Smábörnin með snjalltækin: aðgangur barnanna og viðhorf foreldra

Miðlanotkun spannar sjónvarpsáhorf, tölvuleiki, netnotkun og snjalltækjanotkun. Í ljósi tækniþróunar er mikilvægt að rannsaka miðlanotkun barna allt niður í nokkurra mánaða aldur en það hefur ekki verið gert á Íslandi hingað til. Markmið rannsóknarinnar sem hér er lýst var að gefa yfirlit yfir miðlanotkun barna á Íslandi á aldrinum 0–8 ára og viðhorf foreldra til notkunarinnar. Hér er um fyrsta yfirlit að ræða. Tekið var lagskipt, handahófskennt úrtak 2000 barna á þessum aldri af öllu landinu úr Þjóðskrá, netföng fundust hjá foreldrum 1448 barna (72,4%) og óskað var eftir að þeir svöruðu rafrænum spurningalista að fyrirmynd Sænsku fjölmiðlanefndarinnar. Gild svör bárust frá foreldrum 860 barna sem er 59,4% þátttökuhlutfall en vegna affalla í upphafi er ekki hægt að líta svo á að niðurstöður hafi alhæfingargildi. Niðurstöðurnar gefa þó nokkurt yfirlit, en þær benda til þess að þegar fimm ára aldri hefur verið náð aukist líkur á að börnin eigi sín eigin tæki til miðlanotkunar, sérstaklega spjaldtölvur. Hins vegar deila börn oft snjalltækjum með öðrum í fjölskyldunni, t.a.m. er því svo farið með 62% barna í aldurshópnum 2–4 ára en í þessum aldurshópi notar 71% spjaldtölvu einhvern tíma. Allra yngstu börnin (0–1 árs) nota netið að nokkru marki (4% daglega) en um 80% þess aldurshóps nota netið aldrei. Foreldrar eru oft með börnunum við miðlanotkun en samveran minnkar með hækkandi aldri barnanna. Sjónvarpsáhorf er algeng miðlanotkun meðal 5–8 ára og reglur foreldra eru rýmri um hana en aðra notkun. Sumir foreldrar hafa engar reglur um miðlanotkun en mikill meirihluti þeirra telur að foreldrar beri mesta ábyrgð þegar kemur að því að vernda börn við miðlanotkun. Niðurstöður eru nokkuð í samræmi við niðurstöður úr rannsóknum Sænsku fjölmiðlanefndarinnar. Taka má undir niðurstöður fyrri rannsókna um að samvera foreldra og barna við miðlanotkun sé mikilvæg og draga má þá ályktun að foreldrar viðurkenni mikilvægt hlutverk sitt þegar kemur að miðlanotkun barna.The need has grown for research on the media use of the youngest children with the ever increasing role of internet connected devices in the daily lives of people during the last years. Smartphones and tablets have become common and the tablets are preferred by little fingers. The aim of this study was to provide an overview of the media use of 0-to-8-year-olds in Iceland and their parents’ attitudes towards the use and various aspects of it. A stratified, random sample of 2000 children in this age span from the whole country was the basis for the study. E-mail addresses were found for parents of 1448 children and they were contacted with an introductory letter and a request to fill in a webquestionnaire based on the Swedish Media Council’s questionnaire used since 2010 (Statistics Sweden, 2015). The response rate of those who received the questionnaire was 59.4%, with 860 valid responses. The results suggest that the likelihood of ownership of different devices for media use is higher from the age of 5. This is evident in the case of smartphones and tablets, as a quarter of 5-8y have their own smartphone and/or a tablet. In the age group 2-4y, 10% have their own tablet but 62% share such a device with others in the family, and 56% of 0-1y share a tablet with others in their family. The tablet is most often used for listening to music and watching videos and films. In the age group 0-1y, one third uses the tablet at some point. In the age group 2-4y, this percentage is 71%, and 92% in the age group 5-8y. The most popular activity is watching a movie or a TV show, as over 90% of 2-8y do that at some point, and 62% of 0-1y. Three quarters of the youngest children (0-1y) never use the internet but 4% in this age group use it daily. A small percentage of the children are heavy users according to the definition of the Swedish Media Council of using a medium for three hours or more daily. Two percent of 5-8y play computer games for three or more hours daily and 2% of 2-4y use the internet for three or more hours daily. The children’s parents quite often stay with the children when they use different media. The parents’ presence seems to decrease with age as parents of 60% of the children in the youngest age group (0-1y) are present when their children watch TV shows or films, while the corresponding percentage for 2-4y is 48% and for 5-8y 28%. Watching TV/films is a popular media use for children 5-8y and parents’ rules on this are not as strict as for other media use. Some parents have no rules on media use but a large majority believes that parents are responsible for protecting children regarding media use. The results of this study are quite similar to those from Sweden (Swedish Media Council). The conclusion strengthens results from previous studies on the importance of parents and children being together using media and that parents seem to accept their important role regarding their children’s media use.Peer Reviewe

Initial Clinical Referral Standards after Newborn Screening for Congenital Hypothyroidism: Final Report of the UK Newborn Screening Programme Centre Expert Working Group and Systematic Evidence Review 2010-2011.

