Evaluering af 10 trængselspletprojekter: Resultater og anbefalinger

Vejdirektoratet har efter anlæg af en række mindre projekter på statsvejnettet med det formål at forbedre fremkommeligheden i kryds gennemført evalueringer af disse på en ensartet og systematisk måde via et egenudviklet evalueringskoncept. Formålet er, at undersøge om projekterne virker efter hensigten og at sikre vej- og trafikfaglig læring, som kan bruges i den fremadrettede vejplanlægning

Relative abundance and geographical variation of Culex pipiens and Culex torrentium (Diptera: Culicidae) in CO2-baited traps in Denmark

Abstract: European Culex pipiens and Culex torrentium are morphological fairly similar mosquito species with potentially different vector competences for pathogenic viruses. The relative abundance of the two species is therefore important for quantifying the potential for disease transmission in Denmark. Mosquitoes were sampled from 74 different sites in Denmark with CO2 and octenol-baited suction traps. A total of 285 Culex specimens were identified to species using a restriction enzyme assay. Culex pipiens was the dominating species with 220 (77%) specimens caught at 22 different sites, while 65 (23%) specimens were identified as C. torrentium and only caught at 4 sites. The ratio of the two species differed significantly between sites with C. torrentium dominating in just a single location. Both mosquito species were predominantly caught late in the Danish mosquito season, from mid-August and onwards

Reliability, construct and discriminative validity of clinical testing in subjects with and without chronic neck pain

BACKGROUND: The reliability of clinical tests for the cervical spine has not been adequately evaluated. Six cervical clinical tests, which are low cost and easy to perform in clinical settings, were tested for intra- and inter-examiner reliability, and two performance tests were assessed for test-retest reliability in people with and without chronic neck pain. Moreover, construct and between-group discriminative validity of the tests were examined. METHODS: Twenty-one participants with chronic neck pain and 21 asymptomatic participants were included. Intra- and inter-reliability were evaluated for the Cranio-Cervical Flexion Test (CCFT), Range of Movement (ROM), Joint Position Error (JPE), Gaze Stability (GS), Smooth Pursuit Neck Torsion Test (SPNTT), and neuromuscular control of the Deep Cervical Extensors (DCE). Test-retest reliability was assessed for Postural Control (SWAY) and Pressure Pain Threshold (PPT) over tibialis anterior, infraspinatus and the C3-C4 segment. RESULTS: Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC) for intra- and inter-examiner reliability was highest for ROM (range: 0.80 to 0.94), DCE (0.75 to 0.90) and CCFT (0.63 to 0.86). JPE had the lowest ICC (0.02 to 0.66). Intra- and inter-reliability for GS and SPNTT showed kappa ranging from 0.66 to 0.92, and 0.57 to 0.78 (prevalence adjusted), respectively. For the test-retest study, ICC was 0.83 to 0.89 for PPT and 0.39 to 0.79 for SWAY. Construct validity was satisfactory for all tests, except JPE. Significant between group discriminative validity was found for CCFT, ROM, GS, SPNTT and PPT, however, differences were within the limits of the minimal detectable change. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of the tests evaluated showed satisfactory reliability and construct validity supporting their use in the clinical evaluation of patients with chronic neck pain. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/1471-2474-15-408) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users

Circum-Greenland, ice-thickness measurements collected during PROMICE airborne surveys in 2007, 2011 and 2015

The Greenland ice sheet has experienced an average mass loss of 142 ± 49 Gt/yr from 1992 to 2011 (Shepherd et al. 2012), making it a significant contributor to sea-level rise. Part of the ice- sheet mass loss is the result of increased dynamic response of outlet glaciers (Rignot et al. 2011). The ice discharge from outlet glaciers can be quantified by coincident measurements of ice velocity and ice thickness (Thomas et al. 2000; van den Broeke et al. 2016). As part of the Programme for monitoring of the Greenland Ice Sheet (PROMICE; Ahlstrøm et al. 2008), three airborne surveys were carried out in 2007, 2011 and 2015, with the aim of measuring the changes in Greenland ice-sheet thicknesses. The purpose of the airborne surveys was to collect data to assess the dynamic mass loss of the Greenland ice sheet (Andersen et al. 2015). Here, we present these datasets of observations from ice-penetrating radar and airborne laser scanning, which, in combination, make us able to determine the ice thickness precisely. Surface-elevation changes between surveys are also presented, although we do not provide an in-depth scientific interpretation of these

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

Breeding unicorns:Developing trustworthy and scalable randomness beacons

Randomness beacons are services that periodically emit a random number, allowing users to base decisions on the same random value without trusting anyone: ideally, the randomness beacon does not only produce unpredictable values, but is also of low computational complexity for the users, bias-resistant and publicly verifiable. Such randomness beacons can serve as an important primitive for smart contracts in a variety of contexts. This paper first presents a structured security analysis, based on which we then design, implement, and evaluate a trustworthy and efficient randomness beacon. Our approach does not require users to register or run any computationally intensive operations. We then compare different implementation and deployment options on distributed ledgers, and report on an Ethereum smart contract-based lottery using our beacon

