Understanding vaccine knowledge,attitudes, and decision-making through college student interviews

Abstract

Objective: We aimed to explore knowledge, attitudes, and beliefs about vaccines required for college-entry and vaccine-related behaviors among college students. Participants: Thirty-three full-time undergraduate students, ≥ 18 years old, enrolled at public (2) and private (3) colleges and universities in metropolitan Philadelphia in fall 2016. Methods: We conducted semistructured interviews, which were double-coded with 5,015 comments overall and 99.3% intercoder reliability (κ?=?0.779) using NVivo 11 software. Results: Six key themes emerged: (1) low knowledge about vaccines and requirements; (2) mixed attitudes about required vs. recommended vaccines; (3) high trust in medical professionals; (4) low perceived risk for vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks; (5) substantial parental influence on students’ decision-making; and (6) low utilization of Student Health Services. Conclusions: This study revealed lack of knowledge about and low prioritization of vaccination despite overall positive attitudes towards vaccines. Prematriculation education of college students is critical to increasing vaccine knowledge and use.     

Fostering benign Tibetan nationalism: Tibetan schooling passions in the Diaspora

ABSTRACT

Scholarship on the ‘manufacturing of citizenship’ has focused primarily on European and American nationalism. Scholars have noted the scarcity of research on identity construction among children in the Diaspora. This study explores the role of the altruistic principle and the Middle Way approach (a political strategy for the resolution of Sino-Tibetan issues) on the construction of nationalism amongst Tibetan children in Diaspora. The 2004 Basic Education Policy for Tibetans stresses the principle of ‘altruism’ in the identity construction of Tibetan children. Inclusive nationalism is germane in the schooling process. The study presents an interview analysis of four Tibetan Education Ministers about the intersection of altruistic principle, the Middle Way approach, and Tibetan nationalism. Additionally, 34 school children (14 boys and 20 girls) from the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades participated in a drawing activity. The analysis of children’s ‘cultural artifacts of nationalism’ is also included. The study found that neither the Tibetan children nor the Ministers expressed any feeling of hatred or animosity towards Chinese nationals. The willingness and desire to co-exist in harmony with their counterparts were evident. The principle of altruism is deeply entrenched in the Middle Way approach and Tibetan nationalism.     

The paradox of illicit economies: survival,resilience, and the limits of development and drug policy orthodoxy

ABSTRACT

The illicit drug crops opium and coca are conventionally regarded as sources of instability, an ‘evil’ that breeds fragility and violence. Fragile states are supposed to be most vulnerable to their production and consequent harms. Yet by looking into the local contexts of the world’s leading opium and coca producers – Afghanistan, Myanmar, Colombia and Bolivia – these illicit crops are found to also be sources of stability, even drivers of economic growth. They enable marginalized communities and territories abandoned by the state to be reinserted into national and global markets. Within so-called ‘fragile’ and conflict-affected areas are displaced and dispossessed households adopting innovative and unorthodox strategies for coping and survival in changing and insecure environments. This paper maps out an approach, useful for examining the resilience that has emerged amidst violence and uncertainty in illicit-crop-producing territories, and which can hopefully tackle the continuing disconnect between drugs and development policy.     

障碍研究论述与社会参与：无障碍、通用设计、能力与差异

障碍研究在过去40年的发展奠定了其对公共政策影响的基础。障碍者社会参与的责任逐渐由以往个人承担与调适，转向社会与国家承担。本文简述西方国家障碍研究的两个主要论述--社会模式与普同主义取向，对比这两个主要论述所衍生出的政策：由早期的无障碍设施到通用设计，至最近的能力取向。障碍者参与社会生活与活动是其基本权利的一部分，这项权利内涵具有积极性，需要政府与社会投入资源，改善外部社会结构与环境，使环境对障碍者更为友善，为其社会参与权利提供保障。     

Tiered Approach to Resilience Assessment

Regulatory agencies have long adopted a three‐tier framework for risk assessment. We build on this structure to propose a tiered approach for resilience assessment that can be integrated into the existing regulatory processes. Comprehensive approaches to assessing resilience at appropriate and operational scales, reconciling analytical complexity as needed with stakeholder needs and resources available, and ultimately creating actionable recommendations to enhance resilience are still lacking. Our proposed framework consists of tiers by which analysts can select resilience assessment and decision support tools to inform associated management actions relative to the scope and urgency of the risk and the capacity of resource managers to improve system resilience. The resilience management framework proposed is not intended to supplant either risk management or the many existing efforts of resilience quantification method development, but instead provide a guide to selecting tools that are appropriate for the given analytic need. The goal of this tiered approach is to intentionally parallel the tiered approach used in regulatory contexts so that resilience assessment might be more easily and quickly integrated into existing structures and with existing policies.     

