Secondary School Students' Knowledge and Opinions on Astrobiology Topics and Related Social Issues

Science.gov (United States)

Oreiro, Raquel; Solbes, Jordi

2017-01-01

Astrobiology is the study of the origin of life on Earth and the distribution of life in the Universe. Its multidisciplinary approach, social and philosophical implications, and appeal within the discipline and beyond make astrobiology a uniquely qualified subject for general science education. In this study, student knowledge and opinions on astrobiology topics were investigated. Eighty-nine students in their last year of compulsory education (age 15) completed a written questionnaire that consisted of 10 open questions on the topic of astrobiology. The results indicate that students have significant difficulties understanding the origin of life on Earth, despite exposure to the topic by way of the assigned textbooks. The students were often unaware of past or present achievements in the search for life within the Solar System and beyond, topics that are far less commonly seen in textbooks. Student questionnaire answers also indicated that students had problems in reasoning and critical thinking when asked for their opinions on issues such as the potential for life beyond Earth, the question of whether UFOs exist, or what our place is in the Universe. Astrobiology might help initiate student awareness as to current thinking on these matters and should be considered for general science education.

Secondary School Students' Knowledge and Opinions on Astrobiology Topics and Related Social Issues.

Science.gov (United States)

Oreiro, Raquel; Solbes, Jordi

2017-01-01

Astrobiology is the study of the origin of life on Earth and the distribution of life in the Universe. Its multidisciplinary approach, social and philosophical implications, and appeal within the discipline and beyond make astrobiology a uniquely qualified subject for general science education. In this study, student knowledge and opinions on astrobiology topics were investigated. Eighty-nine students in their last year of compulsory education (age 15) completed a written questionnaire that consisted of 10 open questions on the topic of astrobiology. The results indicate that students have significant difficulties understanding the origin of life on Earth, despite exposure to the topic by way of the assigned textbooks. The students were often unaware of past or present achievements in the search for life within the Solar System and beyond, topics that are far less commonly seen in textbooks. Student questionnaire answers also indicated that students had problems in reasoning and critical thinking when asked for their opinions on issues such as the potential for life beyond Earth, the question of whether UFOs exist, or what our place is in the Universe. Astrobiology might help initiate student awareness as to current thinking on these matters and should be considered for general science education. Key Words: Astrobiology-Students' views-Science education. Astrobiology 17, 91-99.

UK Public Opinion Review - Working Paper - An overview of public opinion polls since the Edward Snowden revelations in June 2013

OpenAIRE

Cable, Jonathan

2015-01-01

This document charts public opinion of the Edward Snowden leaks and associated issues\\ud since June 2013. This includes people’s opinions on surveillance, the intelligence services\\ud and personal privacy. Since the Snowden leaks there have been 38 opinion polls on these\\ud topics concerning public opinion in the UK and conducted by large polling organisations,\\ud such as YouGov, ComRes and Ipsos MORI among others.

Opinion dynamics of learning agents: does seeking consensus lead to disagreement?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Vicente, Renato; Martins, André C R; Caticha, Nestor

2009-01-01

We study opinion dynamics in a population of interacting adaptive agents voting on a set of issues represented by vectors. We consider agents who can classify issues into one of two categories and can arrive at their opinions using an adaptive algorithm. Adaptation comes from learning and the information for the learning process comes from interacting with other neighboring agents and trying to change the internal state in order to concur with their opinions. The change in the internal state is driven by the information contained in the issue and in the opinion of the other agent. We present results in a simple yet rich context where each agent uses a Boolean perceptron to state their opinion. If the update occurs with information asynchronously exchanged among pairs of agents, then the typical case, if the number of issues is kept small, is the evolution into a society torn by the emergence of factions with extreme opposite beliefs. This occurs even when seeking consensus with agents with opposite opinions. If the number of issues is large, the dynamics becomes trapped, the society does not evolve into factions and a distribution of moderate opinions is observed. The synchronous case is technically simpler and is studied by formulating the problem in terms of differential equations that describe the evolution of order parameters that measure the consensus between pairs of agents. We show that for a large number of issues and unidirectional information flow, global consensus is a fixed point; however, the approach to this consensus is glassy for large societies

Opinion dynamics of learning agents: does seeking consensus lead to disagreement?

Science.gov (United States)

Vicente, Renato; Martins, André C. R.; Caticha, Nestor

2009-03-01

We study opinion dynamics in a population of interacting adaptive agents voting on a set of issues represented by vectors. We consider agents who can classify issues into one of two categories and can arrive at their opinions using an adaptive algorithm. Adaptation comes from learning and the information for the learning process comes from interacting with other neighboring agents and trying to change the internal state in order to concur with their opinions. The change in the internal state is driven by the information contained in the issue and in the opinion of the other agent. We present results in a simple yet rich context where each agent uses a Boolean perceptron to state their opinion. If the update occurs with information asynchronously exchanged among pairs of agents, then the typical case, if the number of issues is kept small, is the evolution into a society torn by the emergence of factions with extreme opposite beliefs. This occurs even when seeking consensus with agents with opposite opinions. If the number of issues is large, the dynamics becomes trapped, the society does not evolve into factions and a distribution of moderate opinions is observed. The synchronous case is technically simpler and is studied by formulating the problem in terms of differential equations that describe the evolution of order parameters that measure the consensus between pairs of agents. We show that for a large number of issues and unidirectional information flow, global consensus is a fixed point; however, the approach to this consensus is glassy for large societies.

Public opinion on environmental and energy issues. Result of the census after 3 years of the Great East Japan Earthquake

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kosugi, Motoko

2014-01-01

The public opinion on the energy and environmental issues has changed greatly in Japan through experiences in and along the Great East Japan Earthquake. We conducted a social survey in order to grasp public opinions for environment and energy issues in March, 2014, which obtained 2313 valid responses (response rate was 64.3%). For the energy and environmental issues, while respondents show high interests in matters related to the Fukushima accident and nuclear power generation as well as electricity prices, they show relatively low interest in every other aspect. With regard to Japan's energy policy in the future, as expectations for renewable and natural sources of energy are large, about 60% of respondents have negative attitude in restart of nuclear power. For nuclear power, as compared to the previous survey conducted in August 2008, evaluation of 'control-ability of environmental impacts' and 'the power companies' risk management ability' was greatly reduced in particular. These results suggest the importance of provoke interest in the energy issues in general, as a premise to seek an understanding of the activities of the government and power companies. Furthermore, in order for the power companies to restore trust from the public, it is important to sympathize to public's anticipations of impacts on the health and environment through uses of nuclear power in the future. (author)

Opinion survey on energy and climate in 2013

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martin, Jean-Philippe

2013-08-01

This issue comments the results of a survey on the opinion of French people on the reality of climate change (for the whole population and with respect to age), on the opinion of French people on nuclear energy (in relationship with the opinion on climate change, globally in terms of benefit or drawback with evolution of the opinion since 1994), on the feeling of having suffered from the cold during the winter of 2012-2013, on the dwelling temperature in winter, and on the opinion on energy price

Competing opinion diffusion on social networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Haibo

2017-11-01

Opinion competition is a common phenomenon in real life, such as with opinions on controversial issues or political candidates; however, modelling this competition remains largely unexplored. To bridge this gap, we propose a model of competing opinion diffusion on social networks taking into account degree-dependent fitness or persuasiveness. We study the combined influence of social networks, individual fitnesses and attributes, as well as mass media on people's opinions, and find that both social networks and mass media act as amplifiers in opinion diffusion, the amplifying effect of which can be quantitatively characterized. We analytically obtain the probability that each opinion will ultimately pervade the whole society when there are no committed people in networks, and the final proportion of each opinion at the steady state when there are committed people in networks. The results of numerical simulations show good agreement with those obtained through an analytical approach. This study provides insight into the collective influence of individual attributes, local social networks and global media on opinion diffusion, and contributes to a comprehensive understanding of competing diffusion behaviours in the real world.

