| 1. |
- Andersson, Bodil T., et al.
(författare)
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Radiographers' areas of professional competence related to good nursing care
- 2008
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Ingår i: Scandinavian Journal of Caring Sciences. - : Wiley. - 0283-9318 .- 1471-6712. ; 22:3, s. 401-409
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Radiographers' ability and competence is a matter of vital importance for patients. Nursing care is an integral part of the radiographer's work. The demand for high competence in clinical activities has increased in diagnostic radiology and has had an impact on the development of the profession.AIM: The aim was to describe the radiographer's areas of professional competence in relation to good nursing care based on critical incidents that occur in the course of radiological examinations and interventions.METHOD: A descriptive design with a qualitative approach, using the Critical Incident Technique was employed. Interviews were conducted with a strategic sample of registered radiographers (n = 14), based at different hospitals in Sweden.ETHICAL ISSUES: The appropriate ethical principles were followed. All the participants provided informed consent, and formal approval for conducting the research was obtained according to national and local directives.RESULTS: The data analysis resulted in two main areas; direct and indirect patient-related areas of competence, which describe the radiographers' skills that either facilitate or hinder good nursing care. In the direct patient-related area of competence, four categories emerged, which illustrate good nursing care in the patient's immediate surroundings. In the indirect patient-related area of competence, four categories illuminated good nursing care that is provided without direct contact with the patient.CONCLUSIONS: The study highlights the different areas of the radiographer's unique professional competence. The findings provide insight into the radiographer's profession, on one hand as a carer and on the other as a medical technologist as well as highlighting the importance of each role. The radiographer's work encompasses a variety of components--from caring for the patient to handling and checking the technical equipment.
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| 2. |
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| 3. |
- Hacker, R Scott, 1964-, et al.
(författare)
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Optimal lag-length choice in stable and unstable VAR models under situations of homoscedasticity and ARCH
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Applied Statistics. - : Routledge. - 0266-4763 .- 1360-0532. ; 35:6, s. 601-615
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The performance of different information criteria - namely Akaike, corrected Akaike (AICC), Schwarz-Bayesian (SBC), and Hannan-Quinn - is investigated so as to choose the optimal lag length in stable and unstable vector autoregressive (VAR) models both when autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (ARCH) is present and when it is not. The investigation covers both large and small sample sizes. The Monte Carlo simulation results show that SBC has relatively better performance in lag-choice accuracy in many situations. It is also generally the least sensitive to ARCH regardless of stability or instability of the VAR model, especially in large sample sizes. These appealing properties of SBC make it the optimal criterion for choosing lag length in many situations, especially in the case of financial data, which are usually characterized by occasional periods of high volatility. SBC also has the best forecasting abilities in the majority of situations in which we vary sample size, stability, variance structure (ARCH or not), and forecast horizon (one period or five). frequently, AICC also has good lag-choosing and forecasting properties. However, when ARCH is present, the five-period forecast performance of all criteria in all situations worsens.
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| 4. |
- Holm, Jerker, et al.
(författare)
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Trust in surveys and games - A methodological contribution on the influence of money and location
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Economic Psychology. - : Elsevier BV. - 1872-7719 .- 0167-4870. ; 29:4, s. 522-542
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This paper explores methods to study trust. In a variety of settings, answers to survey questions and choices in a trust game are obtained from student sample pools. Some subjects are approached by mail and execute their task at home whereas others participate in classroom experiments. No differences between the results obtained by these methods are observed. Furthermore, one additional group plays the trust game with purely hypothetical payments, and another receives random lottery payments. This changes trust behavior dramatically, whereas trustworthiness is unaffected. Subjects without any financial incentives exhibit less trust and their trust choices are significantly correlated with survey trust answers. There is no such correlation for the corresponding choices with real payments. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
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| 5. |
- Jonson, Carl-Oscar, et al.
