Incidence of COVID-19 hospitalisation in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus:A nationwide cohort study from Denmark

Background: Patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) have an increased risk of infections due to impaired immune functions, disease activity, and treatment. This study investigated the impact of having SLE on the incidence of hospitalisation with COVID-19 infection. Methods: This was a nationwide cohort study from Denmark between 1 March 2020 to 2 February 2021, based on the linkage of several nationwide registers. The adjusted incidence of COVID-19 hospitalisation was estimated for patients with SLE compared with the general population in Cox-regression models. Among SLE patients, the hazard ratio (HR) for hospitalisation was analysed as nested case-control study. Results: Sixteen of the 2533 SLE patients were hospitalised with COVID-19 infection. The age-sex adjusted rate per 1000 person years was 6.16 (95% CI 3.76–10.08) in SLE patients, and the corresponding hazard ratio was 2.54 (95% CI 1.55–4.16) compared with the matched general population group after adjustment for comorbidities. Among SLE patients, hydroxychloroquine treatment was associated with a HR for hospitalisation of 0.61 (95% CI 0.19–1.88), and 1.06 (95% CI 0.3–3.72) for glucocorticoid treatment. Conclusion: Patients with SLE were at increased risk of hospitalisation with COVID-19

Using Polarized Spectroscopy to Investigate Order in Thin-Films of Ionic Self-Assembled Materials Based on Azo-Dyes

Three series of ionic self-assembled materials based on anionic azo-dyes and cationic benzalkonium surfactants were synthesized and thin films were prepared by spin-casting. These thin films appear isotropic when investigated with polarized optical microscopy, although they are highly anisotropic. Here, three series of homologous materials were studied to rationalize this observation. Investigating thin films of ordered molecular materials relies to a large extent on advanced experimental methods and large research infrastructure. A statement that in particular is true for thin films with nanoscopic order, where X-ray reflectometry, X-ray and neutron scattering, electron microscopy and atom force microscopy (AFM) has to be used to elucidate film morphology and the underlying molecular structure. Here, the thin films were investigated using AFM, optical microscopy and polarized absorption spectroscopy. It was shown that by using numerical method for treating the polarized absorption spectroscopy data, the molecular structure can be elucidated. Further, it was shown that polarized optical spectroscopy is a general tool that allows determination of the molecular order in thin films. Finally, it was found that full control of thermal history and rigorous control of the ionic self-assembly conditions are required to reproducibly make these materials of high nanoscopic order. Similarly, the conditions for spin-casting are shown to be determining for the overall thin film morphology, while molecular order is maintained

The FLUXNET2015 dataset and the ONEFlux processing pipeline for eddy covariance data

The FLUXNET2015 dataset provides ecosystem-scale data on CO2, water, and energy exchange between the biosphere and the atmosphere, and other meteorological and biological measurements, from 212 sites around the globe (over 1500 site-years, up to and including year 2014). These sites, independently managed and operated, voluntarily contributed their data to create global datasets. Data were quality controlled and processed using uniform methods, to improve consistency and intercomparability across sites. The dataset is already being used in a number of applications, including ecophysiology studies, remote sensing studies, and development of ecosystem and Earth system models. FLUXNET2015 includes derived-data products, such as gap-filled time series, ecosystem respiration and photosynthetic uptake estimates, estimation of uncertainties, and metadata about the measurements, presented for the first time in this paper. In addition, 206 of these sites are for the first time distributed under a Creative Commons (CC-BY 4.0) license. This paper details this enhanced dataset and the processing methods, now made available as open-source codes, making the dataset more accessible, transparent, and reproducible.Peer reviewe

COVID-19 infection and hospitalisation risk according to vaccination status and DMARD treatment in patients with rheumatoid arthritis

Objectives: The objectives of this study were to investigate the incidence of COVID-19 hospitalization in unvaccinated and vaccinated patients with RA compared with matched controls, and in patients with RA according to DMARD treatment.Methods: This was a Danish nationwide matched-cohort study from January to October 2021. Patients with RA were identified in the DANBIO register and matched 1:20 with individuals from the general population on age, sex, and vaccination status. Primary and secondary outcomes were COVID-19 hospitalization (Danish National Patient Register) and first-time positive SARS-CoV-2 PCR test (Danish COVID-19 Surveillance Register), respectively. Stratified by vaccination status, incidence rates (IRs) per 1000 person years (PYs) and comorbidity-adjusted hazard ratios (aHRs) in cause-specific Cox models were calculated with 95% confidence intervals.Results: In total, 28 447 unvaccinated patients and 568 940 comparators had IRs for COVID-19 hospitalization of 10.4 (8.0–13.4) and 4.7 (4.3–5.1) per 1000 PYs, respectively (aHR 1.88, 1.44–2.46). When fully vaccinated, corresponding IRs were 0.9 (0.5–1.6) and 0.5 (0.4–0.6) per 1000 PYs (aHR 1.94, 1.03–3.66). Unvaccinated RA patients had an aHR of 1.22 (1.09–1.57) for testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 and 1.09 (0.92–1.14) among vaccinated RA patients. Vaccinated rituximab-treated patients had increased crude IR of COVID-19 hospitalization compared with conventional DMARD–treated patients.Conclusion: The incidence of COVID-19 hospitalization was increased for both unvaccinated and vaccinated patients with RA compared with controls. Importantly, the parallel decreasing risk for patients with RA suggests a comparable relative benefit of vaccination in most patients