Demographic and Social Factors Influencing Public Opinion on ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

macuser

the pressing need for empirical research into these opinions, to inform and make .... understanding public opinion on the issue of prostitution has critical relevance. For ..... prostitution and presented three options for legal reform in South Africa: ...

EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ); Scientific Opinion on Composting on-farm of dead poultry

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hald, Tine

EFSA’s Scientific Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) was asked for a scientific opinion on two alternative methods for processing Category (Cat) 2 Animal By-Products (ABP). The material to be treated consists of poultry manure, straw and dead-on-farm poultry; this implies that the animals died...... due to a disease, which in most cases was not properly diagnosed. The proposed processes are composting methods to be used on-farm. The first method is a continuous open system where composting is done under roof in piles separated by wooden partition walls. The piles are processed without enforced...

EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ); Scientific Opinion on On-site treatment of pig carcasses

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hald, Tine

EFSA’s Scientific Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ) was asked for a scientific opinion on an alternative method for processing Category (Cat) 2 Animal By-Products (ABP). The materials to be treated are placentas and fallen pigs; this implies that the animals died due to a disease, which in most...... of the animals’ death, the presence of more resistant hazards cannot be considered negligible. The sterilisation process defined in the current legislation is able to minimise the risks due to unidentified agents, such as Bacillus anthracis and TSE agents. The BIOHAZ Panel concluded that the process proposed...

The Opinions of Economics Majors before and after Learning Economics

Science.gov (United States)

Hammock, Michael R.; Routon, P. Wesley; Walker, Jay K.

2016-01-01

Using longitudinal data on undergraduates from 463 American colleges and universities from 1994-99, the authors examine how majoring in economics affects student opinions on 13 social, political, and economic issues. Economics majors were found to begin and end their college tenure with differing opinions on several issues when compared to other…

'Quicksand' of public opinion - trust in nuclear after Fukushima

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gieci, Adam; Maly, Stanislav; Palecek, Milos

2012-01-01

The following public opinion surveys are described: public opinion on nuclear power plants by the end of 2010; first public opinion polls after Fukushima in the US, UK and France; and public opinion and the future of nuclear in Japan. The following issues are discussed: Has nuclear any perspective after Fukushima? Will public opinion change after the Fukushima accident like it did after the TMI event? Will public opinion change after the Fukushima accident like it did after the oil spill accident in the Gulf of Mexico? In conclusion the new approaches to the fight for public confidence after Fukushima are described. (orig.)

Lack of Evolution Acceptance Inhibits Students' Negotiation of Biology-Based Socioscientific Issues

Science.gov (United States)

Fowler, S. R.; Zeidler, D. L.

2016-01-01

The purpose of this study was to explore science content used during college students' negotiation of biology-based socioscientific issues (SSI) and examine how it related to students' conceptual understanding and acceptance of biological evolution. The Socioscientific Issues Questionnaire (SSI-Q) was developed to measure depth of evolutionary…

Teaching Controversial Socio-Scientific Issues in Biology and Geology Classes: A Case Study

OpenAIRE

Reis, Pedro; Galvão, Cecília

2009-01-01

Several educators in science have called for the inclusion of controversial socio-scientific issues’ discussion in science curricula because of its potential for creating a more real, humane image of scientific activity and for promoting scientific literacy, an essential tool for a responsible citizenship regarding decision-making processes related to socio-scientific issues. However, despite all the favourable opinions and empirical evidence concerning the educational potentia...

The Opinions of Middle School Mathematics Teachers on the Integration of Mathematics Course and Social Issues

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Buket Turhan Turkkan

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to examine the opinions of middle school mathematics teachers on the integration of mathematics course and social issues. For this purpose, qualitative research method was used in this study. As for determining the participants of the research, criterion sampling among purposeful sampling methods was used. Being a middle school mathematics teacher as an occupation was considered as a criterion for determining the participants. The participants of the research consist of 13 middle school mathematics teachers in Turkey. So as to collect the research data, the semi-structured interview form created by the researchers was used. The data analysis was performed according to the content analysis, and Nvivo 10 program was used for the analysis. As a result of this study, the themes of the situation and methods of the integration of mathematics course and social issues, the attainment of democratic values in mathematics course and the ways of its attainment, gaining awareness of social justice and equality in mathematics course and the ways of its gaining, the activities performed by teachers for social issues in mathematics course and the teachers’ suggestions for the integration of mathematics course and social issues were reached and the results were discussed within this frame.

A Rasch analysis of patients' opinions of primary health care professionals' ethical behaviour with respect to communication issues.

Science.gov (United States)

González-de Paz, Luis; Kostov, Belchin; López-Pina, Jose A; Solans-Julián, Pilar; Navarro-Rubio, M Dolors; Sisó-Almirall, Antoni

2015-04-01

Patients' opinions are crucial in assessing the effectiveness of the ethical theories which underlie the care relationship between patients and primary health care professionals. To study the ethical behaviour of primary health care professionals with respect to communication issues according to patients' opinions. Cross-sectional study using a self-administered questionnaire in patients from a network of 15 urban primary health centres. Participants were patients attended at the centres when the study was conducted. We used a Rasch analysis to verify the structure of the 17 questionnaire items, and to calculate interval level measures for patients and items. We analysed differences according to patient subgroups using analysis of variance tests and differences between the endorsement of each item. We analysed 1013 (70.34%) of questionnaires. Data fit to the Rasch model was achieved after collapsing two categories and eliminating five items. Items with the lowest degree of endorsement were related to the management of differences in conflictive situations between patients and health care professionals. We found significant differences (P communication skills were respected by family physicians and nurses. However, opinions on endorsement were lower when patients disagreed with health care professionals. The differences found between patient subgroups demonstrated the importance of trust and confidence between patients and professionals. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

BIOLOGY STUDENTS’ TEACHER OPINIONS ABOUT THE INTEGRATION OF ICT INTO THE LEARNING AND TEACHING PROCESS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andreja Špernjak

2014-05-01

Full Text Available Biology laboratory work can be performed in various ways, even using information and communication technologies (ICT. Whether a teacher incorporates it into laboratory work is related to different factors, but educators can influence students’ beliefs about the value of ICT through their pedagogical practice. In our study, student teachers of biology gave opinions on how successfully university professors use ICT in the classroom, where they acquired most knowledge about ICT and their attitude towards using of ICT in laboratory work. Student teachers were critical about the knowledge and usage of ICT of university professors in class. During their student teachers mostly failed to acquire knowledge about ICT and practice in incorporating it into daily routines. These results will be presented to our university professors, at which time we will suggest how they could use ICT more effectively in daily practice because, on the one hand, they are responsible for students teacher attitudes and for the level of student teacher knowledge, while, on the others, they precipitate indirectly in forming the pupils’ attitudes and determining the level of the pupils’ knowledge of ICT. The study was done on 85 student teachers of biology. Attitudes toward ICT are statistically significant by gender.

Implications of Public Opinion for Space Program Planning, 1980 - 2000

Science.gov (United States)

Overholt, W.; Wiener, A. J.; Yokelson, D.

1975-01-01

The effect of public opinion on future space programs is discussed in terms of direct support, apathy, or opposition, and concern about the tax burden, budgetary pressures, and national priorities. Factors considered include: the salience and visibility of NASA as compared with other issues, the sources of general pressure on the federal budget which could affect NASA, the public's opinions regarding the size and priority of NASA'S budget, the degree to which the executive can exercise leverage over NASA's budget through influencing or disregarding public opinion, the effects of linkages to other issues on space programs, and the public's general attitudes toward the progress of science.

Are public opinion polls self-fulfilling prophecies?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Rothschild

2014-08-01

Full Text Available Psychologists have long observed that people conform to majority opinion, a phenomenon sometimes referred to as the ‘bandwagon effect’. In the political domain people learn about prevailing public opinion via ubiquitous polls, which may produce a bandwagon effect. Newer types of information – published probabilities derived from prediction market contract prices and aggregated polling summaries – may have similar effects. Consequently, polls can become self-fulfilling prophecies whereby majorities, whether in support of candidates or policies, grow in a cascading manner. Despite increased attention to whether the measurement of public opinion can itself affect public opinion, the existing empirical literature is surprisingly limited on the bandwagon effects of polls. To address this gap, we conducted an experiment on a diverse national sample in which we randomly assigned people to receive information about different levels of support for three public policies. We find that public opinion as expressed through polls affects individual-level attitudes, although the size of the effect depends on issue characteristics.

