Trust in Emergency Management Authorities and Individual Emergency Preparedness for Tornadoes

The risks associated with disasters can be significantly reduced if individuals are well prepared according to the orders and recommendations of emergency management authorities such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and local government. Despite this fact, there is evidence that individuals are not cooperative with these authorities and are therefore underprepared for an emergency. This article argues that individual trust in emergency management authorities may affect their cooperation with emergency preparedness recommendations. Using unique survey data, this study finds a nuanced relationship between individual emergency preparedness for tornadoes and trust in emergency management authorities. Although trust in FEMA in isolation does not explain variations in individual preparedness for tornadoes, increased preparation for a tornado is explained by trust in local government contingent upon a low baseline level of trust in FEMA. This article concludes with some practical and theoretical implications for emergency management authorities and scholars

The symbolic effect of minority representation and perceptions of the majority: how majority citizens perceive marriage-based immigrant representation in the South Korean government

This study investigates how minority representation affects the trust and perceived legitimacy of the government among the majority. To that end, this article examines the effect of marriage-based immigrant representation in the South Korean government in shaping native Koreans’ perceptions of job performance, trustworthiness, and fairness of the government through the utilization of survey experiment data. The analyses show that a greater representation of the marriage-based immigrant population does not produce positive effects on the native Koreans’ perceptions of the government. This finding indicates that the positive effects of minority representation may come at the expense of the majority’s trust and perceived legitimacy of the government. However, this article argues that representative bureaucracy may be able to reduce reputational damage among the majority by increasing and advertising their organizational competency

Venue Preference and Earthquake Mitigation Policy: Expanding the Micro-Model of Policy Choice

Seismologists have reported that a majority of recent earthquakes in Oklahoma have been triggered by the activities of oil and gas companies. Despite this fact, there is evidence of strong opposition toward earthquake mitigation policy. In this article, we argue that how individuals define issues affect their policy choice. Furthermore, we incorporate the concept of venue shopping from the literature on macro theories of the policy process to investigate the effect of problem definition in shaping individual venue preference for policy choice. Using unique survey data, we find that problem definition, particularly issue causality and issue image, is strongly related to individual support for earthquake mitigation policy. However, a more nuanced relationship between individual problem definition and venue preference is observed. Our findings contribute to scholarly endeavors to understand the politics of problem definition at an individual level, which may be the precursor of understanding policy choices at the institutional level

PROMOTING CITIZEN PARTICIPATION IN DISASTER MANAGEMENT:MOTIVATIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL AND COLLECTIVE PARTICIPATIONIN EMERGENCY SERVICE DELIVERY

This dissertation seeks to understand the determinants and motivations of citizens' individual and collective participation in the process of public service delivery through the lens of citizen co-production. While citizen participation has been highlighted particularly in the administrative decision-making process, citizen co-production literature emphasizes the role of citizens in the public service delivery process. This body of literature argues that citizens may contribute to public service outcomes by providing time, efforts, knowledge, and by cooperating with professional public service providers. Utilizing both a relatively uncommon machine learning technique in public administration, random forest regression, and traditional statistical approaches, I examine various factors shaping citizens' individual and collective participation in the process of emergency service delivery before, during, and after tornadoes. Three empirical chapters suggest that public trust in issue-specific agencies and social capital play significant roles in structuring citizens' individual and collective co-production of emergency service. The analyses of two methods utilized in this dissertation also suggest further investigation in quantitative methodology for a better understanding of citizen participation in public service delivery

Conduit or Contributor? The Role of Media in the California End-of-Life Option Act Policy Process

Whether media plays a contributory or a conduit role in the policy process has been a salient focus among policy scholars. If media plays a contributory role in the policy process, it not only shares similar policy core beliefs with advocacy coalitions, but also drafts and disseminates stories including policy core beliefs that shape policy outcomes. On the contrary, if media serves a conduit role, media transmits information, including the divergent policy core beliefs of multiple participants in policy debates. This research aims to provide empirical evidence to determine the role of media in the policy process. This research looks at the California End-of-Life Option Act case and content analyzes news articles from two media outlets with opposing ideologies, the liberal “Sacramento Bee” and the conservative “Orange County Register” using Narrative Policy Framework (NPF)

What matters the most? Understanding individual tornado preparedness using machine learning

Scholars from various disciplines have long attempted to identify the variables most closely associated with individual preparedness. Therefore, we now have much more knowledge regarding these factors and their association with individual preparedness behaviors. However, it has not been sufficiently discussed how decisive many of these factors are in encouraging preparedness. In this article, we seek to examine what factors, among the many examined in previous studies, are most central to engendering emergency prepared‑ ness in individuals particularly for tornadoes by utilizing a relatively uncommon machine learning technique in disaster management literature. Using unique survey data, we find that in the case of tornado preparedness the most decisive variables are related to personal experiences and economic circumstances rather than basic demographics. Our findings contribute to scholarly endeavors to understand and promote individual tornado prepared‑ ness behaviors by highlighting the variables most likely to shape tornado preparedness at an individual level

The Determinants of Adult Education and Training Participation in the US: A Machine Learning Approach

This study aims to explore the determinants of adult education and training (AET) participation of working adults. Through random forest analysis, we discovered important factors contributing to AET participation

Spinal epidural hematoma related to an epidural catheter in a cardiac surgery patient -A case report-

The addition of thoracic epidural anesthesia to general anesthesia during cardiac surgery may have a beneficial effect on clinical outcome. However, epidural catheter insertion in a patient anticoagulated with heparin may increase the risk of epidural hematoma. We report a case of epidural hematoma in a 55-year-old male patient who had a thoracic epidural placed under general anesthesia preceding uneventful mitral valve replacement and tricuspid valve annular plasty. During the immediate postoperative period and first postoperative day, prothrombin time (PT) and activate partial thromboplastin time (aPTT) were mildly prolonged. On the first postoperative day, he complained of motor weakness of the lower limbs and back pain. An immediate MRI of the spine was performed and it revealed an epidural hematoma at the T5-6 level. Rapid surgical decompression resulted in a recovery of his neurological abnormalities to near normal levels. Management and preventing strategies of epidural hematoma are discussed

A core set of microsatellite markers for conservation genetics studies of Korean goral (Naemorhedus caudatus) and its cross-species amplification in Caprinae species

In order to screen microsatellites for conservation genetics studies of the species, a total of 23 microsatellite loci from Korean goral (Naemorhedus caudatus), including 15 previously developed loci and 8 new loci in this study, were tested. Eleven microsatellites were screened and subjected to cross-species amplification using a test panel of four Caprinae species, Japanese serows (Capricornis crispus), Chinese gorals (Naemorhedus goral), Northern chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra) and domestic goats (Capra hircus). In addition, all eleven microsatellites (SY3A, SY12A, SY12B, SY48, SY58, SY71, SY76, SY84, SY84B, SY112, and SY129) satisfied the criteria to be a core set of microsatellites. This core set of microsatellites and cross-species amplification of Korean goral microsatellites were found to be helpful for high-resolution studies for conservation and management of Korean goral and other endangered Caprinae species