Responsiveness of clinical tests for people with neck pain

Abstract Background Responsiveness of a clinical test is highly relevant in order to evaluate the effect of a given intervention. However, the responsiveness of clinical tests for people with neck pain has not been adequately evaluated. The objective of the present study was to examine the responsiveness of four clinical tests which are low cost and easy to perform in a clinical setting, including the craniocervical flexion test, cervical active range of movement, test for the cervical extensors and pressure pain threshold testing. Methods This study is a secondary analysis of data collected in a previously published randomised controlled trial. Participants were randomized to either physical training, exercises and pain education combined or pain education only. Participants were tested on the clinical tests at baseline and at 4-month follow-up. An anchor-based approach using Receiver Operator Characteristics (ROC) curves was used to evaluate responsiveness of the clinical tests. The Neck Disability Index was used to discriminate between those who had improved and those who were unchanged at the 4-month follow-up. Minimum Clinically Important Difference (MCID), together with sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, in addition to positive and negative likelihood ratios were calculated. Results In total, 164 participants completed the 4 month follow up. One-hundred forty four participants were classified as unchanged whereas 20 patients were considered to be improved. Twenty-six participants didn’t complete all of the clinical tests, leaving a total of 138 to be included for analyses. Area Under Curve (AUC) ranged from 0.50-0.62 for the clinical tests, and were all below an acceptable level. MCID was generally large, and the corresponding sensitivity and specificity was low with sensitivity ranging from 20 to 60%, and specificity from 54 to 86%. LR+ (0.8-2.07) and LR- (0.7-1.1) showed low diagnostic value for all variables, with PPV ranging from 12.1 to 26.1 and NPV ranging from 84.7 to 89.2. Conclusion Responsiveness of the included clinical tests was generally low when using change in NDI score as the anchor from baseline to the 4-month follow up. Further investigations of responsiveness are warranted, possibly using other anchors, which to a higher degree resemble similar dimensions as the clinical tests

Intake of marine n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and the risk of rheumatoid arthritis:Protocol for a cohort study using data from the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort and Danish health registers

INTRODUCTION: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic autoimmune inflammatory joint disease with multifactorial aetiology. Smoking is a well-established lifestyle risk factor, but diet may also have an impact on the risk of RA. Intake of the major marine n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in particular eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) have been hypothesised to lower the risk of RA due to their anti-inflammatory effects, although based on limited knowledge. Therefore, we aim to investigate the associations between dietary intake of EPA and DHA and the risk of incident RA. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A cohort study. The follow-up design will be based on data from the Danish Diet, Cancer and Health cohort, which was established between 1993 and 1997. The participants will be followed through record linkage using nationwide registers including the Danish Civil Registration System, the Danish National Patient Registry and the Danish National Prescription Registry using the unique Civil Personal Registration number. Time-to-event analyses will be conducted with RA as the outcome of interest. The participants will be followed from inclusion until date of RA diagnosis, death, emigration or end of follow-up. HRs with 95% CIs obtained using Cox proportional hazard regression models, with age as underlying time scale and adjustment for established and potential risk factors, will be used as measures of association. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: The study has been approved by the Data Protection Committee of Northern Jutland, Denmark (2019-87) and the North Denmark Region Committee on Health Research Ethics (N-20190031). Study results will be disseminated through peer-reviewed journals and presentations at international conferences

Beacon Signalling for Expedited Cell Search Procedures in NTN NB-IoT

Three cellular standards have been considered for Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN): NB-IoT, eMTC and NR, each having had features introduced to accommodate the challenges of the NTN case. In Terrestrial Networks (TNs), it is reasonable to expect continuous coverage when a UE is stationary within reach of a base-station (eNB) with rare exceptions of downtime due to failures or catastrophic events. The same continuity cannot be assumed in NTN for sparse eNB constellations or during the rollout of dense eNB constellations. Therefore, a feature of the NTN IoT protocols - NTN NB-IoT & NTN eMTC - is the support of discontinuous RAN coverage. Cell search is a core task of NTN UEs serviced by non-geostationary (NGSO) constellations. Initially, when UEs are booted up, unless a recent ephemeris has been provisioned to it, the UE must first discover a valid eNB by employing repeated cell searching. UEs will have to keep doing cell search each time they wish to access a cell again after losing or dropping connectivity. Intermittent coverage gaps, which occur in dense constellations due to system failures, during rollout or inherently in sparse constellations, exaggerate the number of cell search attempts required by a UE before finding an appropriate cell to camp on. These latter cases of intermittent coverage can be mitigated by the coverage prediction features for discontinuous coverage. In this paper, a beacon signal, which can be transmitted within the white-spaces of stand-alone NB-IoT, is introduced. The beacon signal is designed to expedite the cell search procedure in NTN NB-IoT in NGSO constellations by: (1) Allowing for easy and early detection of the presence of a cell, (2) encoding preliminary information for the UE to assess whether to continue cell search at that early point and (3) providing helpful information to the synchronisation procedure. The performance of the beacon signal is simulated and evaluations show a fair improvement over utilizing legacy synchronization signals for cell detection both in terms of speed and SNR