The role of opinion research in communications programmes

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Curtin, Tom

1995-01-01

Nirex is a company financed by the UK nuclear industry to dispose of intermediate and some long-lived low-level radioactive waste. The company has no responsibility for high-level radioactive waste. Most low-level waste is disposed of at a shallow site owned by BNFL, one of Nirex's shareholders. At Nirex, we use opinion research in a number of ways: as a map to guide communications programmes; to set baselines and targets to isolate issues of concern to our publics. The Company carries out market research covering three key audiences: the general public, politicians, and journalists. For Nirex, opinion research is a map. It guides our communication programmes in dealing with our key audiences. Without it, we would be driving blind. Opinion research allows us to isolate key issues for communication. It also allows us to measure performance and to see which initiatives are successful and which are not

Attitudinal, behavioral, and biological outcomes of a community popular opinion leader intervention in China.

Science.gov (United States)

Rotheram-Borus, Mary Jane; Li, Li; Liang, Li-Jung; Wen, Yi; Wu, Zunyou

2011-10-01

The effects of a community popular opinion leader (CPOL) intervention were examined among market vendors in a city on the eastern coast of China. Employees of 40 food markets were enrolled in a study that provided HIV-related education and tests, and treatment for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Twenty markets were randomly assigned to a CPOL intervention (N = 1,695) and 20 markets to a control condition (N = 1,616). Market employees in the intervention condition reported positive attitudes regarding STD/HIV prevention and more frequent discussions about safe sex than those in the control condition. Compared with baseline, the prevalence of unprotected sexual acts and new STDs were significantly lower within each study condition 24 months later. Although the CPOL intervention achieved its goal of shifting attitudes within food markets, the gains did not lead to the expected behavioral and biological outcomes.

42 CFR 411.386 - CMS's advisory opinions as exclusive.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 42 Public Health 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false CMS's advisory opinions as exclusive. 411.386... Relationships Between Physicians and Entities Furnishing Designated Health Services § 411.386 CMS's advisory... described in § 411.370. CMS has not and does not issue a binding advisory opinion on the subject matter in...

Awareness of Societal Issues among High School Biology Teachers Teaching Genetics

Science.gov (United States)

Lazarowitz, Reuven; Bloch, Ilit

2005-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate how aware high school biology teachers are of societal issues (values, moral, ethic, and legal issues) while teaching genetics, genetics engineering, molecular genetics, human heredity, and evolution. The study includes a short historical review of World War II atrocities during the Holocaust when…

Opinion data mining based on DNA method and ORA software

Science.gov (United States)

Tian, Ru-Ya; Wu, Lei; Liang, Xiao-He; Zhang, Xue-Fu

2018-01-01

Public opinion, especially the online public opinion is a critical issue when it comes to mining its characteristics. Because it can be formed directly and intensely in a short time, and may lead to the outbreak of online group events, and the formation of online public opinion crisis. This may become the pushing hand of a public crisis event, or even have negative social impacts, which brings great challenges to the government management. Data from the mass media which reveal implicit, previously unknown, and potentially valuable information, can effectively help us to understand the evolution law of public opinion, and provide a useful reference for rumor intervention. Based on the Dynamic Network Analysis method, this paper uses ORA software to mine characteristics of public opinion information, opinion topics, and public opinion agents through a series of indicators, and quantitatively analyzed the relationships between them. The results show that through the analysis of the 8 indexes associating with opinion data mining, we can have a basic understanding of the public opinion characteristics of an opinion event, such as who is important in the opinion spreading process, the information grasping condition, and the opinion topics release situation.

More than 30 years of opinion of French people on nuclear risks - Special release of the 2012 IRSN opinion survey

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El Jammal, Marie-Helene; Rollinger, Francois; Mur, Emmanuelle; Schuler, Matthieu; Tchernia, Jean-Francois

2013-01-01

Illustrated by many graphs and tables, this report comments and discusses the evolution of opinion surveys performed in France on the perception of nuclear risks through thirty annual IRSN opinion surveys. It appears that the opinion on nuclear is rather steady, and that French people have a rather rational perception of risk hierarchy. The first part outlines that unemployment is the main concern for French people, and that environmental concerns depend on current events. The second part analyses the perception of the nuclear risk with respect to other societal concerns and to other risks, and discusses the evolution of opinion from a quantitative to a qualitative sensitivity. The third part addresses the representations people have of nuclear activities and how they challenge the reality: perception of nuclear plants and of radioactive wastes, fear of a serious accident. The last part deals with issues related to responsibilities, abilities and governance: how actors of nuclear risk management are perceived, and expectations in terms of transparency and opinion plurality

The ICRP opinion of the calculation of doses and risks associated with exposures to tritium

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paquetla, F.; Harrison, J.

2009-01-01

As the management of exposures to tritium, just like for other radionuclides, relies on the effective dose calculation, it also requires the application of coefficients to take the variety of radiations and the sensitivity of the different irradiated tissues into account. The authors discuss the determination and the use of the weighting factor (Wr) which reflects the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) of different types of radiation. They outline that some researchers asked for a review of this factor, and that the RBE is related to several parameters. All this and other issues entail uncertainties. The authors then give the opinion of the ICRP on this issue and notably for the assessment of the individual risk of cancer after exposure to tritium

The role of socioscientific issues in biology teaching – from the perspective of teachers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Tidemand, Sofie; Nielsen, Jan Alexis

2017-01-01

Previous research has documented that students who engage with socioscientific issues can acquire some of the complex competences and skills typically related to scientific literacy. But an emerging field of research on science teachers’ understanding and use of socioscientific issues, has...... documented that a range of challenges hinders the uptake of socioscientific issues. In this study we investigated the interpretation and implementation of socioscientific issues among Danish biology teachers – who teach in a curriculum that, on paper, is permeated by socioscientific issues. We conducted five...... harbour a content-centred interpretation of socioscientific issues which manifests itself in at least three separate ways. First, the teachers generally use socioscientific issues as a means to an end of teaching factual biological content. Second, the teachers had a clear emphasis on mastery of factual...

Opinion Analysis on Rohingya using Twitter Data

Science.gov (United States)

Rochmawati, N.; Wibawa, S. C.

2018-04-01

Rohingya is an ethnicity in Myanmar. Recently there was a conflict in the area between the Rakhine population and the Myanmar army. Many opinions are pro and contra in addressing this issue. There is a critic, there is a support and there is a neutral. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the world public opinion about the case of Rohingya. The opinion data to be processed is taken from twitter. the reason for using twitter is because twitter has become one of the popular social media and includes the most frequently visited social media. Therefore, it would be a lot of data that can be taken from twitter to be processed in the process of sentiment analysis. The grouping of opinions will be divided into 3 parts of positive, negative and neutral. the method used in grouping is the naïve Bayes method.

[State school children's opinions regarding violence in the media].

Science.gov (United States)

Piedrahita S, Laura E

2009-01-01

To describe the opinion of schoolage children, from a public school, regarding the violence they perceive in the media. Descriptive-exploratory research with a sample, selected according to the child's age in a public school. Quantitative data were collected. There were found common issues related to the child's opinion about the violence present in the media such as frequent exposure to the media violence and lack of parental supervision. Social context and constant exposure to the media violence affect the children's opinion about the violence phenomenon and their predisposition to it.

Changes in alcohol policies and public opinions in Finland 2003-2013.

