On the fringe of Europe: Iceland's currency dilemma

Währungspolitik, Währungsumstellung, Währungsunion, Island, Currency policy, Currency changeover, Monetary union, Iceland

The duration of disability pensions in Iceland

Hægt er að lesa greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinn View/OpenOBJECTIVE: To analyze the long-term outcome for recipients of disability pension in Iceland. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study includes all those receiving disability pension for the first time in 1992 in Iceland. Their status in the disability register at the State Social Security Institute of Iceland November 30th 2004 was examined as to whether they were still receiving disability pension, had died, had reached the age of retirement or were not receiving disability pension any more for some other reasons. RESULTS: In 1992 there were 725 new recipients of disability pension in Iceland, 428 females and 297 males. Twelve years later 434 from this group were no longer receiving disability pension, 240 females and 194 males. In most cases this was because they had reached the age of retirement or died (on average 88% of the females and 91% of the males each year). Only 12% of the females and 9% of the males ceased to receive disability pension (and probably went back to work). CONCLUSION: In Iceland few people return to work once they have started receiving disability pension

Um bótarétt þeirra sem verða fyrir slysum

Neðst á síðunni er hægt að nálgast greinina í heild sinni með því að smella á hlekkinn View/OpenÁ ári hverju verða hátt í tvö þúsund slys á Íslandi sem leiða til varanlegrar örorku. Algengust eru umferðarslys, vinnuslys eða slys í frístundum manna. Bætur til slasaðra nema milljörðum króna á ári hverju. Hagsmunir þeirra sem slasast eru einatt mjög miklir um að fá skaðabætur, einkum til að mæta tekjuskerðingu sem slys kann að hafa í för með sér, tímabundið og til framtíðar. Margir hinna slösuðu þurfa að leita til sérhæfðra meðferðaraðila, svo sem sjúkraþjálfara áður en mál klárast. Þá er algengt að slasaðir leiti aðstoðar lögmanna við hagsmunagæslu gagnvart greiðsluskyldum aðilum. Er því ljóst að oft eiga lögmenn og sjúkraþjálfarar sameiginlega umbjóðendur þó aðkoma þessara sérfræðinga sé auðvitað ólík gagnvart viðskiptavininum. Áður en bótauppgjör til slasaðs einstaklings á sér stað fer fram mat á afleiðingum slyssins, svokallað örorkumat. Við slíkt mat fara læknar (stundum ásamt lögfræðingum) yfir gögn málsins og leggja mat á tímabil tímabundinnar örorku og hve mikil varanleg örorka og miski hefur hlotist af slysi. Við slíkt mat er mikilvægt að fyrir liggi ítarlegar upplýsingar meðferðaraðila á hinum slasaða, þar á meðal frá sjúkraþjálfara sem hefur komið að endurhæfingu viðkomandi. Með grein þessari er leitast við að skýra réttarstöðu fólks sem slasast. Þá er fjallað um hvaða bætur það eru sem slasaðir eiga almennt tilkall til. Loks er farið yfir þau atriði sem að mati greinarhöfunda skipta máli við vottorðagerð sjúkraþjálfara

EMU and the Icelandic labour market

In this paper we look at the costs and benefits for Iceland from joining the EMU from a labour-market perspective. We conclude that none of Mundell's three criteria for an optimal currency area are at present fulfilled for Iceland and the initial Euro zone. Shocks to the Icelandic economy are found to be asymmetric with those experienced in other countries, nominal wages rigid, and migration limited. The painful adjustment of the Faeroese economy to macroeconomic shocks in the early 1990s suggests that the disadvantages of not having a separate currency can be substantial if nominal wages are rigid. Substantial variation in labour market participation and frequent adjustments of the exchange rate seem to have held unemployment in check in Iceland, at least until around 1988.

