Informal Disaster Governance

Scholars and practitioners are increasingly questioning formal disaster governance (FDG) approaches as being too rigid, slow, and command-and-control driven. Too often, local realities and non-formal influences are sidelined or ignored to the extent that disaster governance can be harmed through the efforts to impose formal and/or political structures. A contrasting narrative emphasises so-called bottom-up, local, and/or participatory approaches which this article proposes to encapsulate as Informal Disaster Governance (IDG). This article theorises IDG and situates it within the long-standing albeit limited literature on the topic, paying particular attention to the literature’s failure to properly define informal disaster risk reduction and response efforts, to conceptualise their far-reaching extent and consequences, and to consider their ‘dark sides.’ By presenting IDG as a framework, this article restores the conceptual importance and balance of IDG vis-à-vis FDG, paving the way for a better understanding of the ‘complete’ picture of disaster governance. This framework is then considered in a location where IDG might be expected to be more powerful or obvious, namely in a smaller, more isolated, and tightly knit community, characteristics which are stereotypically used to describe island locations. Thus, Svalbard in the Arctic has been chosen as a case study, including its handling of the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic, to explore the merits and challenges with shifting the politics of disaster governance towards IDG

Practical knowledge and abilities

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Linguistics and Philosophy, 2009.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 115-118).The thesis is an exploration of the relations between know-how, abilities, and ordinary knowledge of facts. It is shown that there is a distinctively practical sort of know-how and a corresponding interpretation of 'S knows how to [phi]', and that this special sort of know-how, while possessing representational content, is not simply ordinary knowledge-that. The view rests on a novel distinction between two interpretations of the Intellectualist slogan, familiar from the work of Gilbert Ryle, that know-how is a kind of knowledge-that. The distinction allows us to clarify the issues that are at stake in the debate and see the possibility of a position that combines aspects of both Intellectualism and anti-Intellectualism. An entailment from knowhow to a certain sort of ability is defended, and it is shown that the present view preserves the possibility of appealing to know-how to block Frank Jackson's "knowledge argument" against physicalism.by Ephraim N. Glick.Ph.D

Sampling Plans for Control-Inspection Schemes Under Independent and Dependent Sampling Designs With Applications to Photovoltaics

The evaluation of produced items at the time of delivery is, in practice, usually amended by at least one inspection at later time points. We extend the methodology of acceptance sampling for variables for arbitrary unknown distributions when additional sampling infor- mation is available to such settings. Based on appropriate approximations of the operating characteristic, we derive new acceptance sampling plans that control the overall operating characteristic. The results cover the case of independent sampling as well as the case of dependent sampling. In particular, we study a modified panel sampling design and the case of spatial batch sampling. The latter is advisable in photovoltaic field monitoring studies, since it allows to detect and analyze local clusters of degraded or damaged modules. Some finite sample properties are examined by a simulation study, focusing on the accuracy of estimation

Implementation of an emergency medicine research associates program: Sharing 20 years of experience

© 2018 Abar et al. Introduction: The use of research associates (RA) programs to facilitate study enrollment in the emergency department was initiated during the mid-1990s. The University of Rochester Medical Center (URMC) was an early adopting site for this model, which has experienced considerable growth and development over the past 20 years. Methods: Our goal was to detail the Emergency Department Research Associates (EDRA) program processes developed at the URMC that has led to our program’s sustainability and productivity. These processes, and the lessons learned during their development, can assist institutions seeking to establish an RA program or refine an existing program. Results: Defined procedures for selecting, training, and monitoring EDRAs have been created and refined with the goal of maximizing study enrollment and minimizing protocol deviations. Our EDRA program functions as a paid service center for investigators, and our EDRAs engage in a variety of study-related activities including screening and enrolling patients, administering surveys, collecting bio-specimens, and making follow-up calls. Over the past two years, our program has averaged 222 enrollments/month (standard deviation = 79.93), gathering roughly 25 participants per study per month. Conclusion: Our EDRA model has consistently resulted in some of the highest number of enrollments across a variety of recently funded, multi-center studies. Maintaining a high-quality EDRA program requires continual investment on the part of the leadership team, though the benefits to investigators within and outside the department outweigh these costs. [West J Emerg Med. 2018;19(3)606-612.

