Immersive simulation and experimental design in risk and crisis management: Implications for learning

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Advancing the operationalization of national policy styles

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Advancing the operationalization of national policy styles

While national policy styles have (re)gained academic attention in recent comparative public policy work, the concept still needs a widely accepted operationalization that can allow the collection and analysis of data across contexts while steering away from construct validity threats. We build on Tosun and Howlett's (2022) work and employ a mixed‐methods approach, which relies on exploratory factor analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis. We put forth an operationalization, using Bertelsmann's Sustainable Governance Indicators (SGI) as proxies, that achieves conceptual clarity and distinctiveness, informational robustness, and statistical power. Ultimately, we construct two composite indicators—mode of problem‐solving and inclusiveness—calculate them in 41 countries and present policy style classifications based on their combinations. We report the distribution of countries across four policy styles (administrative, managerial, accommodative, adversarial) and conclude with an analysis of the clusters, assessments of robustness, and comparison with other national policy style classification schemes

Breastfeeding and risk of childhood brain tumors : a report from the Childhood Cancer and Leukemia International Consortium

PURPOSE: Studies report mixed findings regarding the association of breastfeeding with childhood brain tumors (CBT), the leading causes of cancer-related mortality in young people. Our objective was to determine whether breastfeeding is associated with CBT incidence. METHODS: We pooled data on N = 2610 cases with CBT (including 697 cases with astrocytoma, 447 cases with medulloblastoma/primitive neuroectodermal tumor [PNET], 167 cases with ependymoma) and N = 8128 age- and sex-matched controls in the Childhood Cancer and Leukemia International Consortium. We computed unconditional logistic regression models to estimate the odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence interval (CI) of CBT, astrocytoma, medulloblastoma/PNET, and ependymoma according to breastfeeding status, adjusting for study, sex, mode of delivery, birthweight, age at diagnosis/interview, maternal age at delivery, maternal educational attainment, and maternal race/ethnicity. We evaluated any breastfeeding versus none and breastfeeding ≥ 6 months versus none. We subsequently performed random effects meta-analysis to confirm our findings, identify potential sources of heterogeneity, and evaluate for outliers or influential studies. RESULTS: Breastfeeding was reported by 64.8% of control mothers and 64.5% of case mothers and was not associated with CBT (OR 1.04, 95% CI 0.94-1.15), astrocytoma (OR 1.01, 95% CI 0.87-1.17), medulloblastoma/PNET (OR 1.11, 95% CI 0.93-1.32), or ependymoma (OR 1.06, 95% CI 0.81-1.40). Results were similar when we restricted to breastfeeding ≥ 6 months and in meta-analyses. CONCLUSION: Our data suggest that breastfeeding does not protect against CBT

Nonchromosomal birth defects and risk of childhood acute leukemia : An assessment in 15 000 leukemia cases and 46 000 controls from the Childhood Cancer and Leukemia International Consortium

Although recent studies have demonstrated associations between nonchromosomal birth defects and several pediatric cancers, less is known about their role on childhood leukemia susceptibility. Using data from the Childhood Cancer and Leukemia International Consortium, we evaluated associations between nonchromosomal birth defects and childhood leukemia. Pooling consortium data from 18 questionnaire-based and three registry-based case-control studies across 13 countries, we used multivariable logistic regression models to estimate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between a spectrum of birth defects and leukemia. Our analyses included acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL, n = 13 115) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML, n = 2120) cases, along with 46 172 controls. We used the false discovery rate to account for multiple comparisons. In the questionnaire-based studies, the prevalence of birth defects was 5% among cases vs 4% in controls, whereas, in the registry-based studies, the prevalence was 11% among cases vs 7% in controls. In pooled adjusted analyses, there were several notable associations, including (1) digestive system defects and ALL (OR = 2.70, 95% CI: 1.46-4.98); (2) congenital anomalies of the heart and circulatory system and AML (OR = 2.86, 95% CI: 1.81-4.52) and (3) nervous system defects and AML (OR = 4.23, 95% CI: 1.50-11.89). Effect sizes were generally larger in registry-based studies. Overall, our results could point to novel genetic and environmental factors associated with birth defects that could also increase leukemia susceptibility. Additionally, differences between questionnaire- and registry-based studies point to the importance of complementary sources of birth defect phenotype data when exploring these associations