Decreasing pH in the humuslayer of Västerbotten : a quantitative analysis

Acidification is a central concept in the environmental debate. The effect of acidification of the soil is a matter of a decreasing amount of cations and thereby a decreasing ability to resist a supply of hydrogen ions to the soil. Acidification has gradually increased in the O horizon in Västerbotten over a 30-year period from the 1970th to the 1990th. The aim of this study was from inventories of The Swedish National Forest Soil Survey and The Swedish National Forest Inventory explain and quantify the acidification that has occurred in the O horizon of two regions in the north of Sweden. Data from SMHI, The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, has also been used. The northern region showed a more distinct decrease of pH(H2O) in the O horizon then in the southern region. However, both of the region had significantly pH(H2O) decreases. Acidification processes like biological uptake of ions, biomass distribution and deposition was investigated, but these didn't explain the changes between the regions. A possible process that was investigated and might be explaining the changes of soil chemistry in O horizon is the amount of humus. The southern region had a tendency of decrease and the northern region a tendency of increase of the humus amount.Försurning är ett centralt begrepp i miljödebatten. För marken är effekten av försurning en fråga om ett minskande förråd av katjoner och därmed en minskande förmåga att stå emot en tillförsel av vätejoner till marken. I Västerbotten har pH värdet i O-horisonten successivt minskat över en 30 års period från 1970- till 1990-tal. Syftet med detta arbete har varit att utifrån material från Ståndortskarteringens och Riksskogstaxeringens inventeringar förklara och kvantifiera den försurningen som skett i O-horisonten av två regioner i norra Sverige. Även data från SMHI, Sveriges meteorologiska och hydrologiska institut, användes. Den nordligare regionen visade på en mer tydlig pH(H2O) sänkning i O-horisonten än den sydligare regionen. Båda sänkningarna i regionerna var dock signifikanta. Försurningsprocesser som biologiskt upptag av joner, biomassafördelning och deposition undersöktes utan att kunna förklara förändringarna mellan regionerna. Humusmängden i regionerna undersöktes också och dessa kan eventuellt förklara ändringarna i markkemin i O-horisonten. Humusmängden i den södra regionen minskade medan att i den norra regionen tenderade att öka

Long-term outcome of displaced radial neck fractures in adulthood: 16–21 year follow-up of 5 patients treated with radial head excision

Background There have been no reports on the long-term outcome of radial neck Mason type IIIb fractures in adults

Recycling Database Records

Our users are used to searching and don\u27t care for A‐Z lists. We don\u27t want to maintain a separate database of databases. Let\u27s catalog the database record once, recycle it and use the discovery API to build a database search feature. Those were our thoughts when introducing our new web site. When filtering on databases Summon API was called and a relevancy ranked list was presented. But immediately voices were raised from researchers and post‐graduates that they had difficulties using the tool. So, we decided to build a more traditional database list yet keeping the main principles: To search databases from the general library search box. To maintain in one place only. To retrieve the records through several search services. To build a tool that facilitates discovery and provides additional features we had to use a source with more stringent metadata. Thus we dropped the Summon API and instead used the API from the original source, the national catalog of Sweden, Libris. A team of librarians and IT developers developed a database search feature and list that better met the needs of both students, faculty, and librarians. We, the librarians, got an understanding about APIs. We also learned by painful experiences that to make MARC records at least a bit machine readable we need to catalog with thorough control. The IT developers learned about the MARC reality we still live in

Synchronization-free radchat for automotive radar interference mitigation

Automotive radar interference mitigation is expected to be inherent in all future ADAS and AD vehicles. Joint radar communications is a candidate technology for removing this interference by coordinating radar sensing through communication. Coordination of radars requires strict time synchronization among vehicles, and our formerly proposed protocol (RadChat) achieves this by a precise absolute time, provided by GPS clocks of vehicles. However, interference might appear if synchronization among vehicles is lost in case GPS is spoofed, satellites are blocked over short intervals, or GPS is restarted/updated. Here we present a synchronization-free version of RadChat (Sync-free RadChat), which relies on using the relative time for radar coordination, eliminating the dependency on the absolute time provided by GPS. Simulation results obtained for various use cases show that Sync-free RadChat is able to mitigate interference without degrading the radar performance