Public perceptions and community issues

This paper is the seventh in a series of 8 that make up the evidence base for SDC report 'The role of nuclear power in a low carbon economy'.Publisher PD

Increasing Public Perceptions of Stroke

Analysis of publicly available data for the selected county of Rutland Vermont was performed to understand the underlying health problems affecting the county. Although VT overall has better health status indicators, including better access to care, and lower rates of chronic diseases than the nation, pockets of the state have higher rates of chronic diseases including obesity, DM, and cerebrovascular accidents. Increasing awareness of stroke risk factors and symptoms is a cost-effective method to reduced stroke burden and provide successful treatment.https://scholarworks.uvm.edu/fmclerk/1621/thumbnail.jp

Nonprofit Organizations Improving Public Relations through an Analysis of Public Perceptions

Hilltop Neighborhood Child Care Center is a critical support system for low-income families. The internal perceptions and the external perceptions need to be identified to better serve the organization and the community (its publics). This organization-public relations (OPR) emphasis through interviews, surveys, and focus groups will be the basis of an organizational strategic plan and a public relations campaign

Public Perceptions of the Midwest’s Pavements: Policies and Tradeoffs in Pavement Improvement

With the budget crisis plaguing so many states, pavement management will compete more vigorously for limited funds. Findings reported from a tri-state pooled-fund research project provide insights and guidelines for pavement improvement derived from the perceptions of the driving public. The Phase II responses from statewide surveys in Iowa, Minnesota, and Wisconsin address the topics of perceptions of the State Departments of Transportation (DOTs), pavement repair tradeoffs, and pavement evaluation. The results disclose specific public perceptions of priorities for spending limited highway funds. Implications for pavement management, policy, planning, as well as for marketing to garner additional funds are explored

Public perceptions of Australia’s universities

This report finds that universities are well regarded by the Australian public and business community.During 2012 Universities Australia reached out to the public and stakeholders to elicit their views and understanding of universities to assist in formulating its first ever policy statement. This included conducting a series of university community forums, engaging directly with decision makers and interested groups such as business. It involved qualitative and quantitative research, including focus groups and a survey of 1000 members of the Australian public and 300 business employers.The data was weighted to be representative of the Australian population and the whole business community. The research was intended to assist Universities Australia to better understand the levels of knowledge about the role Australia\u27s universities play in Australian life.The research has found that while universities are held in high regard and are strongly valued for their contribution to the economy and society, there is a desire to know more. It is also clear that Australians feel there is a need for the university sector to more actively participate in debates about issues important to our national interest.&nbsp

Recent Polling on Public Perceptions of Climate Change

A 2008 collection of polling data on public perceptions of climate change, including:CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll: June 26-29, 2008; sampled 1026 adults nationwide49% feel that the protection of the environment should be given priority even at the risk of curbing economic growth.CNN/Opinion Research Corporation Poll: June 4-5, 2008; sampled 1035 adults nationwide.54% believe that global warming is a proven fact and is mostly caused by emissions from cars and industrial facilities such as power plants and factories.52% would favor a plan to reduce global warming where the government sets up a cap and trade system for polluting industries

The Relationship Between Demographic Characteristics, Types of Contact with Police, and Perceptions of Police

Police officers play a very important role in their communities, considering they need to interact with the public in order to carry out their duties. For that reason, the relationship between the public and police officers has been the focus of many studies. The current study analyzed data from the 2011 Police-Public Contact Survey (n= 49,246). The study was conducted in three separate parts - the relationship between individual demographic characteristics and type of contact with the police, individual demographic characteristics and perceptions of police, and type of contact with the police and perceptions of the police. The results from this study were consistent with previous findings from studies that used smaller populations, as it was found that women were more likely to have voluntary contact with police than men, non-Hispanics had more voluntary contact with police than those of Hispanic Origin, women reported more positive perceptions of police, there was a positive relationship between age and perception of the police, and those who had voluntary contact had a more positive perception of police officers than those who had involuntary contact

