Suitability of commercial transport for a shift to electric mobility

This paper identifies commercial sectors suitable for a shift to electric mobility. The paper concludes that the construction and the health care service sectors are the most suitable for electric mobility because many vehicles are registered in these sectors and daily mileage is reasonably low. They should be primary target groups of specific policy measures to promote the use of electric vehicles. Denmark has only had a few incentives to promote the use of commercial electric vehicles. Until now electric vehicles do generally not show economic benefits unless travel distance is high. However, today the travel range of large vans is an important barrier for electrification due to the battery weight and the limitation of 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight for driving with a normal driving licence. The rule needs amendments for electric vehicles, as has been done in Germany. The paper recommends EU countries to follow the German rule allowing EVs up to 4.25 tonnes to be driven with a class B licence, thereby potentially creating a market for big electric vans

Suitability of commercial transport for a shift to electric mobility

This paper identifies commercial sectors suitable for a shift to electric mobility. The paper concludes that the construction and the health care service sectors are the most suitable for electric mobility because many vehicles are registered in these sectors and daily mileage is reasonably low. They should be primary target groups of specific policy measures to promote the use of electric vehicles. Denmark has only had a few incentives to promote the use of commercial electric vehicles. Until now electric vehicles do generally not show economic benefits unless travel distance is high. However, today the travel range of large vans is an important barrier for electrification due to the battery weight and the limitation of 3.5 tonnes gross vehicle weight for driving with a normal driving licence. The rule needs amendments for electric vehicles, as has been done in Germany. The paper recommends EU countries to follow the German rule allowing EVs up to 4.25 tonnes to be driven with a class B licence, thereby potentially creating a market for big electric vans

Assessment of roll-out potential of CITYLAB solutions to other CITYLAB living labs

This report analyses to what extent the seven CITYLAB implementations may be successfully transferred from their original implementation city to other CITYLAB cities. CITYLAB supports seven Living Labs where innovative urban freight measures are implemented, analysed and rolled out. The focus of this report is to clarify ‘if’ and ‘how’ the seven implementations can be transferred and scaled to the other CITYLAB cities. The CITYLAB cities will learn, from this report, which implementations may be transferred to their own context. Furthermore, they will gain understanding in possibilities to improve the conditions for better chances of a successful transfer of CITYLAB implementations. The transferability methodology adopted in TIDE has been taken as the basis for the CITYLAB methodology as it is the most developed and most relevant to CITYLAB. An appropriate adjustment of the TIDE methodology was necessary as, on the one hand, TIDE examined the transferability of measures in general, while CITYLAB analyses the transferability of applied measures to specific cities. On the other hand, TIDE analysed innovative urban transport and mobility concepts whereas CITYLAB is dealing with the implementation of innovative logistics solutions. The seven consecutive steps of the CITYLAB transferability analysis are: STEP 1: Implementation statement/objectives and scoping STEP 2: Clarification of the impacts of the implementation STEP 3: Identification of upscaling/downscaling needs of implementations STEP 4: Identification of success factors of implementations STEP 5: Identification of the level of importance of success factors STEP 6: Assessment of success factors in the context of adopter city STEP 7: Conclusions on the transferability of implementations The summarized results of the CITYLAB transferability analysis are shown in the chart overview. The ranking shows for each implementation in which CITYLAB city the chance for successful transfer is the best

Significant difference between three observers in the assessment of intraepidermal nerve fiber density in skin biopsy

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The determination of Intraepidermal Nerve Fiber Density (IENFD) in skin biopsy is a useful method for the evaluation of different types of peripheral neuropathies. To allow a reliable use of the method it is necessary to determine interobserver reliability. Previous studies dealing with this topic used limited suitable statistical methods.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In the present study three observers determined the IENFD and estimated the staining quality of the basement membrane for an adequate quantity of 120 skin biopsies (stained with indirect immunofluorescence technique) from 68 patients. More adequate statistical methods like intraclass correlation coefficient and Bland Altman Plot were chosen to estimate interobserver reliability.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We found an unexpected significant difference in IENFD between the observers (p < 0.05) and so the results of this study are not in line with the high interobserver reliability reported before (intraclass correlation coefficient: 0.73). The Bland Altmann Plot showed a variance growing with rising mean. The difference in IENFD between the observers and the resulting low interobserver reliability is likely caused by different interpretations of the standard counting rules. There was no significant difference in IENFD between observers for biopsies with a well-defined basement membrane. Thus skin biopsies with an inexactly defined basement membrane should not be used diagnostically for the determination of IENFD.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>These results emphasise that standardisation of the method is extremely important and at least two observers should analyse skin biopsies with critical IENFD near the cut-off values.</p

Lernumgebungen in Hochschullernwerkstätten. Potenziale und Herausforderungen einer zweifachen Adressierung

Der Beitrag wird einleitend die Bedeutung der Beschäftigung mit Lernumgebungen in Hochschullernwerkstätten aus unterschiedlichen Perspektiven thematisieren. Dabei geht es auch um die Frage der doppelten Adressierung (Kinder und Studierende) und die Herausforderung, didaktische und hochschuldidaktische Lernwege an der gleichen Materialität und unter ähnlichen Beschäftigungsdimensionen, aber unter unterschiedlichen Gesichtspunkten zu betrachten. Die Autor*innen gehen davon aus, dass diese Differenz eine entscheidende ist, die auf der Hochschulebene deutlich mit den Studierenden herausgearbeitet und im Hinblick auf die Perspektive Lernen von Kindern und Lernen/Lehren von Studierenden reflektiert werden muss. Anhand einer Lernumgebung zum Bau von Fahrzeugen werden vor dem Hintergrund des eigenen studentischen Lernens die Potenziale für studentisches Lehren u.a. an der Materialität, den besonderen Settings, der Explorationsqualität etc. dargestellt und diskutiert. (DIPF/Orig.

Thermal Quantitative Sensory Testing in Fibromyalgia Patients

Publisher Copyright: © 2015 by Marija Mihailova. Copyright: Copyright 2015 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Fibromyalgia (FM) is a chronic disorder manifested by diffuse musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, sleep, and emotional disturbance. The disorder is probably associated with dysfunction of C and A delta peripheral nerve fibres. Thermal quantitative sensory testing (QST) was used to analyse thinly myelinated A delta fibres and nonmylinated C fibres, which function in the nociceptive sensory system, and the spinothalamic pathway. The observation that FM pain has neuropathic nature increased the value of QST as an additional diagnostic tool. The research group included 51 patients. Somatic symptoms were assessed using the Fatigue Severity Score (FSS), Fibromyalgia Impact Questionnaire (FIQ) and American College of Rheumatology (ACR) 2010 year diagnostic criteria. QST was performed by using thermal stimulus at wrist and feet. QST results were compared with 20 non-FM controls matched for age and sex. FM patients showed significant alteration of thermal perception and pain threshold compared with that in healthy controls, which demonstrated possible neuropathic pain nature in FM patients. Changes were more expressed in warm perception and heat pain threshold, which probably indicates that in FM patients C fibres are more damaged and warm perception and warm pain threshold are more sensitive, which may be used as FM diagnostics. We also found statistically significant negative correlations between warm and cold perception thresholds and between heat and cold pain thresholds, reflecting central sensitization or a defective pain inhibitory system.publishersversionPeer reviewe