Science.gov (United States)

Österberg, Esa; Lindeman, Mikaela; Karlsson, Thomas

2014-05-01

There is a constant and ongoing interplay between public opinions and public policies, alcohol policies being no exception. This article describes the development of public opinions regarding alcohol policy in Finland during a 10-year period between 2003 and 2013. Fluctuations in the alcohol policy opinion climate are put in context by looking at concurrent changes in alcohol policies and in total alcohol consumption. The study is based on data from opinion surveys on alcohol policies commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Welfare and the Finnish Social and Health Association. The opinion polls include questions about the general acceptance of prevailing alcohol policies, appropriate sales channels of different alcoholic beverage categories and opinions about the legal age limits and prices of alcoholic beverages. In the study, changes in alcohol policy during 2003-2013 are surveyed, and their relationship with changes in alcohol policy opinion is examined. There seem to be a strong positive correlation during the study period between the level of alcohol consumption and the share of those wanting a more restrictive alcohol policy in Finland. It seems that an increased level of awareness of alcohol-related issues among the general public created a more restrictive opinion climate on alcohol policy issues after the big alcohol excise duty decrease in 2004. The reverse seems to happen but in a lesser degree when alcohol excise duties has been increased after the year 2007. © 2014 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.

Utility opinions on energy supply. Praise and reprimand

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2008-01-01

This article discusses the opinions expressed by several electricity utilities on the cost-covering remuneration of electricity produced using renewable resources. Positive and negative aspects of the system - in the opinion of the utilities - are listed. Positive issues discussed include the improved economic viability of installations using renewable energy sources, preservation of know-how, increased use of renewables and the minimisation of economic risk for the builders of such installations. Negative issues noted include the general financial burden placed on all electricity consumers, the limits placed by parliament on the remuneration scheme, various hindrances still active in the implementation of such installations and possible competition with other schemes that further the use of electricity from renewable resources.

The effect of network biology on drug toxicology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gautier, Laurent; Taboureau, Olivier; Audouze, Karine Marie Laure

2013-01-01

Introduction: The high failure rate of drug candidates due to toxicity, during clinical trials, is a critical issue in drug discovery. Network biology has become a promising approach, in this regard, using the increasingly large amount of biological and chemical data available and combining...... it with bioinformatics. With this approach, the assessment of chemical safety can be done across multiple scales of complexity from molecular to cellular and system levels in human health. Network biology can be used at several levels of complexity. Areas covered: This review describes the strengths and limitations...... of network biology. The authors specifically assess this approach across different biological scales when it is applied to toxicity. Expert opinion: There has been much progress made with the amount of data that is generated by various omics technologies. With this large amount of useful data, network...

Scientific Opinion on the assessment of the potential establishment of the apple snail in the EU

OpenAIRE

EFSA Panel on Plant Health (PLH)

2013-01-01

EFSA requested the PLH Panel to review the current state of the art of the biology and ecology of apple snails, reported in this opinion, and to perform an environmental risk assessment for validation of the Plant Health environment guidance document, which will be provided in a second opinion. The Panel presents in this opinion the current state of the art of the biology of apple snails, and develops and uses a population dynamics model to assess the potential establishment of apple snails i...

University Opinion Poll 9: Child Care, MPIRG, Lettuce. Preliminary Report.

Science.gov (United States)

Matross, Ronald; And Others

The University Opinion Poll conducted a survey of student opinion on issues related to University-sponsored day care, the role of the Minnesota Public Interest Research Group (MPIRG) and the University's policy on buying lettuce for its food services. Four hundred fifty-two respondents, 76% of a random sample of University of Minnesota students,…

42 CFR 57.1511 - Opinion of legal counsel.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... indebtedness to the lender, stating that the credit and security instruments executed by the applicant are duly... memorandum or opinion of legal counsel with respect to the legality of any proposed note issue, the legal authority of the applicant to issue the note and secure it by the proposed collateral, and the legality of...

Ethical Issues in Expert Opinions and Testimony.

Science.gov (United States)

Weed, Roger O.

2000-01-01

This article provides an overview of ethical issues in private for-profit practice, with particular focus on expert testimony, using examples from a sample of claims filed with the National Association of Rehabilitation Professionals in the Private Sector and malpractice insurance companies. Complaints most frequently involve issues related to…

EFSA BIOHAZ Panel (EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards), 2013. Scientific Opinion on the maintenance of the list of QPS biological agents intentionally added to food and feed (2013 update)

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Licht, Tine Rask; Baggesen, Dorte Lau

EFSA is requested to assess the safety of a broad range of biological agents in the context of notifications for market authorisation as sources of food and feed additives, enzymes and plant protection products. The qualified presumption of safety (QPS) assessment was developed to provide...... a harmonised generic pre-assessment to support safety risk assessments performed by EFSA’s scientific Panels. The safety of unambiguously defined biological agents (at the highest taxonomic unit appropriate for the purpose for which an application is intended), and the completeness of the body of knowledge...... is the one in the most recently published scientific opinion. The 2013 update reviews previously assessed microorganisms including bacteria, yeasts, filamentous fungi, oomycetes and viruses used for plant protection purposes. All taxonomic units previously recommended for the QPS list had their status...

The rational thinking of expert opinion and communicating in courtroom

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bing Li

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Since the past half century, expert testimony has played an increasingly important role in Chinese litigation. As the amount of expert testimony has grown, the issues about its admissibility and scientific foundation related to evidence are becoming to be questioned commonly. Since eighteenth central committee (China adopted the decision of the Central Committee of China on several important issues in promoting the legal system, the evidence was redefined to become the predominance in the whole proceeding. This article reviews the expert knowledge implicit in the opinions. It argues that the expert opinions ask judges to be aware of the role of communicationg between participants. Expert opinion is not only gained from laboratory, but also socially constructed in the rational expression and communication, which requir us think logically in terms of legal perceptions of science and expert knowledge in the empirical world.

Oversight of High-Containment Biological Laboratories: Issues for Congress

Science.gov (United States)

2009-05-04

Laboratories: Issues for Congress Congressional Research Service 14 Industry and Non-Profit Laboratories Private sector companies and non-profit...resources for these endeavors. Whether public or private sector , high-containment laboratories are planned and designed to minimize the possibility of... equine encephalitis, and yellow fever. Some of the pathogens that cause these diseases have been considered as biological weapons.104 Expanding the number

OpinionFlow: Visual Analysis of Opinion Diffusion on Social Media.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yingcai; Liu, Shixia; Yan, Kai; Liu, Mengchen; Wu, Fangzhao

2014-12-01

It is important for many different applications such as government and business intelligence to analyze and explore the diffusion of public opinions on social media. However, the rapid propagation and great diversity of public opinions on social media pose great challenges to effective analysis of opinion diffusion. In this paper, we introduce a visual analysis system called OpinionFlow to empower analysts to detect opinion propagation patterns and glean insights. Inspired by the information diffusion model and the theory of selective exposure, we develop an opinion diffusion model to approximate opinion propagation among Twitter users. Accordingly, we design an opinion flow visualization that combines a Sankey graph with a tailored density map in one view to visually convey diffusion of opinions among many users. A stacked tree is used to allow analysts to select topics of interest at different levels. The stacked tree is synchronized with the opinion flow visualization to help users examine and compare diffusion patterns across topics. Experiments and case studies on Twitter data demonstrate the effectiveness and usability of OpinionFlow.

Knowledge and Opinion on the Nuclear Freeze: A Test of Three Models.

Science.gov (United States)

Tankard, James W., Jr.

To explore how knowledge influences opinion in foreign policy, results of a survey on voter familiarity with and attitude toward nuclear policy issues were compared with three theoretical models of the knowledge/opinion relationship: (1) the enlightenment model--as knowledge increases, support for belligerent foreign policy stands decreases; (2)…

The Copyright Controversy: Issues and Opinions

Science.gov (United States)

Keenan, Stella, Ed.; Stillman, Mary E., Ed.

1972-01-01

The edited transcript of the Copyright Panel at the 9th Information Retrieval Colloquium is presented. In addition to the panel presentation and audience discussion, this issue carries, as appendix material, some of the documents which sparked much of the current copyright debate. (Author/NH)

Nuclear installations inspectorate a public opinion survey

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lennie, S.E.; Davies, A.G.

