From Great Depression to Great Credit Crisis: Similarities, Differences and Lessons

The Great Depression of the Thirties and the Great Credit Crisis of the "Noughties had similar causes but elicited strikingly different policy responses. It may still be too early to assess the effectiveness of current policy responses, but it is possible to analyze monetary and fiscal policies in the 1930s as a "natural experiment" or "counterfactual" capable of shedding light on the impact of recent policies. We employ vector autoregressions, instrumental variables, and qualitative evidence for a panel of 27 countries in the period 1925-1939. The results suggest that monetary and fiscal stimulus was effective – that where it did not make a difference it was not tried. The results also shed light on the debate over fiscal multipliers in episodes of financial crisis. They are consistent with multipliers at the higher end of those estimated in the recent literature, consistent with the idea that the impact of fiscal stimulus will be greater when banking system are dysfunctional and monetary policy is constrained by the zero bound.

Supersymmetric Higgs pair discovery prospects at hadron colliders

We study the potential of hadron colliders in the search for the pair production of neutral Higgs bosons in the framework of the Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model. Using analytical expressions for the relevant amplitudes, we perform a detailed signal and background analysis, working out efficient kinematical cuts for the extraction of the signal. The important role of squark loop contributions to the signal is emphasised. If the signal is sufficiently enhanced by these contributions, it could even be observable at the next run of the upgraded Tevatron collider in the near future. At the LHC the pair production of light and heavy Higgs bosons might be detectable simultaneously.Comment: 5 pages, hep99, 6 figures; Presented at the International Europhysics Conference on High Energy Physics, Tampere, Finland, 15-21 July 199

(Re)thinking patient education and preparation in nuclear medicine and radiology departments: perspectives from technologists and recent-graduates

Patient-centered approach is gaining prominence in several areas of Medicine and is increasingly considered as an important paradigm for the provision of quality healthcare. The communication established between health professionals and patients in hospitals became increasingly seen as fundamental and to be valued, namely in areas such as Radiology (RD) or Nuclear Medicine (NM). Patient education is therefore a common practice in the NM and RD departments, mainly due to the lack of knowledge about this kind of procedures, which is believed to be a reality, based on our empirical evidence and on data not yet published. The aim of this study is to characterize current practices used in patient education in Portuguese Departments of Nuclear Medicine and Radiology.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

GAMBARAN TINGKAT PENGETAHUAN KELUARGA TENTANG PENYAKIT DIABETES MELITUS DI WILAYAH KERJA PUSKESMAS KOTA ATAMBUA KABUPATEN BELU

Latar belakang: Diabetes Melitus adalah suatu penyakit kronis di mana organ pankreas tidak memproduksi cukup insulin atau ketika tubuh tidak efektif dalam menggunakanya. Diabetes Melitus merupakan salah satu penyakit yang diturunkan secara genetik kepada keturunan berikutnya dengan mengikuti pola pewarisan penyakit berdasarkan hukum mendel, yang berarti bahwa setiap anak yang lahir baik laki-laki maupun perempuan memiliki reccurent risk yang sama sebesar 50%, Oleh karena itu untuk mencegah keturunan dalam keluarga terhindar dari faktor risiko penyakit Diabetes Melitus keluarga berperan penting dalam menentukan peneriman pelayanan kesehatan, karena peran keluarga menggambarkan seperangkat perilaku interpersonal, oleh karena itu untuk membantu menurunkan angka kejadian penyakit Diabetes Melitus maka keluarga perlu dibekali dengan pengetahuan. Pengetahuan merupakan hasil dari tahu dan ini terjadi setelah orang melakukan pengindraan, terhadap objek tertentu. Tujuan untuk mengetahui Gambaran Tingkat Pengetahuan Keluarga Tentang Penyakit Diabetes Melitus Di Wilayah Kerja Puskesmas Kota Atambua Kabupaten Belu. Jenis penelitian ini adalah kuantitatif deskriptif dengan jumlah sampel 56 responden, menggunakan metode cluster sampling. Hasil penelitian Menunjukkan dari 56 responden yang diteliti, dapat diketahui bahwa tingkat pengetahuan keluarga tentang penyakit diabetes melitus yaitu, kategori baik berjumlah 25 responden (44,6 %), kategori cukup  berjumlah 18 responden (32,1 %) dan kategori kurang berjumlah 13 responden (23,2 %). Kesimpulan: Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa sebagian besar tingkat pengetahuan keluarga tentang penyakit diabetes melitus baik

Analysis on the Implementation of Clinical Performance Management Development in the Obstetric Inpatient Ward of Belu District General Hospital East Nusa Tenggara