Public Perceptions of the Midwest’s Pavements - Wisconsin - Executive Summary

This report summarizes Wisconsin results of a five year, Pooled Fund study involving the Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota DOTs designed to 1) assess the public\u27s perceptions of the departments’ pavement improvement strategies and 2) to develop customer-based thresholds of satisfaction with pavements on rural two lane highways in each state as related to the Departments’ physical indices, such as pavement ride and condition. The primary objective was to seek systematic customer input to improve the Departments’ pavement improvement policies by 1) determining how drivers perceive the departments’ pavements in terms of comfort and convenience but also in terms of other tradeoffs departments had not previously considered, 2) determining relationships between perceptions and measured pavement condition thresholds (including a general level of tolerance of winter ride conditions in two of the states, including Wisconsin), and 3) identifying important attributes and issues that may not have been considered in the past. Secondary objectives were 1) to provide a tool for systematic customer input in the future and 2) provide information which can help structure public information programs. A University of Wisconsin-Extension survey lab conducted the surveys under the direction of a multi-disciplinary team from Marquette University. Approximately 4500 drivers in the three states participated in the three phases of the project. Researchers conducted six focus groups in each state, approximately 400 statewide telephone interviews in each state and 700-800 targeted telephone interviews in each state. Approximately 400 winter ride interviews were conducted in Wisconsin and Minnesota. A summary of the method for each survey is included. In Phase I, focus groups were conducted with drivers to get an initial indication of what the driving public believes in regards to pavements and to frame issues for inclusion in the more representative state-wide surveys of drivers conducted in Phase II of the project. Phase II interviews gathered information about improvement policy trade-off issues and about preliminary thresholds of improvement in terms of physical pavement indices. In Phase III, a two step recruitment and post-drive interview procedure yielded thresholds of ride and condition index summarized for each state. Results show that, in general, the driving public is tolerant of a poorer ride in Winter and they understand the cause. The driving public wants longer lasting pavements and are willing to pay for them. They want to minimize construction delay, improve entire sections of highway at one time but they dislike detours, and prefer construction under traffic even if it stretches out construction time. Satisfaction with pavements does not correlate directly to a high degree with physical pavement indices, but was found instead to be a complex, multi-faceted phenomenon. A psychological model (after Fishbein/Ajzen) was applied to explain satisfaction to a respectable degree (R2 of .7) for the social sciences. Results also indicate a high degree of trust in the three DOTs which is enhanced when the public is asked for input on specific highway segments. Conclusions and recommendations include a three-step methodology for other state studies. Physical data thresholds based on both public satisfaction and the agreement to improve are presented for each state’s physical pavement indices (ride and condition). Recommended changes to the quality ranges of the physical indices where appropriate are also made

Public Perceptions of the Midwest’s Pavements - Iowa - Phase III

There are several objectives to this report. The first objective is to describe the sample with regard to the physical pavement data and three measures of driver satisfaction. In this section, the proportion of respondents who are satisfied with pavements on two-lane, rural, state highways will be examined and the distribution of pavement condition and roughness indices will be presented. The second objective will be a short description of the highway segments and any differences in satisfaction found between regions and pavement types. This was done in Phase II in each state and a letter sent showing the results in all three states. That letter sets forth the revised work plan and budget for Phase III of the project. The third objective is to describe the relationship between physical pavement characteristics and driver satisfaction. This will include a description of both the magnitude of relationship as well as identifying critical International Road Index (IRI) and Pavement Condition Index (PCI) cutoffs where a majority of the sample were satisfied. This will be done for comparative purposes with the Phase II approach, using the total sample to compute cumulative percentages responding to each of the three series of satisfaction questions

Media Discourse and the Feminization of Poverty

Source diversity models suggest that by using non-conventional, non-official sources for news content, the prevailing perceptions about poor people and their needs would be undermined in news coverage. This study found that major newspapers are making efforts to diversify the sources quoted in their coverage of poverty issues. However, the portrayals of poor people have not changed, particularly for women and people of color. Results of this study suggest that source diversity research must go further to explore how sources are used to address the problems of the poor and how media influence public perceptions of public policy related to welfare and welfare reform