Waiting lists, waiting times and admissions: an empirical analysis at hospital and general practice level

We report an empirical analysis of the responses of the supply and demand for secondary care to waiting list size and waiting times. Whereas previous empirical analyses have used data aggregated to area level, our analysis is novel in that it focuses on the supply responses of a single hospital and the demand responses of the GP practices it serves, and distinguishes between outpatient visits, inpatient admissions, daycase treatment and emergency admissions. The results are plausible and in line with the theoretical model. For example: the demand from practices for outpatient visits is negatively affected by waiting times and distance to the hospital. Increases in waiting times and waiting lists lead to increases in supply; the supply of elective inpatient admissions is affected negatively by current emergency admissions and positively by lagged waiting list and waiting time. We use the empirical results to investigate the dynamic responses to one off policy measures to reduce waiting times and lists by increasing supply

A Comparison of Disabled and Able-Bodied Athletes in Wheelchair Basketball

The purpose of this study was to examine the reasons for participation and the benefits that the able-bodied and disabled subjects obtain from participation in the integrated sport of wheelchair basketball. A qualitative interview technique was employed to explore the athletes decision to participate and their reactions to the sport. Data was inductively analysed into categories which focused on the research questions. Consistent with other studies the subjects cited several reasons for participation with fun and enjoyment the most common response and challenge and the socialisation ranking next The disabled were more competitive with winning being an important reason for them. The two groups accepted each other with the able-bodied acknowledging that they now regret previous negative attitudes toward the disabled. In competition, neither group felt the need to back down when going in for a ball with the disabled commenting that the able fear us more. In a community setting the sport was not well known and reactions varied between the groups. The able had positive reactions while the disabled felt many reactions were derogatory toward them. Sport was seen as a major area where attitudes of the community could be altered. Recommendations and research applications have been presented to help assist further investigation of the effects of integration and general sports participation on the disabled individua

Waiting lists, waiting times and admissions: an empirical analysis at hospital and general practice level

We report an empirical analysis of the responses of the supply and demand for secondary care to waiting list size and waiting times. Whereas previous empirical analyses have used data aggregated to area level, our analysis is novel in that it focuses on the supply responses of a single hospital and the demand responses of the GP practices it serves, and distinguishes between outpatient visits, inpatient admissions, daycase treatment and emergency admissions. The results are plausible and in line with the theoretical model. For example: the demand from practices for outpatient visits is negatively affected by waiting times and distance to the hospital. Increases in waiting times and waiting lists lead to increases in supply; the supply of elective inpatient admissions is affected negatively by current emergency admissions and positively by lagged waiting list and waiting time. We use the empirical results to investigate the dynamic responses to one off policy measures to reduce waiting times and lists by increasing supply.waiting time; waiting list; hospital admissions

Identification and estimation of panel data models with attrition using refreshment samples

This thesis deals with attrition in panel data. The problem associated with attrition is that it can lead to estimation results that suffer from selection bias. This can be avoided by using attrition models that are sufficiently unrestrictive to allow for a wide range of potential selection. In chapter 2, I propose the Sequential Additively Nonignorable (SAN) attrition model. This model combines an Additive Nonignorability assumption with the Sequential Attrition assumption, to just-identify the joint population distribution in Panel data with any number of waves. The identification requires the availability of refreshment samples. Just-identification means that the SAN model has no testable implications. In other words, less restrictive identified models do not exist. To estimate SAN models, I propose a weighted Generalized Method of Moments estimator, and derive its repeated sampling behaviour in large samples. This estimator is applied to the Dutch Transportation Panel and the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. In chapter 4, a likelihood-based alternative estimation approach is proposed, by means of an EM algorithm. Maximum Likelihood estimates can be useful if it is hard to obtain an explicit expression for the score function implied by the likelihood. In that case, the weighted GMM approach is not applicable

Issues with the construct of quality

This paper proposes an outline for a framework that aims to give a comprehensive view of perceived video quality, including physical characteristics, perceptual attributes and cognitive factors

Stable least-squares space-time boundary element methods for the wave equation

In this paper, we recast the variational formulation corresponding to the single layer boundary integral operator $\operatorname{V}$ for the wave equation as a minimization problem in $L^2(\Sigma)$, where $\Sigma := \partial \Omega \times (0,T)$ is the lateral boundary of the space-time domain $Q := \Omega \times (0,T)$. For discretization, the minimization problem is restated as a mixed saddle point formulation. Unique solvability is established by combining conforming nested boundary element spaces for the mixed formulation such that the related bilinear form is discrete inf-sup stable. We analyze under which conditions the discrete inf-sup stability is satisfied, and, moreover, we show that the mixed formulation provides a simple error indicator, which can be used for adaptivity. We present several numerical experiments showing the applicability of the method to different time-domain boundary integral formulations used in the literature

10373 Abstracts Collection -- Demarcating User eXperience

From September 15 to 17, 2010, the Dagstuhl Seminar 10373 Demarcating user experience was held in Schloss Dagstuhl, Leibniz Center for Informatics, Germany. The goal of the seminar was to come up with a consensus on the core concepts of user experience in a form of a User Experience White Paper, which would provide a more solid grounding for the field of user experience. This paper includes the resulted User Experience White Paper and a collection of abstracts from some seminar participants