighed for væsentlige kapacitetsgevinster. Med 33 pct. biler med ACC i bilparken forøges den maksimale teoretiske kapacitet med 10 pct., imens 66 pct. selvkørende biler ved betyde en forøgelse på 20 pct. af kapaciteten. Lane Keeping Assist (LKA) gør bilerne i stand til, at holde sporene ved hjælp af linjerne på vejene. Bilerne følger med andre ord et mere stabilt spor end manuelt førte biler. Det kan vise sig muligt - og sikkerhedsmæssigt forsvarligt - at reducere vejbanernes bredde. Ved muligheden for at etablere et ekstra spor pga. smallere sporbredde viser simuleringerne, at det er muligt opnå en kapacitetsforøgelse på op til 26 pct. ved en tredjedel selvkørende biler (ACC og LKA), imens der vil kunne opnås op til 36 pct. ekstra kapacitet med 66 pct. selvkørende biler. Resultaterne fra dette projekt kan give anledning til en videre granskning af muligheder for mere effektiv udnyttelse af infrastrukturen

Daily electronic monitoring of subjective and objective measures of illness activity in bipolar disorder using smartphones--the MONARCA II trial protocol: a randomized controlled single-blind parallel-group trial

BACKGROUND: Patients with bipolar disorder often show decreased adherence with mood stabilizers and frequently interventions on prodromal depressive and manic symptoms are delayed. Recently, the MONARCA I randomized controlled trial investigated the effect of electronic self-monitoring using smartphones on depressive and manic symptoms. The findings suggested that patients using the MONARCA system had more sustained depressive symptoms than patients using a smartphone for normal communicative purposes, but had fewer manic symptoms during the trial. It is likely that the ability of these self-monitored measures to detect prodromal symptoms of depression and mania may be insufficient compared to automatically generated objective data on measures of illness activity such as phone usage, social activity, physical activity, and mobility. The Monsenso system, for smartphones integrating subjective and objective measures of illness activity was developed and will be tested in the present trial. METHODS: The MONARCA II trial uses a randomized controlled single-blind parallel-group design. Patients with bipolar disorder according to ICD-10 who previously have been treated at the Copenhagen Clinic for Affective Disorder, Denmark are included and randomized to either daily use of the Monsenso system including an feedback loop between patients and clinicians (the intervention group) or to the use of a smartphone for normal communicative purposes (the control group) for a 9-month trial period. The trial was started in September 2014 and recruitment is ongoing. The outcomes are: differences in depressive and manic symptoms; rate of depressive and manic episodes (primary); automatically generated objective data on measures of illness activity; number of days hospitalized; psychosocial functioning (secondary); perceived stress; quality of life; self-rated depressive symptoms; self-rated manic symptoms; recovery; empowerment and adherence to medication (tertiary) between the intervention group and the control group during the trial. Ethical permission has been obtained. Positive, neutral and negative findings will be published. DISCUSSION: If the system is effective in reducing depressive and/or manic symptoms (and other symptoms of bipolar disorder) and the rate of episodes, there will be basis for extending the use to the treatment of bipolar disorder in general and in larger scale. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT02221336. Registered 26(th) of September 2014

Temperature dependence of the (π,0)(\pi,0) anomaly in the excitation spectrum of the 2D quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet

It is well established that in the low-temperature limit, the two-dimensional quantum Heisenberg antiferromagnet on a square lattice (2DQHAFSL) exhibits an anomaly in its spectrum at short-wavelengths on the zone-boundary. In the vicinity of the $(\pi,0)$ point the pole in the one-magnon response exhibits a downward dispersion, is heavily damped and attenuated, giving way to an isotropic continuum of excitations extending to high energies. The origin of the anomaly and the presence of the continuum are of current theoretical interest, with suggestions focused around the idea that the latter evidences the existence of spinons in a two-dimensional system. Here we present the results of neutron inelastic scattering experiments and Quantum Monte Carlo calculations on the metallo-organic compound Cu(DCOO)$_2\cdot 4$D$_2$O (CFTD), an excellent physical realisation of the 2DQHAFSL, designed to investigate how the anomaly at $(\pi,0)$ evolves up to finite temperatures $T/J\sim2/3$. Our data reveal that on warming the anomaly survives the loss of long-range, three-dimensional order, and is thus a robust feature of the two-dimensional system. With further increase of temperature the zone-boundary response gradually softens and broadens, washing out the $(\pi,0)$ anomaly. This is confirmed by a comparison of our data with the results of finite-temperature Quantum Monte Carlo simulations where the two are found to be in good accord. At lower energies, in the vicinity of the antiferromagnetic zone centre, there was no significant softening of the magnetic excitations over the range of temperatures investigated.Comment: Dedicated to the life and work of Professor Roger Cowley. 22 pages, 8 figure