Analyzing the relationship between car generation and severity of motor-vehicle crashes in Denmark

While the number of fatalities on Danish roads has decreased in the last 40 years, research has not investigated the contribution of legislation changes, enforcement measures, technological enhancements, infrastructural improvements and human factors to this reduction. In the context of a Danish car market with remarkably high registration tax that causes potential buyers to hold longer onto old cars, the relationship between technological enhancements of vehicles and severity of crashes requires particular attention.     

Indoor emissions of total and fluorescent supermicron particles during HOMEChem

Inhalation of particulate matter is associated with adverse health outcomes. The fluorescent portion of supermicron particulate matter has been used as a proxy for bioaerosols. The sources and emission rates of fluorescent particles in residential environments are not well-understood. Using an ultraviolet aerodynamic particle sizer (UVAPS), emissions of total and fluorescent supermicron particles from common human activities were investigated during the HOMEChem campaign, a test-house investigation of the chemistry of indoor environments. Human occupancy and activities, including cooking and mopping, were found to be considerable sources of indoor supermicron fluorescent particles, which enhanced the indoor particle concentrations by two orders of magnitude above baseline levels. The estimated total (fluorescent) mass emission rates for the activities tested were in the range of 4-30 (1-11) mg per person meal for cooking and 0.1-4.9 (0.05-4.7) mg/h for occupancy and mopping. Model calculations indicate that, once released, the dominant fate of coarse particles (2.5-10 micrometer in diameter) was deposition onto indoor surfaces, allowing for the possibility of subsequent resuspension and consequent exposures over durations much longer than the ventilation time scale. Indoor coarse particle deposition would also contribute to soiling of indoor surfaces.     

Future Scenarios: What are the Future Services and Applications?

With the change of paradigm within user-machine interaction, there is an increasing demand for seamless interoperability between different technologies as well as more intuitive ways of utilizing the applications on the devices. This implies that the underlying technologies must support the appropriate bandwidth, mobility and quality at the right cost in order for the end-user to perceive the infrastructure appropriate for the services and corresponding applications of the future. In addition, it is required that interoperability will be realized at the semantic level and not just the syntactical level. The purpose of the paper is to present the authors’ thoughts of a new Information and Communication Technology paradigm and to highlight what might have an impact on the realization/deployment of such a paradigm.     

A stochastic model simulating the feeding-health-production complex in a dairy herd

A dynamic, stochastic, and mechanistic Monte Carlo model, simulating a dairy herd with focus on the feeding-health-production complex is presented. By specifying biological parameters at cow level and a management strategy at herd level, the model can simulate the technical and economic consequences of scenarios at herd level. The representation of the feeding-health-production complex is aimed to be sufficiently detailed, to include relationships likely to cause significant herd effects, and to be sufficiently simple to enable a feasible parameterization of the model and interpretation of the results from the model. Consequently, diseases are defined as four disease types: two metabolic disease types, an udder disease type, and a reproductive disease type. Risk factors for the diseases were defined as parity, yield capacity, disease recurrence, disease interrelationships, lactation stage, and season. Direct effects of the diseases were defined according to milk yield, feed intake, feed utilization, conception, culling, involuntary removal, and death. Scenarios differing in base risks of milk fever and ketosis, heat detection rate, and culling strategy were simulated for describing the model behavior. Annual milk yield per cow was decreased by increased risk of ketosis and by increased risk of milk fever, even though no direct effect of milk fever on milk yield was modeled at the cow level. The indirect effect from milk fever is a consequence of increased replacement rate (relatively lower milk yield from younger cows). By ignoring the history of milk fever in insemination and replacement decisions, a significantly reduced net income per cow was found in some herds. We concluded that important benefits from using such a herd model are the capability of accounting for herd management factors and the advantage of avoiding to double count the indirect effects from disease, such as increased risk of other diseases, poorer reproduction results, and increased risk of culling and death.     

A method for isolation of sequences missing in one of two related genomes

We describe a novel technique for isolation of sequences that are present in one genome (tracer), but absent in another (driver). Tracer DNA, cleaved with Sau 3A and capped with a single stranded PCR adapter, is allowed to hybridize with an excess of sheared biotinylated driver; biotinylated DNA and its hybrids with the tracer are removed by phenol/chloroform extraction after incubation with streptavidin. After several rounds of subtraction the ends of self-annealed tracer molecules from the nonextractable fraction are filled-in with Tag polymerase and amplified, using the single stranded PCR adapter as a primer. The method has been applied to purification of fragments from a 2.9 kb plasmid added to E. coli DNA at equimolar quantity. Plasmid derived fragments (250-1000 bp), initially comprising 1/1400th part of tracer DNA, were purified to homogeneity after two rounds of subtraction followed by PCR.     

Emergency admissions to a general hospital. Why emergency admission? Is there an alternative?

A study was conducted where the GPs in a district answered a questionnaire on reasons for hospital admission, divided into the categories: needed hospital investigation, hospital treatment, or needed care and nursing. They judged whether the admission could have been prevented. Finally, a multidisciplinary panel discussed ways to obtain better courses of admission. Of 266 admissions, 40 (15%) were due to a need for care and nursing. Ninety-seven (37%) of the admissions could be replaced by a short one-day stay, and 52 (20%) could have been postponed until the next day if that was possible. The panel discussion showed that municipalities can do more to strengthen the local professional support. It is concluded that the interface between primary care and the hospital should offer better opportunities for one-day admissions or sub-acute admissions, and that municipalities must be more aware of their responsibility for the care of fragile and ill people.     

Combined costimulation blockade plus rapamycin but not cyclosporine produces permanent engraftment

BACKGROUND: Combined treatment of allograft recipients with anti-CD40 ligand and CTLA-4Ig (costimulation blockade) is a powerful promising albeit not consistently tolerizing therapy. It would be desirable to use an effective conventional immunosuppressive regimen in low doses or for a short course as an adjunct; however, cyclosporine treatment drastically blunts the ability of costimulation blockade to produce long-term engraftment. METHODS: Short courses of cyclosporine or rapamycin were compared as adjuncts to costimulation blockade in the murine BALB/c to C3H/He heterotopic cardiac allograft model. RESULTS: Although cyclosporine therapy blocked the capacity of costimulation blockade to produce permanent engraftment, combined rapamycin and costimulation blockade treatment produced permanent engraftment. CONCLUSION: A theoretical basis for the differing effects of cyclosporine and rapamycin upon the outcome of costimulation blockade is forwarded. Combined use of costimulation blockade and rapamycin may provide a means to bring costimulation blockade into the clinic.