A Framework to Understand Extreme Space Weather Event Probability

An extreme space weather event has the potential to disrupt or damage infrastructure systems and technologies that many societies rely on for economic and social well‐being. Space weather events occur regularly, but extreme events are less frequent, with a small number of historical examples over the last 160 years. During the past decade, published works have (1) examined the physical characteristics of the extreme historical events and (2) discussed the probability or return rate of select extreme geomagnetic disturbances, including the 1859 Carrington event. Here we present initial findings on a unified framework approach to visualize space weather event probability, using a Bayesian model average, in the context of historical extreme events. We present disturbance storm time (Dst ) probability (a proxy for geomagnetic disturbance intensity) across multiple return periods and discuss parameters of interest to policymakers and planners in the context of past extreme space weather events. We discuss the current state of these analyses, their utility to policymakers and planners, the current limitations when compared to other hazards, and several gaps that need to be filled to enhance space weather risk assessments.     

Is the BasicsCard “shaming” Aboriginal people? Exploring the differing responses to welfare quarantining in Cape York

As part of the Cape York Welfare Reform Trial (CYWRT), which has been running in the remote Aboriginal towns of Aurukun, Hope Vale, Mossman Gorge and Coen since 2008, Family Responsibilities Commissioners have the unprecedented ability to quarantine welfare payments. Critics claim this “BasicsCard,” which cannot be spent on alcohol, tobacco, pornography or gambling, brings shame to Aboriginal people – marking them as dependants, deemed incapable of responsible spending. Evaluations of the CYWRT paint a more complicated picture. While many of the “spectators” of the CYWRT report “welfare reform stigma,” the “subjects” themselves are more positive. This paper draws on ethnographic research in Hope Vale to argue that these categories overlap with loosely defined, porous social groups that developed during the town's mission past, described as the “engaged” and “embedded” Hope Valers, respectively. The engaged group tends to be more aware of and sensitive to the views of the dominant society and to subscribe to its “ideology of respectability.” Meanwhile, the latter group tends to adhere to a more egalitarian “ideology of relatedness,” and do not experience the shame, even when their own welfare is quarantined, because the behaviours that trigger quarantining are normalised within their highly circumscribed domain.     

超大城市人口—自然资源系统可持续发展水平研究——基于Laplace混合政策模拟

人口增长与集聚为超大城市的发展提供动力,也给其自然资源系统带来极大扰动,使之呈现脆弱性特征;为实现超大城市人口—自然资源可持续发展,近年来政府实施了大量调控政策,但因对城市人口—自然资源系统的复杂互动难以精确量化,导致超大城市人口与自然资源关系治理困难重重。基于此,以北京市为例构建人口—自然资源系统可持续性评价框架,从政策干预视角,分析不同类型调控政策(如人口调控、技术改进、资源管制等)与人口、自然资源的因果关系,并利用Laplace准则结合决策者风险喜好,模拟混合政策干预对人口—自然资源系统可持续性带来的影响。结果显示:政策干预是保证北京市人口—自然资源系统可持续发展的重要手段,其中,人口调控政策是北京市人口—自然资源系统可持续性变动的主要影响因素,资源管制和技术改进是次要影响因素;随着政策干预强度的增加,由于人口系统安全性和自然资源系统脆弱性的互动博弈,北京市人口—自然资源可持续性逐渐趋于稳定;在Laplace情景下,人口安全性减弱了1.82%,损失不大;而自然资源脆弱性减弱了12.13%,收益较高;最终使得人口—自然资源系统可持续性增强了6.23%。因此,对于超大城市的政策干预需...     

Application of theory-based evaluation for the critical analysis of national biofuel policy: A case study in Malaysia

Theory-based evaluation (TBE) is an effectiveness assessment technique that critically analyses the theory underlying an intervention. Whilst its use has been widely reported in the area of social programmes, it is less applied in the field of energy and climate change policy evaluations. This paper reports a recent study that has evaluated the effectiveness of the national biofuel policy (NBP) for the transport sector in Malaysia by adapting a TBE approach. Three evaluation criteria were derived from the official goals of the NBP, those are (i) improve sustainability and environmental friendliness, (ii) reduce fossil fuel dependency, and (iii) enhance stakeholders’ welfare. The policy theory underlying the NBP has been reconstructed through critical examination of the policy and regulatory documents followed by a rigorous appraisal of the causal link within the policy theory through the application of scientific knowledge. This study has identified several weaknesses in the policy framework that may engender the policy to be ineffective. Experiences with the use of a TBE approach for policy evaluations are also shared in this report.