Salience: Agenda Choices by Competing Candidates

Which issues are discussed by candidates in an election campaign? Why are some issues never discussed? Model tractability is lost quickly when dealing with these questions, partly because of the multidimensional voting inherent in models of multiple issues. Our model features two candidates for office who can talk about any subset of issues, allowing uncertainty both on the part of voters and candidates, and taking candidates to be office motivated. Candidates move first and simultaneously, announcing any positions they choose on any issues. To us, salience is simply the discussion of an issue in a campaign. If both candidates and voters are expected utility maximizers, we find salience results, in that candidates typically want to talk about everything (or they are indifferent between talking and nonsalience). Leaving the expected utility framework, we present an example using “Knightian uncertainty” or “maxmin expected utility with multiple priors” of Gilboa-Schmeidler to illustrate how robust nonsalience and salience of issues might be generated.Salience, Candidate Competition, Elections, Knightian Uncertainty, Non-Expected Utility Theory, Maxmin Expected Utility with Multiple Priors, Gilboa-Schmeidler, Ambiguity Aversion

Spousal Caregiver Narratives and Credible Authority: Uncertainty in Illness of Spousal Caregivers

This article is taken from a larger longitudinal study that used caregiver interviews, caregiver surveys, and caregiver statistical information of one community. The interviews were conducted with six spousal caregivers to examine the narratives produced by spouses actively caring for their partners with dementia. The spousal caregivers were interviewed multiple times over approximately 12 to 18 months. The author was the caregiver counselor and had worked in the community in social services for fifteen years. The narratives were analyzed using a phenomenological approach that allowed the development of descriptions of uncertainty and sharing caregiver narratives with a specialized audience. The duality of caregiver uncertainty based on making decisions for and about cognitively impaired care recipients is evident in diagnosis, safety, end-of-life decisions, and the caregivers’ health. The choice of professional listeners as the audience when talking about uncertainty in illness relates to the importance of credible authority in reducing caregiver uncertainty

PROJECT GOVERNANCE – PHASES AND LIFE CYCLE

When talking about projects, the barrier is clear: successful and failed. Some fail due to different reasons, but lack of good project and risk management played a large part. Others succeed largely because of the rigorous and disciplined application of good project practices. But both groups illustrate many points that underline and demonstrate important concepts applicable to current projects. Systematic application of good methods leads to successful outcomes in projects of all types. All projects are fundamentally dependent on people, and human beings are not very different today than we were hundreds, or even thousands, of years ago. This paper uncovers main elements in projects area such as the concepts and governance of projects, with an underline of the main characteristics and the projects phases and life cycle that erase the uncertainty that joins all the projects built at any time.project management, project life-cycle

Sexual Risk Taking Among Young Adults in Cape Town: Effects of Expected Health and Income

The wide prevalence of HIV in Africa has long been associated with seemingly irrational levels of sexual risk taking. Hence understanding the rationale behind risky sexual behavior is critical for designing effective prevention policies. This paper empirically assesses links between expectations of future health and income on sexual risk taking. An important contribution of the paper lies in combining a wide range of variables measuring risky sexual behavior such that the maximum information possible is extracted from, and adequate weights are attached to each measure, as opposed to previous studies that are based on individual measures or arbitrary aggregations. The findings indicate that expected income and health and future uncertainty are significant determinants of current patterns of sexual risk taking. From a policy perspective, the results suggest that reducing poverty and improving social insurance as well as reducing the taboo related to talking about HIV, and further investigating the relatively low degree of condom use of women may constitute important issues to be addressed.

Relationship Talk With Partners and Friends During Emerging Adulthood: The Role of Relationship Satisfaction

Research indicates that discussing one’s romantic relationship with one’s partner benefits individual well-being and reduces uncertainty about the future of the relationship. Implications of relationship talk with friends remain less clear, though talking with friends may actually increase uncertainty about the relationship (e.g., by making one’s partner jealous of these friends), particularly for emerging adults. Relationship talk with friends may be especially likely to promote relational uncertainty for couples who are already unsatisfied in their relationships. In this study, we explored whether relationship talk with one’s partner and one’s friends would each be uniquely associated with depressive symptoms and uncertainty about the relationship, specifically in the form of perceived partner jealousy of one’s friends and whether these associations would be moderated by relationship satisfaction. Results from a series of path models using data from 202 romantically involved emerging adults in the United States revealed that associations between relationship talk and outcomes were indeed moderated by relationship satisfaction. For example, only in unsatisfied relationships was relationship talk with friends positively associated with a partner\u27s jealousy and negatively associated with depressive symptoms. This research expands our understanding of relationship talk by differentiating between talk with partners versus friends, while considering the contextual role of relationship satisfaction

I Know I Can: Feeling Confident About Discussing Cancer May Help Couples\u27 Cancer Management

Managing chronic illness, especially something like cancer, affects more than the diagnosed person. Cancer also affects partners, families, and loved ones. In our study, we were interested in how cancer affects communication patterns between survivors and their partners. We wanted to apply a model that explains chronic illness management in couples to see if we could determine how parts of a relationship, uncertainty about cancer prognosis, and the confidence people have in talking with partners about the cancer affect couples’ ability to manage the disease

Look Who's Talking Now: Implications of AV's Explanations on Driver's Trust, AV Preference, Anxiety and Mental Workload

Explanations given by automation are often used to promote automation adoption. However, it remains unclear whether explanations promote acceptance of automated vehicles (AVs). In this study, we conducted a within-subject experiment in a driving simulator with 32 participants, using four different conditions. The four conditions included: (1) no explanation, (2) explanation given before or (3) after the AV acted and (4) the option for the driver to approve or disapprove the AV's action after hearing the explanation. We examined four AV outcomes: trust, preference for AV, anxiety and mental workload. Results suggest that explanations provided before an AV acted were associated with higher trust in and preference for the AV, but there was no difference in anxiety and workload. These results have important implications for the adoption of AVs.Comment: 42 pages, 5 figures, 3 Table

Family communication about donor conception : a qualitative study with lesbian parents

In this qualitative study of 10 lesbian couples who built their families through anonymous donor conception, we explore how lesbian parents experience communication about the donor conception within the family. While for these families disclosure of donor conception is often seen as evident, the way parents and children discuss this subject and how this is experienced by the parents themselves has not received much research attention. To meet this gap in the literature, in-depth interviews with lesbian couples were conducted. An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis showed that this family communication process can be understood within the broader relational context of parent-child relationships. Even though parents handled this family communication in many different ways, these were all inspired by the same motives: acting in the child's best interest andon a more implicit levelmaintaining good relations within the family. Furthermore, parents left the initiative for talking about the DC mostly to the child. Overall, parents aimed at constructing a donor conception narrative that they considered acceptable for both the children and themselves. They used different strategies, such as gradual disclosure, limiting the meaning of the donor, and justifying the donor conception. Building an acceptable donor conception narrative was sometimes challenged by influences from the social environment. In the discussion, we relate this qualitative systemic study to the broader issues of selective disclosure and bidirectionality within families