Bad News Has Wings: Dread Risk Mediates Social Amplification in Risk Communication

Social diffusion of information amplifies risk through processes of birth, death, and distortion of message content. Dread risk—involving uncontrollable, fatal, involuntary, and catastrophic outcomes (e.g., terrorist attacks and nuclear accidents)—may be particularly susceptible to amplification because of the psychological biases inherent in dread risk avoidance. To test this, initially balanced information about high or low dread topics was given to a set of individuals who then communicated this information through diffusion chains, each person passing a message to the next. A subset of these chains were also reexposed to the original information. We measured prior knowledge, perceived risk before and after transmission, and, at each link, number of positive and negative statements. Results showed that the more a message was transmitted the more negative statements it contained. This was highest for the high dread topic. Increased perceived risk and production of negative messages was closely related to the amount of negative information that was received, with domain knowledge mitigating this effect. Reexposure to the initial information was ineffectual in reducing bias, demonstrating the enhanced danger of socially transmitted information.     

Making sense of nuclear war: narratives of voluntary civil defence and the memory of Britain’s Cold War

In interviews with members of Britain’s Civil Defence Services, experiences of Cold War voluntarism are recalled in different ways. Some remembered their desire to help defend their nation and local community. Others remembered making a leisure choice that had little connection to the potential nuclear war the organization was ostensibly preparing for. No one provided a well-developed account of civil defence’s ability to provide a defence against the effects of a nuclear war. Popular memory theorists suggest cultural discourse limits the ability of individuals to narrate stories that do not align with culturally valued frameworks: in this case, dominant understandings of civil defence as at best ridiculous or at worst dangerous were established in the 1980s. This article argues that memories of civil defence voluntarism in the 1950-60s have been shaped by these discourses, but that individuals were able to express the different meanings civil defence had in their lives in ways that provide a more nuanced and holistic picture of the intersections of leisure, service and sociability that made up civil defence. As such, it argues that oral history allows us to understand the various ‘horizons of possibility’ that made up individual experiences of the Cold War.     

Quality of Life Enhancement Research Program: Lessons Learned

The attempted Quality of Life Enhancement program appeared to be a novel method for creating a symbiotic and sustainable relationship between a large Southeastern university and local nursing home and assisted living facilities (ALF), through which ALF residents would attend university arts and sporting events. During implementation, it was discovered that this project was unsustainable, undesired, unneeded by many care centers, difficult to implement, and required a dedicated and specialized staff. After attempting to enroll 14 local care facilities, only 2 were interested in becoming involved and produced 5 eligible participants. During the program itself, coordination with facilities and residents was difficult to maintain and unique transportation and accommodation needs were challenging to overcome. Finally, data collection was time consuming and generally unfruitful. Ultimately the project was discontinued after a year of attempted recruitment and implementation of inclusive changes to protocol. While creating an ongoing relationship with local care facilities and local universities may enhance opportunities for residents and research into important areas, such relationships take time, effort, and specialized staff to maintain.     

基于随机p-鲁棒优化的国家血液战略储备库选址-库存模型

以往的救灾实践对建立国家血液战略储备体系提出了迫切要求。国家血液战略储备库的建设问题亟待解决。由于血液产品特性以及应急血液保障特性的存在，使得国家血液战略储备库的选址决策具有一定的复杂性。本文将问题定位为选址-库存问题。首先，以应急条件下血液保障及时度最高为目标，构建了一个不确定环境下考虑多情景、多血型、多阶段、带提前期、有容量限制、日常随机需求、有预算约束及协同定位的国家血液战略储备库选址-库存模型。同时，为了规避应急条件下的不确定风险，进一步构建了国家血液战略储备库选址-库存问题的随机p-鲁棒优化模型。该模型为离散非线性混合整数规划模型，难以快速精确求解。故基于模型性质，设计了相应的遗传算法。最后，设计了两组算例验证模型与算法的有效性。其中，第1组算例基于我国大陆地区31个省级血液中心与省级行政区的数据，并根据不同预算值给出6个算例，得到了国家血液战略储备库的选址-库存决策方案。第2组算例为6个不同规模的模拟算例，用来测试不同规模下的算法性能。算例结果表明：遗传算法的性能更好；鲁棒解与确定性模型最优值相差不大（最大差距≤1.08%），可降低不确定性导致的风险。实践中，可对本文所建模型稍作改进，应用于具有类似特征的易腐品（药品、粮食等）应急物资储备库选址-库存决策。     