Theories of the Policy Process: Contemporary Scholarship and Future Directions

The object of policy research is the understanding of the interaction among the machinery of the state, political actors, and the public. To facilitate this understanding, a number of complementary theories have developed in the course of more than two decades. This article reviews recent scholarship on the established theories of the policy process, mostly published in 2011 and 2012. Additionally, scholarship extending these theories is identified and new theories of policy process are discussed. This review finds that the established theories have generated substantive scholarship during the period under review and have also been the springboard for much of the recent thinking in policy research.</p

Cognitive frailty: a brief review

Frailty syndrome and cognitive decline, conditions linked with aging, jeopardize health status and promote an individual’s dependence on daily living activities. Various models include cognition in the assessment of frailty, but recently a new term has been proposed, called “Cognitive Frailty’’, originally presented as a probable outcome of frailty, but later it has been proposed to be an early sign of the syndrome. Cognitive frailty encompasses both the physical and the cognitive domain, explored as a unique entity, and includes two subtypes, the reversible and the potentially reversible cognitive frailty. Most studies examine cognition as another domain of frailty, using different methods for the assessment of both frailty and the status of cognition. In the present article, various definitions of the frailty syndrome and cognitive frailty as well as screening tools are reviewed. The link between cognitive impairment and frailty, and the common pathophysiological mechanisms such as neuropathological, vascular and metabolic factors, inflammation, hormones and nutrition are explored. Finally, this review presents the effects of multi-domain and single domain interventions, conducted in physical and/or cognitively frail populations that may be applied to the prevention and management of cognitive frailty.</jats:p

Political Entrepreneurship in Swedish : Towards a (Re)Theorization of Entrepreneurial Agency