2001-01-01

HM Nuclear Installations Inspectorate (HMNII) is the regulator responsible for the safety of licensed nuclear sites in the UK. Recognizing the need for public approval on future policy with respect to nuclear waste management, the NII commissioned a public opinion research programme amongst the UK general public. Opinion was sought on a number of issues including attitudes towards the industry in general, perception of nuclear waste and its management, tolerability of risk and attitudes towards current decommissioning plans. In response to the primary objectives of the survey the main findings are: current spontaneous level of concern over the industry in general is low (7%), and lower still for nuclear waste (3%). However, on prompting, 47% of respondents were very concerned about nuclear waste. Top of mind issues of concern about the industry are: nuclear waste; risk of accidents; health risks. Personal risk from nuclear waste is not of overt concern and is significantly less worrisome to respondents than risk from diseases like meningitis or cancer, smoking or road accidents. On being presented with a statement describing current UK decommissioning plans, the sample was generally in favour. However, this issue will require further research. (authors)

The spreading of opposite opinions on online social networks with authoritative nodes

Science.gov (United States)

Yan, Shu; Tang, Shaoting; Pei, Sen; Jiang, Shijin; Zhang, Xiao; Ding, Wenrui; Zheng, Zhiming

2013-09-01

The study of opinion dynamics, such as spreading and controlling of rumors, has become an important issue on social networks. Numerous models have been devised to describe this process, including epidemic models and spin models, which mainly focus on how opinions spread and interact with each other, respectively. In this paper, we propose a model that combines the spreading stage and the interaction stage for opinions to illustrate the process of dispelling a rumor. Moreover, we set up authoritative nodes, which disseminate positive opinion to counterbalance the negative opinion prevailing on online social networking sites. With analysis of the relationship among positive opinion proportion, opinion strength and the density of authoritative nodes in networks with different topologies, we demonstrate that the positive opinion proportion grows with the density of authoritative nodes until the positive opinion prevails in the entire network. In particular, the relationship is linear in homogeneous topologies. Besides, it is also noteworthy that initial locations of the negative opinion source and authoritative nodes do not influence positive opinion proportion in homogeneous networks but have a significant impact on heterogeneous networks. The results are verified by numerical simulations and are helpful to understand the mechanism of two different opinions interacting with each other on online social networking sites.

The role of socioscientific issues in biology teaching – from the perspective of teachers

OpenAIRE

Tidemand, Sofie; Nielsen, Jan Alexis

2017-01-01

Previous research has documented that students who engage with socioscientific issues can acquire some of the complex competences and skills typically related to scientific literacy. But an emerging field of research on science teachers’ understanding and use of socioscientific issues, has documented that a range of challenges hinders the uptake of socioscientific issues. In this study we investigated the interpretation and implementation of socioscientific issues among Danish biology teacher...

Analysis of national representative opinion surveys concerning gestational surrogacy in Japan.

Science.gov (United States)

Suzuki, Kohta; Hoshi, Kazuhiko; Minai, Junko; Yanaihara, Takumi; Takeda, Yasuhisa; Yamagata, Zentaro

2006-05-01

Although gestational surrogacy offers several advantages, this procedure has given rise to some ethical and legal issues. We aimed to clarify the factors affecting the attitude of the Japanese toward gestational surrogacy. Cross-sectional study. Nationwide opinion surveys concerning assisted reproductive technologies (ART) were carried out in 1999 and 2003. Participants included 2568 and 3647 people from the general public surveyed in 1999 and 2003, respectively (1564 people received only the questionnaire, and 2083 people received a questionnaire and brochure about ART). Multivariate-adjusted odds ratio and 95% confidence interval from logistic regression models for factors affecting the attitude toward gestational surrogacy. In both surveys, approximately half of respondents approved of gestational surrogacy; 20-30% disapproved of the procedure. People with high socioeconomic status clearly expressed their opinion on this issue. A liberal attitude toward gender role promoted approval of gestational surrogacy; a liberal attitude toward family had the opposite effect. Our findings suggest that socioeconomic status affects people's expression of their opinion regarding this issue, while attitudes toward this procedure were influenced by individual belief. Considering socioeconomic status and diversity of individual belief is required for further discussion on this topic.

Bragg Curve, Biological Bragg Curve and Biological Issues in Space Radiation Protection with Shielding

Science.gov (United States)

Honglu, Wu; Cucinotta, F.A.; Durante, M.; Lin, Z.; Rusek, A.

2006-01-01

The space environment consists of a varying field of radiation particles including high-energy ions, with spacecraft shielding material providing the major protection to astronauts from harmful exposure. Unlike low-LET gamma or X-rays, the presence of shielding does not always reduce the radiation risks for energetic charged particle exposure. Since the dose delivered by the charged particle increases sharply as the particle approaches the end of its range, a position known as the Bragg peak, the Bragg curve does not necessarily represent the biological damage along the particle traversal since biological effects are influenced by the track structure of both primary and secondary particles. Therefore, the biological Bragg curve is dependent on the energy and the type of the primary particle, and may vary for different biological endpoints. To achieve a Bragg curve distribution, we exposed cells to energetic heavy ions with the beam geometry parallel to a monolayer of fibroblasts. Qualitative analyses of gamma-H2AX fluorescence, a known marker of DSBs, indicated increased clustering of DNA damage before the Bragg peak, enhanced homogenous distribution at the peak, and provided visual evidence of high linear energy transfer (LET) particle traversal of cells beyond the Bragg peak. A quantitative biological response curve generated for micronuclei (MN) induction across the Bragg curve did not reveal an increased yield of MN at the location of the Bragg peak. However, the ratio of mono-to bi-nucleated cells, which indicates inhibition in cell progression, increased at the Bragg peak location. These results, along with other biological concerns, show that space radiation protection with shielding can be a complicated issue.

Quantifying discrepancies in opinion spectra from online and offline networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Deokjae; Hahn, Kyu S; Yook, Soon-Hyung; Park, Juyong

2015-01-01

Online social media such as Twitter are widely used for mining public opinions and sentiments on various issues and topics. The sheer volume of the data generated and the eager adoption by the online-savvy public are helping to raise the profile of online media as a convenient source of news and public opinions on social and political issues as well. Due to the uncontrollable biases in the population who heavily use the media, however, it is often difficult to measure how accurately the online sphere reflects the offline world at large, undermining the usefulness of online media. One way of identifying and overcoming the online-offline discrepancies is to apply a common analytical and modeling framework to comparable data sets from online and offline sources and cross-analyzing the patterns found therein. In this paper we study the political spectra constructed from Twitter and from legislators' voting records as an example to demonstrate the potential limits of online media as the source for accurate public opinion mining, and how to overcome the limits by using offline data simultaneously.

Quantifying discrepancies in opinion spectra from online and offline networks.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Deokjae Lee

Full Text Available Online social media such as Twitter are widely used for mining public opinions and sentiments on various issues and topics. The sheer volume of the data generated and the eager adoption by the online-savvy public are helping to raise the profile of online media as a convenient source of news and public opinions on social and political issues as well. Due to the uncontrollable biases in the population who heavily use the media, however, it is often difficult to measure how accurately the online sphere reflects the offline world at large, undermining the usefulness of online media. One way of identifying and overcoming the online-offline discrepancies is to apply a common analytical and modeling framework to comparable data sets from online and offline sources and cross-analyzing the patterns found therein. In this paper we study the political spectra constructed from Twitter and from legislators' voting records as an example to demonstrate the potential limits of online media as the source for accurate public opinion mining, and how to overcome the limits by using offline data simultaneously.

The influence of persuasion in opinion formation and polarization

Science.gov (United States)

La Rocca, C. E.; Braunstein, L. A.; Vazquez, F.