Development of clinical performance management (PMKK) was an effort to develop managerialability and performance of midwives in implementing obstetric care service in the qualified healthservice institution. Based on the Indonesian Health Minister Decree no. 836/MENKES/SK/VI/ 2005 regarding PMKK, accordingly, that program would be implemented by Atambua DistrictGeneral Hospital (RSUD) in 2006 but in the reality that program was difficult to be implemented.The result of an evaluation showed that PMKK program had not run well.This study used applied observational design and qualitative approach. The main informants were7 midwives working at the obstetric inpatient wards of RSUD Atambua. Triangulation informantswere the head of the obstetric inpatient wards, head of the service unit, head of the service departmentand patients.Bureaucracy structure was specifically related to PMKK such as no workers decree, consequentlyclarity of their task form and responsibilities were difficult to know and understood. Standardoperating procedure, job description and performance indicator had been provided however theimplementation was based only on the rutinity. No DRK or monitoring and evaluation that weredesigned according to PMKK standard, but the implementation of discussion, monitoring andevaluation were done together and scheduled. In general, there was poor communication betweenworkers and their leaders specifically on PMKK. It could be seen that there was no PMKK programsocialization to midwives and as a results several midwives have no knowledge on PMKK program.No special team formed formally to implement PMKK program. Facilities for PMKK program hadnot been provided according to the need.Atambua district general hospital needs to assemble PMKK team. To improve midwivesunderstanding on PMKK program, the hospital needs to do socialization of the policies by increasingthe intensity of interactive forum between District Health Office and Hospital and also conductingspecial training on PMKK program annually. For program continuity, it is better to increase thefrequency of case reflection discussion, program monitoring and evaluation. It has to be scheduledproperly and using check list when conducting evaluation

Magnetic resonance imaging of the vocal tract: techniques and applications

Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has been used to analyse and evaluate the vocal tract shape through different techniques and with promising results in several fields. Our purpose is to demonstrate the relevance of MR and image processing for the vocal tract study. The extraction of contours of the air cavities allowed the set-up of a number of 3D reconstruction image stacks by means of the combination of orthogonally oriented sets of slices for each articulatory gesture, as a new approach to solve the expected spatial under sampling of the imaging process. In result these models give improved information for the visualization of morphologic and anatomical aspects and are useful for partial measurements of the vocal tract shape in different situations. Potential use can be found in Medical and therapeutic applications as well as in acoustic articulatory speech modelling

Is healthy children surveillance being duplicated by family physicians and paediatricians? A cross-sectional study in Portugal

Objectives To determine if children attend the family physician (FP) or the FP/paediatrician for their surveillance medical appointments, as well as analyse the variables associated with the parents’ choice between the two physicians. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Public, semiprivate and private kindergartens in the city of Vila Nova de Famalicão (Portugal). Participants Parents of children aged 6 years or less without chronic diseases, enrolled in the selected kindergartens. Main outcome measures Proportion of children attending the FP or FP/paediatrician for their surveillance appointments; association between the chosen physician and sociodemographic and household variables (parents’ age, educational level, professional situation and marital status; household net income; number of children; the child’s age; presence of private health insurance), assessment of the parents’ perception of clinical knowledge and accessibility regarding the FP and the paediatrician. Results A total of 697 children were included in the analysis: 30.6% attended only the FP and 69.4% attended both the FP and the paediatrician. Using a Poisson regression, the mother’s age (PR=1.02, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.03), higher educational level (prevalence ratio (PR=1.15, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.33), private health insurance (PR=1.30, 95% CI 1.15 to 1.46), number of children (PR=0.86, 95% CI 0.78 to 0.94) and the child’s age (PR=0.95, 95% CI 0.91 to 0.98) were statistically associated with attending both the FP and the paediatrician; parents of children who attended only FP rated the FP with a higher accessibility and knowledge mean score than those who consulted both physicians (2.91vs2.38, P<0.001, and 4.11vs3.85, P<0.001). Conclusions Our data show that 70% of our sample simultaneously attended an FP and a paediatrician. FPs are equally qualified to provide medical care to healthy children but this information is not properly transmitted to the general population

Short-Term Forecasting of GDP Using Large Monthly Datasets: A Pseudo Real-Time Forecast Evaluation Exercise

This paper evaluates different models for the short-term forecasting of real GDP growth in ten selected European countries and the euro area as a whole. Purely quarterly models are compared with models designed to exploit early releases of monthly indicators for the nowcast and forecast of quarterly GDP growth. Amongst the latter, we consider small bridge equations and forecast equations in which the bridging between monthly and quarterly data is achieved through a regression on factors extracted from large monthly datasets. The forecasting exercise is performed in a simulated real-time context, which takes account of publication lags in the individual series. In general, we find that models that exploit monthly information outperform models that use purely quarterly data and, amongst the former, factor models perform best.Bridge models, Dynamic factor models, real-time data flow model

Short-term forecasting of GDP using large monthly datasets: a pseudo real-time forecast evaluation exercise.

This paper evaluates different models for the short-term forecasting of real GDP growth in ten selected European countries and the euro area as a whole. Purely quarterly models are compared with models designed to exploit early releases of monthly indicators for the nowcast and forecast of quarterly GDP growth. Amongst the latter, we consider small bridge equations and forecast equations in which the bridging between monthly and quarterly data is achieved through a regression on factors extracted from large monthly datasets. The forecasting exercise is performed in a simulated real-time context, which takes account of publication lags in the individual series. In general, we find that models that exploit monthly information outperform models that use purely quarterly data and, amongst the former, factor models perform best.Bridge models ; Dynamic factor models ; real-time data flow.