Prevalence and Genotype Distribution of HPV in Cytology Specimens Containing Atypical Glandular Cells: A Case Control Study

Introduction: Although the incidence of squamous cell cervical cancers in the U.S. has markedly declined over time with the introduction of the Papanicolaou (Pap) test, the incidence of glandular cell cancers has increased. The sensitivity of detecting lesions containing abnormal glandular cells is much lower than that for lesions containing abnormal squamous cells. While AGC-grade cytology results represent \u3c1% of all Pap test results reported annually in the U.S., up to 40% of them represent a corresponding high-grade lesion on the followup biopsy. Guidelines for managing AGC-grade cytology released in 2006 by the American Society for Colposcopy and Cervical Pathology include HPV testing. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence and genotype distribution of HPV in AGC-grade liquid-based cytology (LBC) specimens compared to control specimens negative for intraepithelial lesion or malignancy (NILM). Methods: Quest Diagnostics provided de-identified case and control LBC specimens. Cases were women with AGC-grade LBC specimens collected between 2007- 2012. Controls were a sample of women with NILM-grade LBC specimens collected between 2011-2012. DNA was extracted from LBC specimens using the QIAamp MinElute Media Kit (Qiagen Inc.) and amplified by PCR using the Linear Array HPV Genotyping Kit (Roche Molecular Inc.). To compare HPV prevalence and genotype distribution between AGC-grade cases and NILM controls, we used multivariate logistic regression to generate age-adjusted odds ratios (ORadj) and 95% confidence intervals (CI). Results: Fifty-three AGC-grade LBC specimens (mean age; 57 yrs, age range; 18-95 yrs) and 338 NILM LBC specimens (mean age; 45 yrs, age range; 20-91 yrs) were screened for 37 types of HPV DNA: 13 high-risk (HR) HPV types and 24 low-risk (LR) HPV types. Any HR-HPV was present in 34% of AGC-grade specimens and 7.4% of NILM specimens (ORadj=9.11; 95% CI: 4.08-20.33, p-value\u3c0.001). When limited to HPV 16/18, at least one was present in 20.1% of AGC-grade specimens and 1.2% of NILM specimens (ORadj=40.10, 95% CI: 10.73- 149.88, p-value\u3c0.001). In contrast, prevalence of low-risk (LR) HPV was similar between the two groups: 15% of AGC-grade specimens and 17.2% of NILM specimens (ORadj=0.91; 95% CI: 0.35-2.31, p-value=0.834). Conclusion: AGC-grade specimens were found to contain a significantly higher rate of HR-HPV, especially HPV types 16 or 18 when compared to NILM specimens. These findings support the earlier recommendation that HPV testing should be performed on LBC specimens with AGC-grade diagnosis and suggests that genotyping may be a useful addition to the follow up testing being performed

Top Management Team Diversity: A systematic Review

Empirical research investigating the impact of top management team (TMT) diversity on executives’ decision making has produced inconclusive results. To synthesize and aggregate the results on the diversity-performance link, a meta-regression analysis (MRA) is conducted. It integrates more than 200 estimates from 53 empirical studies investigating TMT diversity and its impact on the quality of executives’ decision making as reflected in corporate performance. The analysis contributes to the literature by theoretically discussing and empirically examining the effects of TMT diversity on corporate performance. Our results do not show a link between TMT diversity and performance but provide evidence for publication bias. Thus, the findings raise doubts on the impact of TMT diversity on performance

Does religion make a difference? : assessing the effects of Christian affiliation and practice on marital solidarity and divorce in Britain, 1985-2005

Marital breakdown rates were examined among 15,714 adults from the British Social Attitudes dataset for 1985-2005. Separation and divorce peaked at around 50 years of age, and increased significantly over the period of study. Ratios of separation or divorce were compared between respondents who had no religious affiliation and (a) Christian affiliates who attended church at least once a month, (b) Christian affiliates who attended church, but less than once a month, and (c) Christian affiliates who never attended church. The results showed that active Christians were 1.5 times less likely to suffer marital breakdown than non-affiliates, but there was no difference between affiliates who never attended church and those of no religion. Christians who attended infrequently were 1.3 times less likely to suffer marital breakdown compared to non-affiliates, suggesting that even infrequent attendance at church may have some significance for predicting the persistence of martial solidarity