2014-05-01

We present a model that explores the influence of persuasion in a population of agents with positive and negative opinion orientations. The opinion of each agent is represented by an integer number k that expresses its level of agreement on a given issue, from totally against k=-M to totally in favor k = M. Same-orientation agents persuade each other with probability p, becoming more extreme, while opposite-orientation agents become more moderate as they reach a compromise with probability q. The population initially evolves to (a) a polarized state for r=p/q\\gt 1 , where opinions' distribution is peaked at the extreme values k=+/- M , or (b) a centralized state for r < 1, with most opinions around k=+/- 1 . When r \\gg 1 , polarization lasts for a time that diverges as r^M \\ln N , where N is the population's size. Finally, an extremist consensus (k = M or -M ) is reached in a time that scales as r^{-1} for r \\ll 1 .

Nonconformity defines the self: the role of minority opinion status in self-concept clarity.

Science.gov (United States)

Morrison, Kimberly Rios; Wheeler, S Christian

2010-03-01

Drawing on distinctiveness and social identity theories, the present studies tested whether minority opinion holders would have a more clearly defined sense of self than majority opinion holders. In Study 1, participants who were induced to believe that they held a minority opinion on a controversial issue had higher subsequent self-concept clarity scores than did those who were induced to believe that they held a majority opinion, controlling for self-esteem. Furthermore, the relationship between minority opinion status and self-concept clarity was strongest among participants whose opinions were highly expressive of their values (Studies 2 and 3), as well as among participants who identified strongly with the group in which they were a minority (Study 3). Theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed.

Moral opinion polarization and the erosion of trust

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Rapp, Carolin

2016-01-01

generalized trust, we focus on opinion polarization as another potential impact factor on trust. In more detail, we investigate the extent to which polarization over morally charged issues such as homsexuality, abortion and euthanasia affects individuals' likelihood to trust others. We hypothesize that moral...

Measuring and Understanding Public Opinion on Human Evolution

Science.gov (United States)

Gwon, Misook

The theory of evolution has long generated controversy in American society, but Americans' attitudes about human evolution are often neglected in studies of "culture wars" and the nature of mass belief systems more generally (Berkman and Plutzer 2010; Freeland and Houston 2009). Gallup and other survey organizations have polled about evolution, but offered limited response categories that mask complexity in public opinion (Bishop 2006; Moore 2008). The main problems concerning the leading survey questions about evolution are: first, questions measure only a single dimension, thus they ignore the potential for multidimensionality in people's attitudes. Second, depending on question wording and response options, the results of public opinion surveys vary by polling groups. This is an example of measurement error which misleads the interpretation and impression of American public opinion on the origin of humankind. A number of studies have analyzed Americans' beliefs about evolution and hypothesized about the influential effects of several factors (Deckman 2002; Mazur 2005; Mooney 2005; Miller et al. 2006; Newport 2006; Forrest 2007;Nisbet and Goidel 2007;Scott 2009). However, there remains a lack of complete understanding of what Americans know and believe about human evolution. Given the salience of this issue and the significant influence of public opinion on policy-making in America (Page and Shapiro 1992; Stimson 2004; Newport 2004), the measurement error and explanation of polling results on controversial issues related to this topic are in need of clarification. In this study, I address these deficiencies with analyses of data from a 2008 national survey by Harris Interactive (n= 4,626) that included numerous measures of factual knowledge and beliefs about evolution. The items offer more nuanced response options than the standard three-category question asked for decades by the Gallup poll. The Harris survey also had multiple measures of religiosity and the

A survey on the public opinion regarding nuclear power and energy issues in Fukui prefecture

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kosugi, Motoko; Tsuchiya, Tomoko

2007-01-01

To 2000 people who were randomly sampled from the basic register of residents in Fukui prefecture, we conducted a questionnaire survey asking their interest in, knowledge of and attitude toward nuclear power, to analyze which perceptions and opinions they had and factors influencing them. The ratios of respondents in Fukui prefecture who think nuclear power is safe, necessary, and should be developed more, are higher than those of surveyed residents who live in other regions where nuclear power plants had been in operation. Differences in gender and age are nearly the same as those found in the nation-wide surveys has shown. The respondents in 'Tsuruga' region, one of the centers of nuclear power research and development, are more acceptive and affirmative to the nuclear power than those in other regions, although they have less knowledge and credibility for nuclear power safety measures, such as regulation and monitoring by government, countermeasure of earthquake, training of workers and so on. We analyzed the perception of risk and the sense of security for nuclear power, and the opinions for necessity and development of nuclear power, using a regression model. According to the estimated 'Tsuruga' model, risk perception of Tsuruga respondents does not affect their opinion if nuclear power should be developed. No influence of the risk perception on their opinion for nuclear power suggest a possibility that residents have strong trust in nuclear power technology and electric power companies based on their long term experience. (author)

Public opinion on energy development: The interplay of issue framing, top-of-mind associations, and political ideology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Clarke, Christopher E.; Hart, Philip S.; Schuldt, Jonathon P.; Evensen, Darrick T.N.; Boudet, Hilary S.; Jacquet, Jeffrey B.; Stedman, Richard C.

2015-01-01

In this article, we examine framing effects regarding unconventional oil and gas extraction using hydraulic fracturing (or fracking): an issue involving considerable controversy over potential impacts as well as terminology used to describe it. Specifically, we explore how two commonly used terms to describe this issue – fracking or shale oil or gas development – serve as issue frames and influence public opinion. Extending existing research, we suggest that these frames elicit different top-of-mind associations that reflect positive or negative connotations and resonate with people's political ideology. These associations, in turn, help explain direct and indirect framing effects on support/opposition as well as whether these effects differ by political ideology. Results of a split-ballot, national U.S. survey (n=1000) reveal that people are more supportive of the energy extraction process when it is referred to as shale oil or gas development versus fracking, and this relationship is mediated by greater perceptions of benefit versus risk. Political ideology did not moderate these effects. Further analysis suggests that these findings are partly explained by the tendency to associate fracking more with negative thoughts and impacts and shale oil or gas development more with positive thoughts and impacts. However, these associations also did not vary by political ideology. We discuss implications for communicating risk regarding energy development. -- Highlights: •How an issue is presented (“framed”) influences how people perceive it. •We applied this premise to oil/gas extraction via hydraulic fracturing (fracking). •We examined two commonly used frames: fracking and shale oil or gas development. •People viewed the former less favorably irrespective of political ideology. •We discuss implications for communicating about energy development impacts

2003/04 public opinion survey Nuclear energy - the present and the future

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trontl, K.

2004-01-01

During the academic years 2000/01, 2001/02 and 2002/03 the Croatian Nuclear Society Young Generation Network (CYGN) carried out public opinion surveys among student population of around 600 individuals age 18-20. The results of the surveys have shown that the participants are rather ignorant on nuclear issues but still very negative, especially towards nuclear power plants and radioactive waste disposal sites with emphasized Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY) syndrome. As a part of the active involvement of CYGN members in upgrading of the positive public opinion, especially, young generations towards nuclear issues, a brochure on radioactivity has been prepared and distributed at the beginning of the 2002/03 school year to third and fourth graders in high schools. Hopefully a part of the 2003/04 academic year, freshman student population received a brochure during their high school education. Therefore, CYGN decided to carry out 2003/04 public opinion survey Nuclear Energy - the Present and the Future in order to investigate the effects of the brochure on student opinions on nuclear subjects. The results of the survey should also provide information on the quality of the distributed materials, as well as the quality of the distribution strategy. The results and the analyses of the 2003/04 public opinion survey, as well as the comparison of the results with the previous surveys are presented in this paper.(author)

The admissibility of offender profiling in courtroom: a review of legal issues and court opinions.

Science.gov (United States)

Bosco, Dario; Zappalà, Angelo; Santtila, Pekka

2010-01-01

What is the future of Offender Profiling? Is it an important field of forensic science or is it only a glamorous art? After the trilogy "Daubert-Joiner-Kumho" and after the last version, in 2009, of the Federal Rules of Evidence (F.R.E.), the opinion of American Courts concerning the admissibility of scientific evidence has changed, and the questions above can now have new answers. The change is closely tied to the perceived difference between hard and soft sciences and, in this way, the new gatekeeping role of the Courts also concerns whether offender profiling can be regarded as scientific evidence and if offender profiling should be admitted in the Courtroom as scientific evidence. In this work we present a comprehensive review concerning the most important Court opinions in U.S.A, U.K., Canada and Australia, about reliability and admissibility of offender profiling, in its different forensic application, as scientific evidence, and we suggest how and when an expert witness in the field of offender profiling can, in the light of these opinions, be admitted in Court.

