The purpose of this study was to examine the effects on humans of exposure to carbon dioxide (CO ) and bioeffluents. In three of the five exposures, the outdoor air supply rate was high enough to remove bioeffluents, resulting in a CO level of 500 ppm. Chemically pure CO was added to this reference condition to create exposure conditions with CO at 1000 or 3000 ppm. In two further conditions, the outdoor air supply rate was restricted so that the bioeffluent CO reached 1000 or 3000 ppm. The same 25 subjects were exposed for 255 min to each condition. Subjective ratings, physiological responses, and cognitive performance were measured. No statistically significant effects on perceived air quality, acute health symptoms, or cognitive performance were seen during exposures when CO was added. Exposures to bioeffluents with CO at 3000 ppm reduced perceived air quality; increased the intensity of reported headache, fatigue, sleepiness, and difficulty in thinking clearly; and reduced speed of addition, the response time in a redirection task, and the number of correct links made in the cue-utilization test. This suggests that moderate concentrations of bioeffluents, but not pure CO , will result in deleterious effects on occupants during typical indoor exposures.

Breakfast is considered by many to be the most important meal of the day. This study examined the intake of nutrients and foods at breakfast among Danes and the relation to the overall dietary quality. Data were derived from the Danish National Survey on Diet and Physical Activity 2011–2013, a cross-sectional national food consumption study. A total of 3680 participants aged 6–75 years were included in the analyses of breakfast consumption. The Nutrient Rich Food Index 9.3 method was used to examine the overall dietary quality of the diet. The intake of nutrients and foods at breakfast were compared across dietary quality score tertiles by ANCOVA adjusted for energy and socio economic status. Breakfast was eaten frequently by children and adults and contributed with 18–20% of total energy intake. Breakfast was relatively high in dietary fibre, B vitamins, calcium and magnesium and low in added sugar, total fat, sodium, vitamin A and D. A decrease in the intake of added sugar, total fat and saturated fat and an increase in the intake of dietary fibre and most micronutrients were seen across tertiles of dietary quality scores. Commonly consumed foods provided at breakfast in Denmark included bread, breakfast cereals and dairy products as well as water, coffee and juice, while intakes of fruits, vegetables, cakes and soft drinks were low.

As basal insulin analogues are being used off-label, there is a need to evaluate their safety (maternal hypoglycaemia and fetal and perinatal outcomes) and efficacy [haemoglobin A1c(HbA1c), fasting plasma glucose, and maternal weight gain]. The aim of this review is to provide an overview of the current literature concerning basal insulin analogue use in diabetic pregnancy, and to present the design and preliminary, non-validated baseline characteristics of a currently ongoing randomized, controlled, open-label, multicentre, multinational trial comparing insulin detemir with neutral protamine hagedorn insulin, both with insulin aspart, in women with type 1 diabetes planning a pregnancy (n = 306) or are already pregnant (n = 164). Inclusion criteria include type 1 diabetes > 12 months' duration; screening HbA1c ≤ 9.0% (women recruited prepregnancy), or pregnant with gestational age 8-12 weeks and HbA1c ≤ 8.0% at randomization. At confirmation of pregnancy all subjects must have HbA1c ≤ 8.0%. Exclusion criteria include impaired hepatic function, cardiac problems, and uncontrolled hypertension. Subjects are randomized to either insulin detemir or neutral protamine hagedorn insulin, both with prandial insulin aspart. The results are expected mid-2011 with full publications expected later this year. Baseline characteristics show that basal insulin analogues are already frequently used in pregnant women with type 1 diabetes. This study will hopefully elucidate the safety and efficacy of the basal insulin analogue detemir in diabetic pregnancy.