Background In April 2010, the Initial Clinical Referral Standards (ICR) for Congenital Hypothyroidism (CHT) Expert Working Group was convened as a sub-group of the Joint Standing Committee for Congenital Hypothyroidism (CHT JSC) to review and revise the UK National Screening Programme Initial Clinical Referral Standards after Newborn Screening for Congenital Hypothyroidism. The work commenced with a systematic review of the published evidence undertaken by Dr R Knowles and Ms F Olafsdottir. The Expert Working Group reviewed and recommended revisions to the existing (2005) UKNSPC standards and guidelines to support confirmatory diagnosis and initial management for babies in whom CHT is suspected. This included a review of current CHT screening policy and UK performance against national standards and European standards and guidelines. The Expert Working Group, chaired by Dr T Cheetham (Consultant Paediatric Endocrinologist), met on four occasions between July 2010 and September 2011 to review and revise the referral standards. Scope of the review To support the review process with evidence review and expert consensus where published evidence is lacking, focusing on the following topic areas: • Screening test performance and indications for referral • Diagnostic schedule for confirmatory diagnosis of CHT • Initial treatment and frequency of follow up to the point of diagnosis or definitive management • Communication flows • Communication with parents Public Consultation A public consultation was carried out in May/June 2012 and subsequent changes to the standards on the basis of the responses are included in this final version of the report. Summary and Recommendations The subgroup’s final recommendations were endorsed by the Joint Standing Committee and Blood Spot Advisory Group (BSAG) and submitted to the Fetal Maternal and Child Health Subgroup of the National Screening Committee (NSC) for approval of changes to current screening policy and standards. This final report presents the revised standards, screening protocol and diagnostic protocol developed by the Expert Working Group and finalised after public consultation, as well as the evidence basis for the revised standards and guidelines

Health systems performance in sub-Saharan Africa: Governance, outcome and equity

Copyright @ 2011 Olafsdottir et al.BACKGROUND: The literature on health systems focuses largely on the performance of healthcare systems operationalised around indicators such as hospital beds, maternity care and immunisation coverage. A broader definition of health systems however, needs to include the wider determinants of health including, possibly, governance and its relationship to health and health equity. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between health systems outcomes and equity, and governance as a part of a process to extend the range of indicators used to assess health systems performance. METHODS: Using cross sectional data from 46 countries in the African region of the World Health Organization, an ecological analysis was conducted to examine the relationship between governance and health systems performance. The data were analysed using multiple linear regression and a standard progressive modelling procedure. The under-five mortality rate (U5MR) was used as the health outcome measure and the ratio of U5MR in the wealthiest and poorest quintiles was used as the measure of health equity. Governance was measured using two contextually relevant indices developed by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation. RESULTS: Governance was strongly associated with U5MR and moderately associated with the U5MR quintile ratio. After controlling for possible confounding by healthcare, finance, education, and water and sanitation, governance remained significantly associated with U5MR. Governance was not, however, significantly associated with equity in U5MR outcomes. CONCLUSION: This study suggests that the quality of governance may be an important structural determinant of health systems performance, and could be an indicator to be monitored. The association suggests there might be a causal relationship. However, the cross-sectional design, the level of missing data, and the small sample size, forces tentative conclusions. Further research will be needed to assess the causal relationship, and its generalizability beyond U5MR as a health outcome measure, as well as the geographical generalizability of the results

The accuracy of the National Economic Institute‘s forecasts 1981-2002

The National Economic Institute in Iceland was a government institute responsible for producing and publishing a national economic forecast. The institute was closed in 2002. This paper measures the accuracy of the institute's forecasts from 1981-2002. The paper measures the accuracy of the GDP forecast, private consumption, investment, imports and exports of goods and services.Economic forecast, forecast error, root mean square error,

New collective bargaining contracts and gender wage differentials

The paper measures the gender wage differentials among members of the Icelandic public sector union federation Association of Academics (BHM). The collective bargaining agremeents of the member unions have changed dramatically during the last 15 years while the agreements have also been decentralized. The paper shows that although the gender wage differential has fallen from 1994 to 2007 it is still significant. The base wage gender wage differential is smaller than the gender wage differential when it comes to total earnings.gender wage differential, public sector