CIGEO public debate. Presentation of the Citizens' Conference - Press file. Presentation of the citizens panel opinion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hermitte, Marie-Angele; Bedu, Clemence; Besnus, Francois; Brom, Jean-Marie; Grambow, Bernd; Ruedinger, Andreas; Fourniau, Jean-Michel; Bobbio, Luigi; Blatrix, Cecile

2013-01-01

After a presentation of the organisation and implementation of the Citizens' Conference, a presentation of the members of the steering committee and of the assessment committee of this conference, this document presents the opinion of the citizen panel in the framework of the public debate on the Cigeo project of deep underground disposal of radioactive wastes. This opinion notably outlines the waste issue as an inter-generational issue, comments the calendar and condition of the Cigeo project, states the panel opinion on risks which are specific to the Cigeo project, discusses the issue of recoverability and reversibility, discusses the issue of site memory, evokes the possibility of exploitation of geothermal energy, outlines the importance of health and environmental monitoring, comments opportunities for local development, and discusses cost and financing assessments. An appendix presents the different training programmes proposed during the citizens' conference

Polling and public opinion: a Canadian perspective

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Butler, Peter Marshall

2007-01-01

..., advertising, and government policy. Using such controversial issues such as free trade, health care, same-sex marriage, and national security, Butler argues that popular opinion on such hot-button topics as these can be guided and changed according to how polls are interpreted for and presented to the public. As well as analysing the impact of po...

The Misperception of Public Opinion Toward Capital Punishment.

Science.gov (United States)

McGarrell, Edmund F.; Sandys, Marla

1996-01-01

Contends that often lawmakers misread their constituents' opinions on important issues. Presents data from an Indiana survey that suggest support for the death penalty vanishes when citizens are given the option of life in prison without possibility of parole combined with a requirement of work and restitution. (MJP)

Media Influence On Public Opinion Attitudes Toward The Migration Crisis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joana Kosho

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Many studies or facts from the practical experience of many journalist politicians and professors show that the media impact on public opinion is enormous and essential. Many issues of everyday life human crisis or mainstream policies once covered and analyzed from the lenses of the media become the main concerns of the citizens and have a meaningful impact on the attitudes of the public opinion. The migration crisis that is challenging the European countries nowadays is a big concern not only for the host countries citizens but a life challenge for the immigrants themselves. This study will examine of the connection between media reports on immigration and public attitudes and actions and how migration issues presented in the mainstream media impact the public and political discourse on international migration.

Practical Problems of Giving Opinions by Regional Chambers of Accounting on the Possibility of Repayment of Obligations in Local Government Units

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marcin Tyniewicki

2014-06-01

Full Text Available Opinions of the regional accounting chambers on the possibility of repayment of the credit, loan or redemption of the securities by local government units have some specific features compared with the other opinions concerning the financial management of the local government. Firstly, they are only issued at the request of the unit that they concerned. Secondly, for the reason they relate to public debt issues, to some extent their content may be similar or “partial reproduction” of the standpoint of the regional chamber of accounting within already issued opinions referring to acts on budgetary planning process in local government units. The purpose of this article is to assess the legitimacy of issuing such opinions and to identify the relationship between the ordinances (resolutions on the possibility of repayment of the credit, loan or redemption of the securities and provisions of local government budget.

Opinion: Autopsy practice in northern Nigeria | Malami | Nigerian ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Nigerian Journal of Surgical Research. Journal Home · ABOUT THIS JOURNAL · Advanced Search · Current Issue · Archives · Journal Home > Vol 4, No 3 (2002) >. Log in or Register to get access to full text downloads. Username, Password, Remember me, or Register. Opinion: Autopsy practice in northern Nigeria.

Sifting Through Chaos: Extracting Information from Unstructured Legal Opinions.

Science.gov (United States)

Oliveira, Bruno Miguel; Guimarães, Rui Vasconcellos; Antunes, Luís; Rodrigues, Pedro Pereira

2018-01-01

Abiding to the law is, in some cases, a delicate balance between the rights of different players. Re-using health records is such a case. While the law grants reuse rights to public administration documents, in which health records produced in public health institutions are included, it also grants privacy to personal records. To safeguard a correct usage of data, public hospitals in Portugal employ jurists that are responsible for allowing or withholding access rights to health records. To help decision making, these jurists can consult the legal opinions issued by the national committee on public administration documents usage. While these legal opinions are of undeniable value, due to their doctrine contribution, they are only available in a format best suited from printing, forcing individual consultation of each document, with no option, whatsoever of clustered search, filtering or indexing, which are standard operations nowadays in a document management system. When having to decide on tens of data requests a day, it becomes unfeasible to consult the hundreds of legal opinions already available. With the objective to create a modern document management system, we devised an open, platform agnostic system that extracts and compiles the legal opinions, ex-tracts its contents and produces metadata, allowing for a fast searching and filtering of said legal opinions.

Impotent science, omnipotent public opinion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Guillaume, Nathalie

2001-01-01

Full text: Nowadays public opinion has become prominent when political leaders have themselves to vote. Even scientific or economical decisions are often taken more in accordance to these trends than to rational reasons. For a long time it has been widely accepted that a clear and pedagogical explanation was enough to make scientific issues understandable. For nearly 20 years, a true scientific and professional communication has been developed in France towards the general public to make nuclear industry acceptable. Nevertheless today, we notice that the acceptance of the nuclear option has lost many points in public polls. An accident, in the nuclear fields or in another fields, in one point or another of the planet can ruin the work of many years in communication. 1) In order to draw a more precise picture of public opinion, to follow these trends and make them more understandable, the CEA communication direction has built a 'public opinion barometer' dealing with the following fields: - Information on nuclear fields; - The nuclear actors; - The future of nuclear option; - Radioactive waste; - Risks perception; - Nuclear energy and other sources of energy; - Economy and nuclear power; - Image of nuclear. 2) Come and visit our labs to make up your own opinion: As communication methods through the classical media has, up to now, failed in changing public opinion regarding nuclear, the decision was made to offer to people the opportunity to meet searchers at work.400 'Communicating researchers' to day are volunteers to receive the public .They are trained to be able to explain their work to non specialists; they receive documents dealing with current events to help them answer to questions and they are invited to an annual general meeting (last one in January 2001). 85 laboratories are opened (civil and military ones). In 2000, nearly 10,000 visitors have come to us. In 2001, new additional operations will be lead toward young people, teachers, associations. (author)

Medical students and controversial ethical issues: results from the multicenter study SBRAME.

Science.gov (United States)

Lucchetti, Giancarlo; de Oliveira, Leandro Romani; Leite, José Roberto; Lucchetti, Alessandra Lamas Granero

2014-12-15

Medical students(MS) will face ethical issues throughout their lives as doctors. The present study aims to investigate medical students' opinions on controversial ethical issues and factors associated with these opinions. SBRAME (Spirituality and Brazilian Medical Education) is a multicenter study involving 12 Brazilian medical schools with 5950 MS. Participants completed a questionnaire that collected information on socio-demographic data, medical schools characteristics, religious beliefs and opinions on controversial ethical issues. Of all MS, 3630 participated in the survey (61.0%). The sample was 53.8% women and the mean age was 22.5 years. In general, most MS have no objections to prescription of birth control (90.8%), adult stem cell use (87.5%), embryonic stem cell use (82.0%) and abortion for genetic reasons (51.2%). Approximately half of students have no objections to human cloning (47.3%), 45.7% to withdrawal of artificial life support, 41.4% to euthanasia and 23.3% to abortion for failed contraception. Socio-demographic data such as age, gender and income had little influence on MS opinions. On the other hand, medical schools characteristics (number of medical students in the university, year of medical school foundation, location of the university and type of university) and religious aspects (religious affiliation, religious attendance, non-organizational religiousness and intrinsic religiousness) were highly correlated with their opinions. In general, MS with more supportive opinions on controversial ethical issues were less religious and from non-traditional (newer), urban, public and bigger universities. The current study reveals MS have different opinions regarding controversial ethical issues. Noteworthy, these opinions seem to be shaped more by university characteristics and religious beliefs than socio-demographic data.

