26 research outputs found

    Unpleasant and pleasant memories of intensive care in adult mechanically ventilated patients-Findings from 250 interviews.

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    AIM: In order to improve the patients' comfort and well-being during and after a stay in the intensive care unit (ICU), the patients' perspective on the intensive care experience in terms of memories is essential. The aim of this study was to describe unpleasant and pleasant memories of the ICU stay in adult mechanically ventilated patients. METHOD: Mechanically ventilated adults admitted for more than 24hours from two Swedish general ICUs were included and interviewed 5 days after ICU discharge using two open-ended questions. The data were analysed exploring the manifest content. FINDINGS: Of the 250 patients interviewed, 81% remembered the ICU stay, 71% described unpleasant memories and 59% pleasant. Ten categories emerged from the content analyses (five from unpleasant and five from pleasant memories), contrasting with each other: physical distress and relief of physical distress, emotional distress and emotional well-being, perceptual distress and perceptual well-being, environmental distress and environmental comfort, and stress-inducing care and caring service. CONCLUSION: Most critical care patients have both unpleasant and pleasant memories of their ICU stay. Pleasant memories such as support and caring service are important to relief the stress and may balance the impact of the distressing memories of the ICU stay

    Great Expectatrics: Great Papers, Great Journals, Great Econometrics

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    The paper discusses alternative Research Assessment Measures (RAM), with an emphasis on the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science database (hereafter ISI). The various ISI RAM that are calculated annually or updated daily are defined and analysed, including the classic 2-year impact factor (2YIF), 5-year impact factor (5YIF), Immediacy (or zero-year impact factor (0YIF)), Eigenfactor score, Article Influence, C3PO (Citation Performance Per Paper Online), h-index, Zinfluence, and PI-BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors). The ISI RAM data are analysed for 8 leading econometrics journals and 4 leading statistics journals. The application to econometrics can be used as a template for other areas in economics, for other scientific disciplines, and as a benchmark for newer journals in a range of disciplines. In addition to evaluating high quality research in leading econometrics journals, the paper also compares econometrics and statistics, alternative RAM, highlights the similarities and differences in alternative RAM criteria, finds that several ISI RAM capture similar performance characteristics for the leading econometrics and statistics journals while the new PI-BETA criterion is not highly correlated with any of the other ISI RAM, and hence conveys additional information regarding ISI RAM, highlights major research areas in leading journals in econometrics, and discusses some likely future uses of RAM.Research assessment measures, impact factors, Immediacy, Eigenfactor score, Article influence, h-index, C3PO, Zinfluence, PI-BETA

    Great Expectatrics: Great Papers, Great Journals, Great Econometrics

    No full text
    The paper discusses alternative Research Assessment Measures (RAM), with an emphasis on the Thomson Reuters ISI Web of Science database (hereafter ISI). The various ISI RAM that are calculated annually or updated daily are defined and analysed, including the classic 2-year impact factor (2YIF), 5-year impact factor (5YIF), Immediacy (or zero-year impact factor (0YIF)), Eigenfactor score, Article Influence, C3PO (Citation Performance Per Paper Online), h-index, Zinfluence, and PI-BETA (Papers Ignored - By Even The Authors). The ISI RAM data are analysed for 8 leading econometrics journals and 4 leading statistics journals. The application to econometrics can be used as a template for other areas in economics, for other scientific disciplines, and as a benchmark for newer journals in a range of disciplines. In addition to evaluating high quality research in leading econometrics journals, the paper also compares econometrics and statistics, alternative RAM, highlights the similarities and differences in alternative RAM criteria, finds that several ISI RAM capture similar performance characteristics for the leading econometrics and statistics journals while the new PI-BETA criterion is not highly correlated with any of the other ISI RAM, and hence conveys additional information regarding ISI RAM, highlights major research areas in leading journals in econometrics, and discusses some likely future uses of RAM.Research assessment measures; impact factors; Immediacy; Eigenfactor score; Article influence; h-index; C3PO; Zinfluence; PI-BETA