(författare)
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Regulatory T-cell associated activity in Photopheresis-induced Immune tolerance in Recent Onset Type 1 Diabetes Children
- 2008
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Ingår i: Clinical and Experimental Immunology. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0009-9104 .- 1365-2249. ; 153:2, s. 174-181
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Extracorporeal photochemotherapy (ECP) has demonstrated immunological effects. The proposed cytotoxic lymphocyte antigen 4 (CTLA-4) involvement, together with forkhead box P3 (FoxP3) and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β are associated with regulatory T cell activity. The aim of the study was to evaluate the regulatory T cell-associated effect of ECP in recent onset type 1 diabetic (T1D) children. Children (n = 20) with T1D received photopheresis 8-methoxypsoralen + ECP or placebo + shampheresis. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) collected pretreatment (day 1) and post-treatment (day 90) were stimulated with phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) and T1D-associated glutamic acid decarboxylase 65 (GAD65) peptide a.a. 247–279. CTLA-4, sCTLA-4, FoxP3 and TGF-β mRNA transcription was quantified. Photopheresis-treated individuals' relative mRNA expression was generally maintained during the course of the study. Placebo individuals increased in spontaneous CTLA-4 mRNA (P < 0·05) but decreased in expression after stimulation with GAD65-peptide (P < 0·05) and PHA (P < 0·05). Spontaneous TGF-β (P < 0·05) increased whereas PHA- (P < 0·01) and GAD65-peptide (P < 0·01)-induced TGF-β expression decreased in the placebo group, whereas it was maintained in the treated group. Without intervention, expression of CTLA-4 and TGF-β, stimulated with PHA and GAD65 peptide, decreased with time, with a parallel reduction of GAD65-peptide and PHA-stimulated TGF-β expression. These parameters were counteracted by ECP. In conclusion, our results indicate that ECP maintains regulatory T cell-associated activity in recent-onset T1D.
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| 6. |
- Ludvigsson, Johnny, 1943-, et al.
(författare)
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GAD treatment and insulin secretion in recent-onset type 1 diabetes
- 2008
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Ingår i: New England Journal of Medicine. - Boston, Mass : Massachusetts medical society. - 0028-4793 .- 1533-4406. ; 359:18, s. 1909-1920
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background The 65-kD isoform of glutamic acid decarboxylase (GAD) is a major autoantigen in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. This trial assessed the ability of alum-formulated GAD (GAD-alum) to reverse recent-onset type 1 diabetes in patients 10 to 18 years of age. Methods We randomly assigned 70 patients with type 1 diabetes who had fasting C-peptide levels above 0.1 nmol per liter (0.3 ng per milliliter) and GAD autoantibodies, recruited within 18 months after receiving the diagnosis of diabetes, to receive subcutaneous injections of 20 μg of GAD-alum (35 patients) or placebo (alum alone, 35 patients) on study days 1 and 30. At day 1 and months 3, 9, 15, 21, and 30, patients underwent a mixed-meal tolerance test to stimulate residual insulin secretion (measured as the C-peptide level). The effect of GAD-alum on the immune system was also studied. Results Insulin secretion gradually decreased in both study groups. The study treatment had no significant effect on change in fasting C-peptide level after 15 months (the primary end point). Fasting C-peptide levels declined from baseline levels significantly less over 30 months in the GAD-alum group than in the placebo group (−0.21 vs. −0.27 nmol per liter [−0.62 vs. −0.81 ng per milliliter], P = 0.045), as did stimulated secretion measured as the area under the curve (−0.72 vs. −1.02 nmol per liter per 2 hours [−2.20 vs. −3.08 ng per milliliter per 2 hours], P = 0.04). No protective effect was seen in patients treated 6 months or more after receiving the diagnosis. Adverse events appeared to be mild and similar in frequency between the two groups. The GAD-alum treatment induced a GAD-specific immune response. Conclusions GAD-alum may contribute to the preservation of residual insulin secretion in patients with recent-onset type 1 diabetes, although it did not change the insulin requirement. (ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT00435981.)
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| 7. |
- Moodysson, Jerker, et al.