Public policies affect all of us, regardless of who we are or where we live. The study of public policymaking necessarily entails the study of the entire political system and to this end, researchers employ a multitude of frameworks, theories, and models, which tend to be complementary rather than mutually exclusive. The focus of this dissertation is on political entrepreneurship as an actor-based framework to examine and understand policy change. The dissertation’s main aim is to conceptually enhance entrepreneurship and the entrepreneur in the polis by leveraging them in the Swedish political context. In this research, political entrepreneurship and the political entrepreneur are examined in the background of the Swedish corporatist policymaking system with its consensual sensibilities. The five (two theoretical and three empirical) papers as well as the cover essay comprising this dissertation attempt to answer the following questions: first, how do contextual factors inform the realization of entrepreneurial agency? Second, how do contextual factors inform the strategies entrepreneurial actors use to affect change? Third, what is the role of political entrepreneurship and the political entrepreneur in macro-level theories such as critical junctures and policy transfer? Contextual factors here are understood to be the general political system; the level of governance; the substantive policy sector, and the stage of the policy process. Predominantly qualitative methods and a variety of analytical tools, ranging from formal social network analysis (SNA) to process tracing are used to investigate the research questions in the national, regional, and local levels of governance and in the fields of crisis management, risk governance, and economic development respectively. Findings suggest that overwhelmingly, political entrepreneurs come from the ranks of public officials and thus political entrepreneurship is a feature of the policy implementation stage rather than the agenda setting stage of policymaking. There is not a place for the outsider, single issue entrepreneur in the Swedish consensual system, which provides for extensive inclusion, but of actors organized in interest groups. Political entrepreneurs are action-oriented, problem solving doers, characterized by perseverance and resourcefulness and are key in consolidating policy change in the aftermath of a crisis. Though in broad terms the strategies political entrepreneurs use in the Swedish context are concomitant with the ones used in pluralistic contexts, specificities diverge. In the Swedish corporatist consensual system, political entrepreneurship becomes a conduit facilitating interconnections among a multitude of actors; opens up additional channels of communication, while the political entrepreneur is a network maker. Finally, political entrepreneurship is focused on forging a consensus rather than winning the competition: the art of quiet cooperation and collaboration. Den offentliga politiken berör alla medborgare, oavsett vem man är och var man bor. Forskning om policyskapande och politiskt beslutsfattande omfattar det hela politiska systemet. Därför använder sig forskare av ett stort antal komplementära ramverk, teorier och modeller. Denna avhandling använder politiskt entreprenörskap som ett aktörsbaserat ramverkför att undersöka och förstå policyförändring. Avhandlingens huvudsyfte är att utveckla de teoretiska begreppen ”politiskt entreprenörskap”och ”politiska entreprenörer” genom att undersöka dem inom det svenska politiska systemet. Avhandlingen består av en kappa och fem artiklar, varav två är uteslutande teoretiska och tre omfattar analys av empiriskt material. Alla fem söker att besvara följande forskningsfrågor: Först, hur påverkar kontextuella faktorer möjliggörandet av entreprenöriell agens? För det andra, hur präglar kontextuella faktorer de strategier som entreprenöriella aktörer använder sig av för att åstadkomma förändring? För det tredje, vilken roll har politiskt entreprenörskap och politiska entreprenörer i makroteorier, särskilt critical junctures och policy transfer? Med kontextuella faktorer avses här det politiska systemets karaktär; governance-nivå; policyområde, och stadie i policyprocessen. Forskningsfrågorna undersöks huvudsakligen genom kvalitativa metoder; data analyseras med formell social nätverksanalys, innehållsanalys och process-spårning. Studierna behandlar olika politiska områden på olika politiska nivåer: krishantering på den nationella nivån, risk-governance på den regionala nivån och tillväxt på den lokala nivån. Resultaten visar att  politiska entreprenörer huvudsakligen återfinns bland byråkrater, vilket innebär att politiskt entreprenörskap sker i implementeringen av policyer snarare än i det politiska agendasättandet. Svensk korporatism kännetecknas av en omfattande inkludering av aktörer som organiserar sig inom intressegrupper. Däremot finns litet utrymme för enskilda politiska entreprenörer. Politiska entreprenörer beskrivs ofta som handlingsinriktade problemlösare, uthålliga och rådiga. Efter samhällskriser  är  de viktiga  i  förändringen av policyer. Även om de strategier som svenska politiska entreprenörer tillämpar i stort sett liknar de som används inom pluralistiska  system, finns det också flera  skillnader. Inom den svenska korporatismen, blir politiskt entreprenörskap en kanal som underlättar kopplingar mellan flera olika aktörer–entreprenören blir en nätverkskapare. Politiskt entreprenörskap i Sverige tycks handla om att skapa konsensus snarare än att vinna i konkurrens: det är det tysta samarbetets och samverkans konst.Vid tidpunkten för disputationen var följande delarbeten opublicerade: delarbete 3 inskickat, delarbete 4 accepterat, delarbete 5 inskickat.At the time of the doctoral defence the following papers were unpublished: paper 3 submitted, paper 4 accepted, paper 5 submitted.</p

Entrepreneurship in the Swedish municipal polis : the case of Mer [*] Östersund

Scholars in political science and policy studies have been paying increasing attention to a specific kind of actor, the policy entrepreneur, as an agent of change. Less attention has been paid to the contextual factors that may shape entrepreneurial action as most of the extant research is performed in pluralistic systems and in high complexity policy sectors. This is a study of a routine planning process in the municipality of ostersund in Northern Sweden with the purpose of studying the kind of actors that may act entrepreneurially (the who); the kind of strategies they use; and what contextual powers facilitate these strategies (the how). This two-and-a-half-year routine, low-complexity process was analyzed with in-depth interviews and a survey, participant observation, document analysis, and formal social network analysis. Findings suggest that professional administrators acted entrepreneurially by employing a set of six strategies while the members of civil society were central - though not entrepreneurial - participants