Shallow core drilling of the Upper Cretaceous Chalk at Stevns Klint, Denmark

The Upper Cretaceous – Danian succession in Denmark and most of NW Europe is composed mainly of chalk and associated shallower water carbonates deposited in a wide epeiric sea during an overall global sea-level highstand (e.g. Surlyk 1997). The Maastrichtian–Danian chalk has been intensely studied over the last 20 years, since it forms the most important reservoir rock for hydrocarbons in the North Sea Central Graben (e.g. Surlyk et al. 2003; Klinkby et al. 2005). In Denmark, thousands of water wells have been drilled through the succession as about 35% of the water consumption is from Maastrichtian chalk and Danian bryozoan limestone. During 2005 the new Cretaceous Research Centre (CRC) was established jointly at Geocenter Copenhagen by the Geological Institute, University of Copenhagen and the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) with financial support from the Danish Natural Science Research Council (FNU). CRC aims at studying the Earth System in a Greenhouse World, with special emphasis on the Upper Cretaceous – Danian chalk of NW Europe. The stable, long lasting marine macro-environment represented by the chalk sea provides a unique opportunity to analyse and link the depositional, geochemical and biological responses to external forcing at time scales ranging from the sub-Milankovitch to the million year range. The studies will be based on a wide range of methods, including seismic stratigraphy, palaeoecology, sequence-, cyclo- and biostratigraphy, isotope geochemistry, sedimentology and time series analysis. This paper presents the first preliminary results of a CRC drilling campaign at Stevns Klint, eastern Denmark (Fig. 1), where two shallow boreholes were drilled and logged from near the base of the Danian bryozoan limestone and down through the upper 350–450 m of the very thick Upper Cretaceous chalk section (Vejbæk et al. 2003). The cores represent the first complete sections through the Maastrichtian chalk of eastern Denmark

Mixed Spices at Culinary Doses Have Prebiotic Effects in Healthy Adults: A Pilot Study.

Spices were used as food preservatives prior to the advent of refrigeration, suggesting the possibility of effects on microbiota. Previous studies have shown prebiotic activities in animals and in vitro, but there has not been a demonstration of prebiotic or postbiotic effects at culinary doses in humans. In this randomized placebo-controlled study, we determined in twenty-nine healthy adults the effects on the gut microbiota of the consumption daily of capsules containing 5 g of mixed spices at culinary doses by comparison to a matched control group consuming a maltodextrin placebo capsule. The 16S ribosomal RNA sequencing data were used for microbial characterization. Spice consumption resulted in a significant reduction in Firmicutes abundance (p < 0.033) and a trend of enrichment in Bacteroidetes (p < 0.097) compared to placebo group. Twenty-six operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were different between the spice and placebo groups after intervention. Furthermore, there was a significant negative correlation between fecal short-chain fatty acid propionate concentration and Firmicutes abundance in spice intervention group (p < 0.04). The production of individual fecal short-chain fatty acid was not significantly changed by spice consumption in this study. Mixed spices consumption significantly modified gut microbiota, suggesting a prebiotic effect of spice consumption at culinary doses

Home care providers to the rescue:a novel first-responder programme

To describe the implementation of a novel first-responder programme in which home care providers equipped with automated external defibrillators (AEDs) were dispatched in parallel with existing emergency medical services in the event of a suspected out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA).We evaluated a one-year prospective study that trained home care providers in performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and using an AED in cases of suspected OHCA. Data were collected from cardiac arrest case files, case files from each provider dispatch and a survey among dispatched providers. The study was conducted in a rural district in Denmark.Home care providers were dispatched to 28 of the 60 OHCAs that occurred in the study period. In ten cases the providers arrived before the ambulance service and subsequently performed CPR. AED analysis was executed in three cases and shock was delivered in one case. For 26 of the 28 cases, the cardiac arrest occurred in a private home. Ninety-five per cent of the providers who had been dispatched to a cardiac arrest reported feeling prepared for managing the initial resuscitation, including use of AED.Home care providers are suited to act as first-responders in predominantly rural and residential districts. Future follow-up will allow further evaluation of home care provider arrivals and patient survival

Maternal age and risk of cesarean section in women with induced labor at term - a Nordic register-based study