(författare)
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Explaining spatial patterns of innovation: analytical and synthetic modes of knowledge creation in the Medicon Valley life-science cluster
- 2008
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Ingår i: Environment & Planning A. - : SAGE Publications. - 0308-518X .- 1472-3409. ; 40:5, s. 1040-1056
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The authors address the dichotomy around 'proximate' and 'distant' learning processes by looking specifically at the characteristics of the knowledge-creation process. By way of suggesting an alternative conceptualization to the well-known tacit-codified knowledge dichotomy, they propose a distinction between 'analytical' and 'synthetic' modes of knowledge creation. Analytical knowledge creation refers to the understanding and explaining of features of the (natural) world. Synthetic knowledge creation refers to the design or construction of something to attain functional goals. By applying this framework to qualitative empirics from the Medicon Valley life-science cluster, the authors demonstrate the complementarity of globally distributed analytical knowledge creation and locally oriented synthetic knowledge creation.
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| 8. |
- Moodysson, Jerker
(författare)
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Principles and Practices of Knowledge Creation: On the Organization of "Buzz" and "Pipelines" in Life Science Communities
- 2008
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Ingår i: Economic Geography. - : Wiley. - 0013-0095 .- 1944-8287. ; 84:4, s. 449-469
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article links up with the debate in economic geography on "local buzz" and "global pipelines" as two distinct forms of interactive knowledge creation among firms and related actors and argues for a rethinking of the way social scientists should approach interactive knowledge creation. It highlights the importance of combining the insights from studies of clusters and innovation systems with an activity-oriented approach in which more attention is paid to the specific characteristics of the innovation processes and the conditions underpinning their organization. To illustrate the applicability and added value of such an alternative approach, the notion of embeddedness is linked with some basic ideas adopted from the literature on knowledge communities. The framework is then applied to a study of innovation activities conducted by firms and academic research groups working with biotechnology-related applications in the Swedish part of the Medicon Valley life science region. The findings reveal that local buzz is largely absent in these types of activities. Most interactive knowledge creation, which appears to be spontaneous and unregulated, is, on closer examination, found safely embedded in globally configured professional knowledge communities and attainable only by those who qualify.
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| 9. |
- Olsson, Tobias
(författare)
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For activists, for potential voters, for consumers: three modes of producing the civic web
- 2008
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Ingår i: Journal of Youth Studies. - London : Informa UK Limited. - 1469-9680 .- 1367-6261. ; 11:5, s. 497-512
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- During the last decade, numerous studies of the internet's civic dimensions have taught us a considerable amount about the form of new technologies. They have, for instance, analysed how the internet's interactive character, its multimodality and its open character create civic opportunities, not least for young people. The field has, however, rather neglected a number of important issues. For instance, the category of 'producers' of civic content has received little attention. Hence, research has neglected questions such as the following. What interests inspire producers of civic websites? How is the production being carried through? What views of the internet inspire their work? This article begins to redress this neglect by analysing the producers of three different websites. The three websites are brought from different spheres of civil society - party politics, commercial media and activism - and they are analysed through producer interviews. The article reveals and critically discusses differences and similarities between different modes of producing civic web resources.
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| 10. |
- Rosendahl, Lene, 1963-, et al.
(författare)
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Computer-assisted calculation of myocardial infarct size shortens the evaluation time of contrast-enhanced cardiac MRI
- 2008
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Ingår i: Clinical Physiology and Functional Imaging. - : John Wiley & Sons. - 1475-0961 .- 1475-097X. ; 28:1, s. 1-7
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Background: Delayed enhancement magnetic resonance imaging depicts scar in the left ventricle which can be quantitatively measured. Manual segmentation and scar determination is time consuming. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a software for infarct quantification, to compare with manual scar determination, and to measure the time saved.Methods: Delayed enhancement magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 40 patients where myocardial perfusion single photon emission computed tomography imaging showed irreversible uptake reduction suggesting a myocardial scar. After segmentation, the semi-automatic software was applied. A scar area was displayed, which could be corrected and compared with manual delineation. The different time steps were recorded with both methods.Results: The software shortened the average evaluation time by 12.4min per cardiac exam, compared with manual delineation. There was good correlation of myocardial volume, infarct volume and infarct percentage (%) between the two methods, r = 0.95, r = 0.92 and r = 0.91 respectively.Conclusions: A computer software for myocardial volume and infarct size determination cut the evaluation time by more than 50% compared with manual assessment, with maintained clinical accuracy.
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