Task Demands Predict a Dynamic Switch in the Content of Awake Hippocampal Replay

Reactivation of hippocampal place cell sequences during behavioral immobility and rest has been linked with both memory consolidation and navigational planning. Yet it remains to be investigated whether these functions are temporally segregated, occurring during different behavioral states. During a self-paced spatial task, awake hippocampal replay occurring either immediately before movement toward a reward location or just after arrival at a reward location preferentially involved cells consistent with the current trajectory. In contrast, during periods of extended immobility, no such biases were evident. Notably, the occurrence of task-focused reactivations predicted the accuracy of subsequent spatial decisions. Additionally, during immobility, but not periods preceding or succeeding movement, grid cells in deep layers of the entorhinal cortex replayed coherently with the hippocampus. Thus, hippocampal reactivations dynamically and abruptly switch between operational modes in response to task demands, plausibly moving from a state favoring navigational planning to one geared toward memory consolidation

Molecular signatures of a TLR4 agonist-adjuvanted HIV-1 vaccine candidate in humans

Systems biology approaches have recently provided new insights into the mechanisms of action of human vaccines and adjuvants. Here, we investigated early transcriptional signatures induced in whole blood of healthy subjects following vaccination with a recombinant HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein subunit CN54gp140 adjuvanted with the TLR4 agonist glucopyranosyl lipid adjuvant-aqueous formulation (GLA-AF) and correlated signatures to CN54gp140-specific serum antibody responses. Fourteen healthy volunteers aged 18-45 years were immunized intramuscularly three times at 1-month intervals and whole blood samples were collected at baseline, 6 h, and 1, 3, and 7 days post first immunization. Subtle changes in the transcriptomic profiles were observed following immunization, ranging from over 300 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) at day 1 to nearly 100 DEGs at day 7 following immunization. Functional pathway analysis revealed blood transcription modules (BTMs) related to general cell cycle activation, and innate immune cell activation at early time points, as well as BTMs related to T cells and B cell activation at the later time points post-immunization. Diverse CN54gp140-specific serum antibody responses of the subjects enabled their categorization into high or low responders, at early ( < 1 month) and late (up to 6 months) time points post vaccination. BTM analyses revealed repression of modules enriched in NK cells, and the mitochondrial electron chain, in individuals with high or sustained antigen-specific antibody responses. However, low responders showed an enhancement of BTMs associated with enrichment in myeloid cells and monocytes as well as integrin cell surface interactions. Flow cytometry analysis of peripheral blood mononuclear cells obtained from the subjects revealed an enhanced frequency of CD56 dim NK cells in the majority of vaccines 14 days after vaccination as compared with the baseline. These results emphasize the utility of a systems biology approach to enhance our understanding on the mechanisms of action of TLR4 adjuvanted human vaccines

Volunteer Muscle Activity in Dynamic Events. Input Data for Human Body Models.

<p>Human body models (HBMs) are virtual human surrogates used to predict kinematic and injury responses during motor vehicle crashes. In recent years, active musculature has been incorporated into HBMs for enhanced biofidelity in simulated emergency scenarios, in particular low-severity crashes and pre-crash situations, where occupant responses are influenced by muscle tension. Development and validation of HBMs that simulate neuromuscular control requires information on muscle activation patterns and contraction levels for different loading levels and directions. This information can be acquired by measuring muscle activity in volunteers with electromyography in replicated pre-crash events. This thesis investigates occupant responses in various pre-crash type braking scenarios and multidirectional perturbations.</p> <p>Muscle activity was measured in volunteers in the following scenarios; maximum voluntary braking, autonomous braking with standard seatbelt, autonomous braking with reversible pre-tensioner activated 200 ms before braking, and seated perturbation in multiple directions without restraint. Muscle activity and forward displacement during autonomous braking was influenced by type of restraint system and role (passenger vs. driver). Pre-tensioning the seatbelt caused decreased forward displacement as well as increased startle like muscle activity in some volunteers. Active HBMs that model the startle reflex can elucidate its effect on injury risk in the crash phase. The difference in posture between drivers and passengers resulted in decreased upper extremity and increased lower back muscle activity for passengers and more forward displacement. Active HBMs validated against the data presented here can be used to further assess the difference between the two occupant roles and to aid the optimisation of safety systems for each group. The spatial tuning patterns generated from multidirectional perturbation showed variable activation amplitudes and preferred directions for the neck muscles. Implementing muscle and direction specific activation schemes in active HBMs might result in better prediction of the head and neck responses.</p> <p>The research outcomes provide data sets for active HBM validation in pre-crash braking events and the development and validation of omnidirectional models. Further studies that identify occupant muscle responses are needed. Measuring muscle activity during a pre-crash steering manoeuvre or during a realistic visual threat to identify the muscle responses following a startle reflex would support the advancement of future omnidirectional models and startle reflex control methods.</p

