Public relations professionals’ perspectives on the communication challenges and opportunities they face in the U.S. public sector

This study reports common challenges and opportunities 49 government public relations professionals face in the United States of America (U.S.) when communicating internally and externally. Following on from the primary public sector attributes proposed by Liu and Horsley (2007), the in-depth interviews revealed 13 common attributes that affected government communication practices. The study’s findings are useful for practitioners entering the government communication field in the U.S. and elsewhere, practitioners in other sectors who collaborate with government communicators, and academics developing communication theory for the under-researched public sector

A Zero-Inflated Box-Cox Normal Unipolar Item Response Model for Measuring Constructs of Psychopathology

This research introduces a latent class item response theory (IRT) approach for modeling item response data from zero-inflated, positively skewed, and arguably unipolar constructs of psychopathology. As motivating data, the authors use 4,925 responses to the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9), a nine Likert-type item depression screener that inquires about a variety of depressive symptoms. First, Lucke’s log-logistic unipolar item response model is extended to accommodate polytomous responses. Then, a nontrivial proportion of individuals who do not endorse any of the symptoms are accounted for by including a nonpathological class that represents those who may be absent on or at some floor level of the latent variable that is being measured by the PHQ-9. To enhance flexibility, a Box-Cox normal distribution is used to empirically determine a transformation parameter that can help characterize the degree of skewness in the latent variable density. A model comparison approach is used to test the necessity of the features of the proposed model. Results suggest that (a) the Box-Cox normal transformation provides empirical support for using a log-normal population density, and (b) model fit substantially improves when a nonpathological latent class is included. The parameter estimates from the latent class IRT model are used to interpret the psychometric properties of the PHQ-9, and a method of computing IRT scale scores that reflect unipolar constructs is described, focusing on how these scores may be used in clinical contexts

What Do Reviewers Want? Reflections on Editing the Journal for the Past Year

The peer review process can be challenging. In this essay, the journal’s editor and editorial assistant present a summary of reviewers’ comments to authors from the past year. In presenting themes across 79 reviews, this essay arms authors with knowledge about reviewers’ expectations for manuscripts submitted to the journal. A secondary aim of this essay is to encourage reviewers to continue providing supportive and helpful feedback. As the journal heads into its third year of publishing, we are well on our way to creating the first home for high-quality risk and crisis communication research from around the globe

The death of bin Laden: How Russian and U.S. media frame counterterrorism

This study explored how Russian and U.S. newspapers covered the death of Osama bin Laden in 2011 through the lens of framing theory. Results reflect significant disparity in how media in different countries covered the same event, suggesting that terrorism events were framed as national concerns rather than global issues, thus potentially limiting governments and the media from building a shared understanding with international audiences. The findings also indicate that more robust media relations efforts are needed to counter simplistic media counterterrorism frames. Finally, the study identified new frames for counterterrorism including secrecy and humanizing terrorists. These new frames suggest the need to expand the framing literature to provide a better understanding of how the media cover counterterrorism, which may impact the U.S. government\u27s public diplomacy and counterterrorism efforts. © 2014 Elsevier Inc

Playing politics in the development and provision of disaster information for Hispanics

This study examines how states and counties communicate disaster information to Hispanics. Through 13 interviews with state emergency management communicators and a national survey of 435 county emergency management directors, the study benchmarks how many channels states and counties employ to communicate Spanish-language disaster information. The study addresses who state emergency management communicators and county emergency management directors believe should be responsible for developing and providing Spanish-language disaster information. Also, the study explores county emergency management directors' perceptions of how capable various nongovernmental and governmental groups are of producing Spanish-language disaster information. Finally, the study explores whether principal-agent theory helps explain the variety of channels states and counties employ to communicate Spanish-language disaster information. The interviews revealed that most of the state emergency management communicators do not provide Spanish-language disaster information. Communicators that do provide Spanish-language disaster information do so mostly through working with groups (e.g., Catholic Church, American Red Cross, and local government officials) to develop this information. The interviews also revealed that communicators think counties primarily are responsible for developing and providing Spanish-language disaster information. iv The survey found that most of the counties communicate Spanish-language disaster information through at least one channel, but counties communicate English-language disaster information through three times more channels. Also, contrary to what state communicators believe, county emergency management directors believe the federal emergency management agency (FEMA) and states primarily are responsible for developing and providing Spanish-language disaster information. County directors also believe FEMA and the states are most capable of developing Spanish-language disaster information. These findings provide evidence that goal conflict (one of the key constructs of principal-agent theory) exists between the states and counties. Also, the survey found that one of the most important factors that affects the variety of channels county emergency management directors employ to communicate Spanish-language disaster information is how often the directors work with groups such as FEMA, state emergency management agencies, and nongovernmental groups. Like state communicators, county directors work with a diverse set of groups. Thus, no single group emerges as a leader in producing and providing Spanish-language disaster information. Also, there is no clear channel through which states and counties communicate about how best to produce and provide Spanish-language disaster information, providing evidence of information asymmetry (the other key construct of principal-agent theory)

Deviations from the Expected Relationship Between Serum FGF23 and Other Markers in Children with CKD: a cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: High levels of fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF23) are associated with mortality. In chronic kidney disease (CKD), FGF23 levels rise as renal function declines. We analyzed the contribution of laboratory values to the variance of FGF23 levels in relationship to a curve of expected FGF23 levels for a given GFR. METHODS: Following approval by the research ethics boards, we measured FGF23, CysC eGFR, creatinine, urea, albumin, calcium, phosphate, vitamin D metabolites, PTH, alkaline phosphatase, CRP, and venous gases in 141 pediatric CKD patients (45, 37, 32, 13 and 14 CKD stages I, II, III, IV, and V, respectively). Data were expressed as median (25th, 75th percentile). RESULTS: FGF23 correlated significantly with CysC, CysC eGFR, PTH, 1.25 (OH) CONCLUSIONS: Our data emphasize the importance of phosphate and 1.25 (OH