Utilization of Crowdsourced Maps in Catastrophic Disasters

Crowdsourced data, the collective messages from citizens through social media like Twitter® or Facebook®, have been increasingly recognized as a vital information source in a catastrophic disaster. Because there is often insufficient emergency personnel to gather situational information during a big disaster, the crowdsourced data can offer a supplemental means for data collection or dissemination immediately after the disaster. In addition, crowdsourced maps can empower citizens with their involvement. In the Haiti earthquake of 2010, crowdsourced data was first used to create a web map application to aid the humanitarian effort. With some success in Haiti, these crowdsourced maps have since been created for other disasters in many countries. However, although the crowdsourced map showed great potential, it also revealed a major shortcoming: most first responders did not use the crowdsourced map. This thesis addresses the issues associated with using crowdsourced maps in the responder community and seeks a possible solution for increasing utilization by first responders during catastrophic disasters. Citizen messages from the Japan earthquake of 2011 were analyzed and filtered by categories best suited for responders. Then, considering the technological difficulties experienced immediately following the disaster, the best communication means were explored to complete two-way communication between responders and citizens

A break from pain! Interruption management in the context of pain

Activity interruptions, namely temporary suspensions of an ongoing task with the intention to resume it later, are common in pain. First, pain is a threat signal that urges us to interrupt ongoing activities in order to manage the pain and its cause. Second, activity interruptions are used in chronic pain management. However, activity interruptions by pain may carry costs for activity performance. These costs have recently started to be systematically investigated. We review the evidence on the consequences of activity interruptions by pain for the performance of the interrupted activity. Further, inspired by literature on interruptions from other research fields, we suggest ways to improve interruption management in the field of pain, and provide a future research agenda

東日本大震災後の態度・規範に関する心理学的研究

Tohoku University阿部恒之課

Government and Nongovernmental Collaboration to Build Community Resiliency Against Terrorism in Oklahoma City

The way communities build resiliency and prepare for acts of terrorism is ambiguous in the United States; best practices remain unclear. Due to mobility and advancements in communication technologies, individuals and organizations share information, incite anger, recruit, and act on ideological grievances with ease. Such grievances are bolstered by the political and social exclusion of disparate groups through poorly designed policies and ineffective government structures. Using a combination of social constructivism and systems thinking theories, this case study explored collaboration efforts between government agencies and nongovernment experts in Oklahoma City, OK, identifying best practices as a result of lessons learned following the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Data were acquired through public records related to the bombing, combined with a qualitative survey of 31 community leaders. These data were inductively coded and subjected to a thematic analysis procedure. Key findings indicate that while open communication with the community and increased coordination were suggested by participants, reports were kept internal to each agency and not widely shared or implemented effectively across the community. Sharing the identified best practices and acknowledging collaboration opportunities promotes positive social change by involving the broader community and building early resiliency to address ideologic grievances and create more effective community counterterrorism plans

Information Flow Impediments in Disaster Relief Supply Chains

Supply Chain Management (SCM) is seldom more difficult than during disaster relief efforts. As supply chains quickly form in response to a disaster, a slow information flow presents a major hindrance to coordinating the allocation of resources necessary for disaster relief efforts. This paper identifies impediments to the flow of information through supply chains following large scale and catastrophic disasters. Given the scarce body of literature on this subject, a grounded theory case study was conducted to examine an extreme case. The study concentrates on the efforts of multiple organizations and individuals that provided relief in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, which battered the Gulf Coast of the southeastern United States in late 2005. Data was gathered from diverse sources, including government agencies, profit and non-profit organizations, and individuals, during and after the disaster. Based on our data analysis, we not only identify information flow impediments (i.e., inaccessibility, inconsistent data and information formats, inadequate stream of information, low information priority, source identification difficulty, storage media misalignment, unreliability, and unwillingness), but also identify likely sources of these impediments, and examine their consequences to organizations’ disaster recovery efforts. Our findings suggest some potential design principles for devising solutions capable of reducing or alleviating the impact of information flow impediments in future disasters

Towards a science and practice of resilience in the face of pain

The primary objective of this paper is to discuss how a resilience approach to (chronic) pain may advance our current understanding of (mal)adaptation to pain. Different resilience perspectives are described, and future challenges for research, prevention and treatment of (chronic) pain are discussed. Literature searches were performed in Web of Science and PubMed to identify relevant literature on risk and resilience in the context of pain. Resilience can be best defined as the ability to restore and sustain living a fulfilling life in the presence of pain. The Psychological Flexibility Model, the Broaden-and-Build Theory, and Self-Determination Theory are described as theories that may provide insight into resilience within the context of (chronic) pain. We describe how a resilience paradigm shifts the outcomes to pursue in pain research and intervention and argue the need for including positive outcomes in addition to negative outcomes. Psychological flexibility, positive affect and basic psychological needs satisfaction are described as potentially important resilience mechanisms with the potential to target both sustainability and recovery from pain. A resilience approach to chronic pain may have important implications for the prevention and treatment of chronic pain problems, as it may give specific indications on how to empower patients to continue living a fulfilling life (in the presence of pain)

The Interaction of Motivational Orientation and Social Context in a Flight Setting

The purpose of this study was to explore the effects of motivational orientation and social context on decisions made during flight. Cultural dimensions such as power distance, uncertainty avoidance and individualism have been found to correlate with aviation accident rates. Self-determination theory provides a schedule of social contexts and cues that support, control or thwart individual motivation, with the task-focused properties of intrinsic motivation and the external (group) focus of extrinsic motivation similar to descriptions of the cultural dimensions of individualism and collectivism. In addition, studies have demonstrated contextual cues may be used to prime cognitive goals, behaviors and strategies. The motivational orientation of 48 instrument pilots was measured prior to their participation in a simulated flight exercise that contained contextual primes to continue into or turn away from adverse weather conditions. Extrinsically motivated participants were observed to be vulnerable to external suggestions. This vulnerability has the potential to affect decisions made in flight. Risk assessment programs and reducing controlling factors in the flight environment can be used to mitigate this phenomenon