Frá mjúkum yfir í harðar samdráttaraðgerðir á vinnumarkaði. Sveigjanleiki fyrirtækja og stofnana í kjölfar hruns

Fyrirtæki og stofnanir þurfa að laga sig að breyttum aðstæðum þegar þjóðar - búskapurinn verður fyrir skyndilegu áfalli eins og raunin varð á Íslandi haustið 2008. Margt bendir til þess að skipulagsheildir beiti gjarnan uppsögnum starfsmanna til þess að draga saman seglin við slíkar aðstæður. Á sveigjanlegum vinnumarkaði má þó gera ráð fyrir að fyrirtæki beiti einnig ýmsum öðrum samdráttaraðgerðum samtímis uppsögnum, s.s. launalækkunum, yfirvinnu - banni og frystingu í ráðningum svo fátt eitt sé upptalið. Slíkum aðgerðum er þá beitt til að reyna að koma í veg fyrir uppsagnir og þar með dreifa með jafnari hætti afleiðingum samdráttar meðal starfsfólks og á vinnu markaði. Í þessari grein er stillt upp hugmyndafræðilegum ramma þar sem ólíkar mann - auðstengdar samdráttaraðgerðir eru skilgreindar og flokkaðar, frá mjúkum að gerðum yfir í harðar, í ljósi þess hve mikil áhrif má ætla að þær hafi á starfs fólk. Varpað er ljósi á það hvort fyrirtæki og stofnanir beittu sambæri legum eða ólíkum aðgerðum í kjölfar efnahagshrunsins haustið 2008 og út frá því dregnar ályktanir um sveigjanleika þeirra. Gagna var aflað meðal forsvars manna starfsmannamála í fyrir tækjum og stofnunum með yfir 70 starfsmenn og nær rannsóknin yfir tvö tíma bil, átta mánuði og níu til tuttugu mánuði frá hruni. Niðurstöður gefa vís bend ingu um skjót viðbrögð og töluverðan sveigjan leika hjá fyrirtækjum á al mennum markaði og í opinberum stofnunum þótt viðbrögðin séu síðbúnari hjá opin berum stofnunum. Opinberar stofnanir nota mildari samdráttaraðgerðir en einka fyrirtækin á fyrstu átta mánuðunum eftir hrun en byrja að beita óhefðbundnari og harðari samdráttarað - gerðum í auknum mæli, og af krafti, er lengra líður frá hruni.Private and public organizations have had to adapt to the sudden negative shock to Iceland's economy that took place in the fall of 2008. The most common downsizing method used by organizations appears to be layoffs. In a flexible labor market, however, they can be expected to use also other methods such as pay cuts, hiring freeze and prohibiting overtime, to mention only a few. Such methods may even be used in order to distribute the effects of down sizing more evenly among employees and to alleviate the need for dis missal of employees. This paper establishes a conceptual framework by classifying downsizing alternatives into three groups, ranging from mild alternatives with low impact on employees, to severe alternatives. The classification sheds light on the alternatives used following the economic collapse, as well as on the degree of flexibility in the public and private labor markets. The data was collected from HR managers in public and private Icelandic organizations with more than 70 employees. The research spans two time periods: eight months from the collapse and 9-20 months from the collapse. The results indicate strong flexibility in both the private and the public sectors. Although the public sector showed a delayed response to the economic situation, it increasingly and vigorously adopted non-traditional and hard methods as time elapsed from the collapse.Peer reviewe

Radiocarbon Date List XI: Radiocarbon Dates from Marine Sediment Cores of the Iceland, Greenland, and Northeast Canadian Arctic Shelves and Nares Strait

Radiocarbon Date List XI contains an annotated listing of 178 AMS radiocarbon dates on samples from marine (169 samples) and lake (9 samples) sediment cores. Marine sediment cores, from which the samples for dating were taken, were collected on the Greenland Shelf, Baffin Bay, and the Eastern Canadian Arctic shelf. About 80% of the marine samples for dating were collected on the SW to N Icelandic shelf. The lake sediment cores were collected in northwestern Iceland. For dating of the marine samples, we submitted molluscs (117 samples), benthic and planktic foraminifera (45 samples), plant macrofauna (3 samples), and one serpulid worm. For dating of the lake cores, we submitted wood (8 samples) and one peat sample. The Conventional Radiocarbon Ages range from 294±9114C yr BP to 34,600±640 14C yr BP. The dates have been used to address a variety of research questions. The dates constrain the timing of high northern latitude late Quaternary environmental fluctuations, which include glacier extent, sea level history, isostatic rebound, sediment input, and ocean circulation. The dates also allowed assessment of the accuracy of commonly used reservoir correction. The samples were submitted by INSTAAR and affiliated researchers