Assessing the Performance of a Classification‐Based Vulnerability Analysis Model

In this article, a classification model based on the majority rule sorting (MR‐Sort) method is employed to evaluate the vulnerability of safety‐critical systems with respect to malevolent intentional acts. The model is built on the basis of a (limited‐size) set of data representing (a priori known) vulnerability classification examples. The empirical construction of the classification model introduces a source of uncertainty into the vulnerability analysis process: a quantitative assessment of the performance of the classification model (in terms of accuracy and confidence in the assignments) is thus in order. Three different app oaches are here considered to this aim: (i) a model–retrieval‐based approach, (ii) the bootstrap method, and (iii) the leave‐one‐out cross‐validation technique. The analyses are presented with reference to an exemplificative case study involving the vulnerability assessment of nuclear power plants.     

How long is the queuing for public childcare facilities in Korea? An empirical analysis of Korean households' childcare mode choice with the limited availability of public childcare facilities

This paper empirically investigates Korean households' choice of childcare mode using the Korean Childcare Users Survey (2012). A multivariate logit model with partial observability (hereafter, PO‐logit model) is employed to address the issue of Korean households' demand for public childcare facilities exceeding capacity limits. Our estimation result rejects the hypothesis of no queueing at conventional significance levels to advocate use of the PO‐logit model in explaining Korean households' childcare choices. We decompose choice probabilities of public childcare facilities to estimate the size of queuing. Our results imply that 31.8% of parents preferring public childcare facility are forced to choose other childcare modes due to capacity limit.     

Disposable waste,lands and bodies under Canada’s gendered nuclear colonialism

ABSTRACT

Nuclear colonialism, or the exploitation of Indigenous lands and peoples to sustain the nuclear fuel cycle from uranium mining and refining to nuclear energy and weapons production and the dumping of the resulting nuclear waste, occurs in many parts of the world and has generated considerable protest. This article focuses on a contemporary and ongoing case of nuclear colonialism in Canada: attempts to site two national deep geological repositories (DGRs) for nuclear waste on traditional First Nations land in Southwestern Ontario near the world’s largest operational nuclear power plant. Through histories of the rise of nuclear power and nuclear waste policy-making and their relationship to settler colonialism in Canada, as well as actions taken by the Saugeen Ojibway Nation (SON) and white settler anti-nuclear waste movements, the article explores how gender is at work in nuclear colonialism and anti-nuclear waste struggles. Gender is explored here in terms of the patriarchal nuclear imperative, the appropriation of Aboriginal land through undermining Aboriginal women’s status and the problematic relationship between First Nations and white settler women-led movements in resistance to nuclear waste burial from a feminist decolonial perspective     

核威慑的四大风险及其应对

风险社会中的核威慑自身具有很大的不确定性,容易引发技术风险、信任风险、政治风险和道德风险。对立的主客思维方式、失序的国际规范、内在的逻辑矛盾以及缺失的道德责任导致了核威慑风险的产生与升级,而其中的道德责任是根本性的影响因子。面对日趋严峻的核安全形势,各国应该培植政治智慧与道德理性,强化共生意识和本体性安全,构建平等、正义的核安全合作机制,积极打造安全共同体,让参与者共享安全与和平。拥核国应该承担更大的道德责任,切实维护核不扩散体制,努力铲除核恐怖主义,稳步推进世界无核化进程。     

基于HFACS的海上浮动核电站人因失误影响因素研究

为了保证海上浮动核电站的安全运行,系统了解海上浮动核电站中存在的人因影响因素,以小型反应堆及船舶人因失误因素分析为基础,总结海上浮动核电站人因失误特点,建立了HFACS模型,从外部因素、组织因素、不安全监管、不安全行为前提条件以及不安全行为等5个方面探讨了海上浮动核电站人因失误影响因素,并从人、物、制度与程序、组织与管理等角度提出人因失误防控措施,为海上浮动核电站人因风险分析提供理论参考。     

江苏省核医学科关于新型冠状病毒肺炎疫情防控工作的意见和建议

新型冠状病毒感染的暴发已成为全球最具挑战性的公共卫生突发事件。在我国新型冠状病毒感染的肺炎被纳入传染病防治法规定的乙类传染病,采取甲类传染病管理。核医学科作为多个临床科室的“桥梁”,在实验室检查、临床影像检查及核素治疗中扮演重要角色,是科学防控的关键部门。为切实做好疫情防控工作,保证医疗质量和医疗安全,现根据核医学学科特点和性质及新型冠状病毒肺炎流行病学和传播特点,制定江苏省核医学科防控意见和建议。