Viborg Rutebilstation - en kompakt terminal med et dynamisk informationssystem

I forbindelse med planlægningen af en ny rutebilstation i Viborg har Kommunen med støtte fra Trafikministeriet gennemført en række forundersøgelser. Ud fra ønsket om en samlet kvalitetsforbedring for de rejsende samtidig med at arealforbruget til rutebilstationen søges minimeret, har målet med forundersøgelserne været at belyse mulighederne for at udforme rutebilstationen som en kompakt terminal med et moderne informationssystem. I forbindelse med forundersøgelserne er der udarbejdet alternative modeller for terminaludformning, ligesom der er set på følgende elementer vedrørende telematik til trafikafvikling: passagerinformation personaleinformation busprioritering i signalregulerede kryds busprioritering på indfaldsveje koordinering mellem buslinier Disse forundersøgelser har mundet ud i et konkret projekt, som nu er under realisering. Den nye rutebilstation forventes indviet i november 1996

Quality control of airborne geophysical data from the EU Mining Sector Support Programme, Ghana

On 2 December 2002, EU Commissioner Poul Nielson on behalf of the European Development Fund signed a €40 million grant to the Ghana Government. The purpose of this grant was to finance a Mining Sector Support Programme (MSSP) that covered a broad spectrum of geoscientific projects and other projects aimed at an overall strengthening and modernisation of Ghana’s mining sector. One of the major components was collection and interpretation of airborne geophysical data contracted to the two commercial geophysical companies Fugro Airborne Surveys and Geotech Airborne Ltd. The Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) was contracted to perform the quality control (QC) of the airborne geophysical data collection and processing in a separate MSSP project (No 8 ACP GH 027/37). The initial Provision of quality-control services to the Airborne Geophysical Survey required GEUS to be on site in Ghana for 22 man-months; an expansion of the programme and various circumstances (see below) resulted in a total of 37.25 man-months before the project was completed in January 2010. The Danish National Space Center was subcontracted by GEUS to perform part of the QC of gravity data acquisition and processing. The QC project was reported by Thorning et al. (2010)

Prenatal Stress Exposure Related to Maternal Bereavement and Risk of Childhood Overweight

BACKGROUND: It has been suggested that prenatal stress contributes to the risk of obesity later in life. In a population-based cohort study, we examined whether prenatal stress related to maternal bereavement during pregnancy was associated with the risk of overweight in offspring during school age. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We followed 65,212 children born in Denmark from 1970-1989 who underwent health examinations from 7 to 13 years of age in public or private schools in Copenhagen. We identified 459 children as exposed to prenatal stress, defined by being born to mothers who were bereaved by death of a close family member from one year before pregnancy until birth of the child. We compared the prevalence of overweight between the exposed and the unexposed. Body mass index (BMI) values and prevalence of overweight were higher in the exposed children, but not significantly so until from 10 years of age and onwards, as compared with the unexposed children. For example, the adjusted odds ratio (OR) for overweight was 1.68 (95% confidence interval [CI] 1.08-2.61) at 12 years of age and 1.63 (95% CI 1.00-2.61) at 13 years of age. The highest ORs were observed when the death occurred in the period from 6 to 0 month before pregnancy (OR 3.31, 95% CI 1.71-6.42 at age 12, and OR 2.31, 95% CI 1.08-4.97 at age 13). CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our results suggest that severe pre-pregnancy stress is associated with an increased risk of overweight in the offspring in later childhood

Genome-wide meta-analysis of 241,258 adults accounting for smoking behaviour identifies novel loci for obesity traits

Few genome-wide association studies (GWAS) account for environmental exposures, like smoking, potentially impacting the overall trait variance when investigating the genetic contribution to obesity-related traits. Here, we use GWAS data from 51,080 current smokers and 190,178 nonsmokers (87% European descent) to identify loci influencing BMI and central adiposity, measured as waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio both adjusted for BMI. We identify 23 novel genetic loci, and 9 loci with convincing evidence of gene-smoking interaction (GxSMK) on obesity-related traits. We show consistent direction of effect for all identified loci and significance for 18 novel and for 5 interaction loci in an independent study sample. These loci highlight novel biological functions, including response to oxidative stress, addictive behaviour, and regulatory functions emphasizing the importance of accounting for environment in genetic analyses. Our results suggest that tobacco smoking may alter the genetic susceptibility to overall adiposity and body fat distribution.Peer reviewe

The trans-ancestral genomic architecture of glycemic traits

Glycemic traits are used to diagnose and monitor type 2 diabetes and cardiometabolic health. To date, most genetic studies of glycemic traits have focused on individuals of European ancestry. Here we aggregated genome-wide association studies comprising up to 281,416 individuals without diabetes (30% non-European ancestry) for whom fasting glucose, 2-h glucose after an oral glucose challenge, glycated hemoglobin and fasting insulin data were available. Trans-ancestry and single-ancestry meta-analyses identified 242 loci (99 novel; P < 5 x 10(-8)), 80% of which had no significant evidence of between-ancestry heterogeneity. Analyses restricted to individuals of European ancestry with equivalent sample size would have led to 24 fewer new loci. Compared with single-ancestry analyses, equivalent-sized trans-ancestry fine-mapping reduced the number of estimated variants in 99% credible sets by a median of 37.5%. Genomic-feature, gene-expression and gene-set analyses revealed distinct biological signatures for each trait, highlighting different underlying biological pathways. Our results increase our understanding of diabetes pathophysiology by using trans-ancestry studies for improved power and resolution. A trans-ancestry meta-analysis of GWAS of glycemic traits in up to 281,416 individuals identifies 99 novel loci, of which one quarter was found due to the multi-ancestry approach, which also improves fine-mapping of credible variant sets.Peer reviewe

Genome-wide meta-analysis uncovers novel loci influencing circulating leptin levels

Leptin is an adipocyte-secreted hormone, the circulating levels of which correlate closely with overall adiposity. Although rare mutations in the leptin (LEP) gene are well known to cause leptin deficiency and severe obesity, no common loci regulating circulating leptin levels have been uncovered. Therefore, we performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of circulating leptin levels from 32,161 individuals and followed up loci reaching P <10(-6) in 19,979 additional individuals. We identify five loci robustly associated (P <5 x 10(-8)) with leptin levels in/near LEP, SLC32A1, GCKR, CCNL1 and FTO. Although the association of the FTO obesity locus with leptin levels is abolished by adjustment for BMI, associations of the four other loci are independent of adiposity. The GCKR locus was found associated with multiple metabolic traits in previous GWAS and the CCNL1 locus with birth weight. Knockdown experiments in mouse adipose tissue explants show convincing evidence for adipogenin, a regulator of adipocyte differentiation, as the novel causal gene in the SLC32A1 locus influencing leptin levels. Our findings provide novel insights into the regulation of leptin production by adipose tissue and open new avenues for examining the influence of variation in leptin levels on adiposity and metabolic health.Peer reviewe