Abstract Introduction Over the last decades, induction of labor has increased in many countries along with increasing maternal age. We assessed the effects of maternal age and labor induction on cesarean section at term among nulliparous and multiparous women without previous cesarean section. Material and methods We performed a retrospective national registry-based study from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden including 3 398 586 deliveries between 2000 and 2011. We investigated the impact of age on cesarean section among 196 220 nulliparous and 188 158 multiparous women whose labor was induced, had single cephalic presentation at term and no previous cesarean section. Confounders comprised country, time-period and gestational age. Results In nulliparous women with induced labor the rate of cesarean section increased from 14.0% in women less than 20 years of age to 39.9% in women 40 years and older. Compared to women aged 25-29 years, the corresponding relative risk were 0.60 (95% confidence interval (CI); 0.57 to 0.64) and 1.72 (95% CI; 1.66 to 1.79). In multiparous induced women the risk of cesarean section was 3.9% in women less than 20 years rising to 9.1% in women 40 years and older. Compared to women aged 25-29 years, the relative risk were 0.86 (95% CI; 0.54 to 1.37) and 1.98 (95% CI; 1.84 to 2.12), respectively. There were minimal confounding effects of country, time-period and gestational age on risk for cesarean section. Conclusions Advanced maternal age is associated with increased risk of cesarean section in women undergoing labor induction with a single cephalic presentation at term without a previous cesarean section. The absolute risk of cesarean section is 3-5 times higher across 5-year age groups in nulliparous relative to multiparous women having induced labor.Peer reviewe

A stratigraphic framework for abrupt climatic changes during the Last Glacial period based on three synchronized Greenland ice-core records: refining and extending the INTIMATE event stratigraphy

Due to their outstanding resolution and well-constrained chronologies, Greenland ice-core records provide a master record of past climatic changes throughout the Last Interglacial–Glacial cycle in the North Atlantic region. As part of the INTIMATE (INTegration of Ice-core, MArine and TErrestrial records) project, protocols have been proposed to ensure consistent and robust correlation between different records of past climate. A key element of these protocols has been the formal definition and ordinal numbering of the sequence of Greenland Stadials (GS) and Greenland Interstadials (GI) within the most recent glacial period. The GS and GI periods are the Greenland expressions of the characteristic Dansgaard–Oeschger events that represent cold and warm phases of the North Atlantic region, respectively. We present here a more detailed and extended GS/GI template for the whole of the Last Glacial period. It is based on a synchronization of the NGRIP, GRIP, and GISP2 ice-core records that allows the parallel analysis of all three records on a common time scale. The boundaries of the GS and GI periods are defined based on a combination of stable-oxygen isotope ratios of the ice (δ18O, reflecting mainly local temperature) and calcium ion concentrations (reflecting mainly atmospheric dust loading) measured in the ice. The data not only resolve the well-known sequence of Dansgaard–Oeschger events that were first defined and numbered in the ice-core records more than two decades ago, but also better resolve a number of short-lived climatic oscillations, some defined here for the first time. Using this revised scheme, we propose a consistent approach for discriminating and naming all the significant abrupt climatic events of the Last Glacial period that are represented in the Greenland ice records. The final product constitutes an extended and better resolved Greenland stratotype sequence, against which other proxy records can be compared and correlated. It also provides a more secure basis for investigating the dynamics and fundamental causes of these climatic perturbations

Changes over time in characteristics, resource use and outcomes among ICU patients with COVID-19-A nationwide, observational study in Denmark

BACKGROUND: Characteristics and care of intensive care unit (ICU) patients with COVID‐19 may have changed during the pandemic, but longitudinal data assessing this are limited. We compared patients with COVID‐19 admitted to Danish ICUs in the first wave with those admitted later. METHODS: Among all Danish ICU patients with COVID‐19, we compared demographics, chronic comorbidities, use of organ support, length of stay and vital status of those admitted 10 March to 19 May 2020 (first wave) versus 20 May 2020 to 30 June 2021. We analysed risk factors for death by adjusted logistic regression analysis. RESULTS: Among all hospitalised patients with COVID‐19, a lower proportion was admitted to ICU after the first wave (13% vs. 8%). Among all 1374 ICU patients with COVID‐19, 326 were admitted during the first wave. There were no major differences in patient's characteristics or mortality between the two periods, but use of invasive mechanical ventilation (81% vs. 58% of patients), renal replacement therapy (26% vs. 13%) and ECMO (8% vs. 3%) and median length of stay in ICU (13 vs. 10 days) and in hospital (20 vs. 17 days) were all significantly lower after the first wave. Risk factors for death were higher age, larger burden of comorbidities (heart failure, pulmonary disease and kidney disease) and active cancer, but not admission during or after the first wave. CONCLUSIONS: After the first wave of COVID‐19 in Denmark, a lower proportion of hospitalised patients with COVID‐19 were admitted to ICU. Among ICU patients, use of organ support was lower and length of stay was reduced, but mortality rates remained at a relatively high level