BackgroundSocial capital has been found to be positively associated with various health and well-being outcomes amongst children. Less is known about how social capital may be generated and specifically in relation to children in the school setting. Drawing on the social cohesion approach and the democratic health educational methodology IVAC (Investigation – Vision – Action – Change) the aim of this study was to examine the effect of the Health Promoting School intervention ‘We Act – Together for Health’ on children’s cognitive social capital.MethodA quasi-experimental controlled pre- and post-intervention study design was conducted with 548 participants (mean age 11.7 years). Cognitive social capital was measured as: horizontal social capital (trust and support in pupils); vertical social capital (trust and support in teachers); and a sense of belonging in the school using questions derived from the Health Behaviour in School Children study. A series of multilevel ordinal logistic regression analyses was performed for each outcome to estimate the effect of the intervention.ResultThe analyses showed no overall significant effect from the intervention on horizontal social capital or vertical social capital at the six-month follow-up. A negative effect was found on the sense of belonging in the school. Gender and grade appeared to be important for horizontal social capital, while grade was important for sense of belonging in the school. The results are discussed in relation to We Act’s implementation process, our conceptual framework and methodological issues and can be used to direct future research in the field.ConclusionThe study finds that child participation in health education can affect the children’s sense of belonging in the school, though without sufficient management support, this may have a negative effect. With low implementation fidelity regarding the Action and Change dimension of the intervention at both the school and class level, and with measurement issues regarding the concept of social capital, more research is needed to establish a firm conclusion on the importance of the children’s active participation as a source for cognitive social capital creation in the school setting.Trial registration https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN85203017 Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-018-6026-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Turnouts play a central role in the railway infrastructure since they enable increased network capacity and allow for minimal impact of train delays. Their performance is of paramount importance for infrastructure managers, who face large maintenance cost in order to secure proper turnouts operability. Railway turnouts are complex mechanical systems, whose dynamic performance depends on the health state of the different components of the superstructure and substructure. A key component is the ballast as it provides the elastic support to the track and the sleepers and it largely contributes to the safety and reliability of the infrastructure. Ballast degradation can be a root cause of excessive failures in other components. A track recording car is typically used to collect geometry data that is used to assess the quality of the railway tracks; however this type of data has not been widely used for ballast quality evaluation in turnouts. One reason is that maintenance decision for turnouts are dominantly made based on visual inspections and/or manual measurement of track geometry, as turnouts are significantly more complex that traditional railway track.  This study presents the application of fractal dimensioning of track longitudinal level for the monitoring of ballast degradation in railway turnouts. In other words, the irregularities of the track vertical profile related to the ballast degradation are quantified as a ballast quality index. The ballast quality index is the basis for developing ballast degradation models in different sections of the turnout based on a segmentation scheme. Using track geometry data of 88 turnouts in the Danish railway network for the period 2012-2017, this study develops and compares ballast degradation models based on regression analysis and stochastic processes (lognormal and Gamma processes). The models are estimated for different sections of the single turnout, for different turnouts at distinct geographical locations. The proposed method provides an efficient tool for the analysis of the effect of tamping on ballast degradation rate. Moreover, the effects on ballast degradation of track loading rate, train speeds and seasonal changes of weather conditions are quantified.

The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of the school-based educational intervention “FOODcamp” on dietary habits among 6th–7th graders (aged 11–13 years), focusing on the food groups: fruits and vegetables, fish, meat, discretionary food, and sugar-sweetened beverages. In this cluster-based quasi-experimental controlled intervention study, 16 intervention classes (322 children) and 16 control classes (267 children) from nine schools were recruited during the school year 2019–2020. The children were asked to record their food intake for four consecutive days (Wednesday to Saturday) before (baseline) and after (follow-up) attending FOODcamp, using a validated self-administered web-based dietary record. Eligible dietary intake registrations from 124 and 118 children from the control and interventions classes, respectively, were included in the final statistical analysis. Hierarchical mixed model analysis was used to evaluate the effect of the intervention. No statistically significant effects of participating in FOODcamp were found on the average food intake of the food groups eaten regularly (vegetables, fruit, vegetables/fruit/juice combined, or meat) (p > 0.05). Among the food groups not eaten regularly (fish, discretionary foods, and sugar-sweetened beverages), a non-significant tendency to lower odds of consuming sugar-sweetened beverages from baseline to follow-up (OR = 0.512; 95% CI: 0.261–1.003; p = 0.0510) was seen among FOODcamp participants compared to control participants. In conclusion, this study found no effect of the educational intervention FOODcamp on the dietary intake of vegetables, fruit, vegetable/fruit/juice combined, meat, fish, or sugar-sweetened beverages. The intake frequency of sugar-sweetened beverages tended to decrease among FOODcamp participants.

This report describes the tasks performed in the period 28/11/2018 to 5/12/2019 under the EFSA contract OC/EFSA/GMO/2018/02, Lot 2 on toxicological studies and animal feeding studies included in applications for market authorisation of genetically modified feed/plants under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003. The tasks cover the check for study adherence to relevant EFSA guidance documents and to OECD Test Guideline no 407 (2008), OECD Test Guideline no 408 (1998) and OECD Principles on Good Laboratory Practice. During the period covered by this report, preparatory work has been performed on five applications for GM plants submitted under Regulation (EC) No 1829/2003 for a total of two 28-day studies on newly expressed proteins and six 90-day studies in rodents on GM food/feed, using comprehensive checklist templates.