    AbstractThis study describes a model built on the long-held view that the use of money as a medium of exchange is the result of an absence of double coincidence of wants.The model can account for two of the most challenging observations facing monetary theory: the disparate short-run and long-run effects of changes in thequantity of money and the coexistence of money and assets with higher rates of return. For both observations, the model's ability to provide a rich analysis dependson little more than the ingredients implicit in the absence-of-double-coincidence view. The views expressed herein are those of the author and not necessarily those of the FederalReserve Bank of Minneapolis or the Federal Reserve System. In 1968, Samuelson (1968, p. 171) described the unsatis-factory state of monetary theory by describing the experience of economics professors moving from one class pe-riod to the next: In a real sense there was a dichotomy in our minds; we wereschizophrenics. From 9 to 9.50 a.m. we presented a simple quantity theory of neutral money. There were then barely tenminutes to clear our palates for the 10 to 10.50 discussion of how an engineered increase in M [the amount of money]would help the economy. The paper in which this description appears demonstratesthat the neutrality of money, a conclusion of an incoherent model, also holds in a less incoherent model. The incoher-ent model is the Arrow-Debreu model of general competitive equilibrium with a quantity theory equation attachedto it.1 That model is what was taught from 9 to 9:50. The less incoherent model is the Arrow-Debreu model of gen-eral competitive equilibrium with real money balances as an additional argument of utility functions. That model isnot what was taught from 10 to 10:50, and Samuelson's paper is not about remedying the schizophrenia he talksabout in the above passage. Instead, Samuelson's paper is intended to ameliorate a more fundamental schizophreniaconcerning the way economists think about money

    The international integration of money markets in the central and east European accession countries: deviations from covered interest parity, capital controls and inefficiencies in the financial sector

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    Based on the concept of covered interest parity it is shown that the money markets in Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and the Slovak Republic meanwhile display a high degree of international integration with the euro area. Integration has strengthened continuously in the review period of 1999 to mid 2002. The segmentation that could still be observed stems from both restrictions on the short-term movement of capital and the limited development of the financial sectors in the four accession countries. While almost all capital controls have since been removed and will no longer play a role after accession to the EU, the implementation and transmission of the single monetary policy within the Eurosystem will possibly be impeded, if the financial sectors in CEE are then still underdeveloped. -- Basierend auf dem Konzept der gedeckten Zinsparität wird gezeigt, dass die Geldmärkte in Polen, der Tschechischen Republik, Ungarn und der Slowakei inzwischen einen hohen Grad an internationaler Integration mit dem Euro-Raum aufweisen. Die Integration hat sich im Untersuchungszeitraum von 1999 bis Mitte 2002 kontinuierlich verstärkt. Für die noch zu beobachtende Segmentierung sind sowohl Beschränkungen des kurzfristigen Kapitalverkehrs als auch die geringe Entwicklung der Finanzsektoren in den Beitrittsländern verantwortlich. Während Kapitalverkehrskontrollen inzwischen fast vollständig abgebaut sind und nach einem EU-Beitritt keine Rolle mehr spielen werden, könnte innerhalb des Eurosystems die Implementierung und Transmission der gemeinsamen Geldpolitik beeinträchtigt werden, wenn die Finanzsektoren in Mittel- und Osteuropa noch unterentwickelt sind.

    ICU-recovery in Scandinavia : a comparative study of intensive care follow-up in Denmark, Norway and Sweden

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    OBJECTIVES: The aim of our study was to describe and compare models of intensive care follow-up in Denmark, Norway and Sweden to help inform clinicians regarding the establishment and continuation of ICU aftercare programmes.METHODS: Our study had a multi-centre comparative qualitative design with triangulation of sources, methods and investigators. We combined prospective data from semi-structured key-informant telephone interviews and unreported data from a precursory investigation.RESULTS: Four basic models of follow-up were identified representing nurse-led or multidisciplinary programmes with or without the provision of patient diaries. A conceptual model was constructed including a catalogue of interventions related to the illness trajectory. We identified three temporal areas for follow-up directed towards the past, present or future.CONCLUSIONS: ICU follow-up programmes in the Scandinavian countries have evolved as bottom-up initiatives conducted on a semi-voluntary basis. We suggest reframing follow-up as an integral part of patient therapy. The Scandinavian programmes focus on the human experience of critical illness, with more attention to understanding the past than looking towards the future. We recommend harmonization of programmes with clear goals enabling programme assessment, while moving towards a paradigm of empowerment, enabling patient and family to take an active role in their recovery and wellbeing
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