An exploratory survey of male and female learner opinions on ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

An exploratory survey was undertaken to determine whether secondary school learners have certain preferences regarding the biology they study at school and whether learners from co-educational and single-sex schools hold the same opinions. A survey schedule comprising two components was developed. The first ...

A 2017 Horizon Scan of Emerging Issues for Global Conservation and Biological Diversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Sutherland, William J; Barnard, Phoebe; Broad, Steven; Clout, Mick; Connor, Ben; Côté, Isabelle M; Dicks, Lynn V; Doran, Helen; Entwistle, Abigail C; Fleishman, Erica; Fox, Marie; Gaston, Kevin J; Gibbons, David W; Jiang, Zhigang; Keim, Brandon; Lickorish, Fiona A; Markillie, Paul; Monk, Kathryn A; Pearce-Higgins, James W; Peck, Lloyd S; Pretty, Jules; Spalding, Mark D; Tonneijck, Femke H; Wintle, Bonnie C; Ockendon, Nancy

2017-01-01

We present the results of our eighth annual horizon scan of emerging issues likely to affect global biological diversity, the environment, and conservation efforts in the future. The potential effects of these novel issues might not yet be fully recognized or understood by the global conservation community, and the issues can be regarded as both opportunities and risks. A diverse international team with collective expertise in horizon scanning, science communication, and conservation research, practice, and policy reviewed 100 potential issues and identified 15 that qualified as emerging, with potential substantial global effects. These issues include new developments in energy storage and fuel production, sand extraction, potential solutions to combat coral bleaching and invasive marine species, and blockchain technology. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Effects of socioscientific issues-based instruction on argumentation ability and biology concepts of upper secondary school students

Science.gov (United States)

Faelt, Surasak; Samiphak, Sara; Pattaradilokrat, Sittiporn

2018-01-01

Argumentation skill is an essential skill needed in students, and one of the competencies in scientific literacy. Through arguing on socioscientific issues, students may gain deeper conceptual understanding. The purpose of this research is to examine the efficacy of a socioscientific issues-based instruction compared with an inquirybased instruction. This is to determine which one is better in promoting 10th grade students' argumentation ability and biology concepts of digestive system and cellular respiration. The forty 10th grade students included in this study were from two mathematics-science program classes in a medium-sized secondary school located in a suburb of Buriram province, Thailand. The research utilizes a quasi-experimental design; pre-test post-test control group design. We developed and implemented 4 lesson plans for both socioscientific issues-based instruction and inquiry-based instruction. Ten weeks were used to collect the data. A paper-based questionnaire and informal interviews were designed to test students' argumentation ability, and the two-tier multiple-choice test was designed to test their biology concepts. This research explore qualitatively and quantitatively students' argumentation abilities and biology concepts, using arithmetic mean, mean of percentage, standard deviation and t-test. Results show that there is no significant difference between the two group regarding mean scores of the argumentation ability. However, there is significant difference between the two groups regarding mean scores of the biology concepts. This suggests that socioscientific issues-based instruction could be used to improve students' biology concepts.

Opinions on Energy and Nuclear Power. Research project energy public opinion in Sweden; Aasikter om energi och kaernkraft. Forskningsprojektet Energiopinionen i Sverige

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hedberg, Per; Holmberg, Soeren

2012-11-01

This report includes results from a survey concerning the following issues: opinions on the use of nuclear power in Sweden in the long term, to phase out nuclear power or not, risk analysis, which energy sources should Sweden use, trust in stakeholders, as well as ways to decrease energy consumption.

Trust in the CODA model: Opinion dynamics and the reliability of other agents

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Martins, André C.R., E-mail: amartins@usp.br

2013-11-08

A model for the joint evolution of opinions and how much the agents trust each other is presented, using the framework of the Continuous Opinions and Discrete Actions (CODA) model. Instead of a fixed probability that the other agents will decide in the favor of the best choice, each agent considers that other agents might be one of two types: trustworthy or untrustworthy. Each agent its opinion and also the probability for each one of the other agents it interacts with being trustworthy. The dynamics of opinions and the evolution of the trust between the agents are studied. Clear evidences of the existence of two phases, one with strong polarization and the other tending to agreement, are observed. The transition shows signs of being a first-order transition. This happens despite the fact that the trust network evolves much slower than the opinion on the central issue.

Trust in the CODA model: Opinion dynamics and the reliability of other agents

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Martins, André C.R.

2013-01-01

A model for the joint evolution of opinions and how much the agents trust each other is presented, using the framework of the Continuous Opinions and Discrete Actions (CODA) model. Instead of a fixed probability that the other agents will decide in the favor of the best choice, each agent considers that other agents might be one of two types: trustworthy or untrustworthy. Each agent its opinion and also the probability for each one of the other agents it interacts with being trustworthy. The dynamics of opinions and the evolution of the trust between the agents are studied. Clear evidences of the existence of two phases, one with strong polarization and the other tending to agreement, are observed. The transition shows signs of being a first-order transition. This happens despite the fact that the trust network evolves much slower than the opinion on the central issue.

Leader's opinion priority bounded confidence model for network opinion evolution

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Meixia; Xie, Guangqiang

2017-08-01

Aiming at the weight of trust someone given to participate in the interaction in Hegselmann-Krause's type consensus model is the same and virtual social networks among individuals with different level of education, personal influence, etc. For differences between agents, a novelty bounded confidence model was proposed with leader's opinion considered priority. Interaction neighbors can be divided into two kinds. The first kind is made up of "opinion leaders" group, another kind is made up of ordinary people. For different groups to give different weights of trust. We also analyzed the related characteristics of the new model under the symmetrical bounded confidence parameters and combined with the classical HK model were analyzed. Simulation experiment results show that no matter the network size and initial view is subject to uniform distribution or discrete distribution. We can control the "opinion-leader" good change the number of views and values, and even improve the convergence speed. Experiment also found that the choice of "opinion leaders" is not the more the better, the model well explain how the "opinion leader" in the process of the evolution of the public opinion play the role of the leader.

Evolution of floral symmetry Peter K Endress, Current Opinion in ...

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

First page Back Continue Last page Graphics. Evolution of floral symmetry Peter K Endress, Current Opinion in Plant Biology 2001, 4:86–91. Polysymmetric (more than one plane of symmetry) to monosymmetric in angiosperm (flowering plants) evolution; the other way in Antirrhinaceae. Left and right handed helicity. Bees ...

The Auditor's Going-Concern Opinion Decision

OpenAIRE

Tae G. Ryu; Chul-Young Roh

2007-01-01

In this study, we expand on several previous studies related to the materiality judgments and the auditor's propensity to issue a going-concern opinion to financially troubled but non-bankrupt companies. We test the auditor's materiality thresholds by investigating whether there is any significant difference in accuracy among audit firms, especially between Big Six (Five) and non-Big Six (Five) audit firms. Binary logit regression is used to analyze 1,332 firms that were non-bankrupt but fina...

Opinion dynamics on an adaptive random network

Science.gov (United States)

Benczik, I. J.; Benczik, S. Z.; Schmittmann, B.; Zia, R. K. P.

2009-04-01

We revisit the classical model for voter dynamics in a two-party system with two basic modifications. In contrast to the original voter model studied in regular lattices, we implement the opinion formation process in a random network of agents in which interactions are no longer restricted by geographical distance. In addition, we incorporate the rapidly changing nature of the interpersonal relations in the model. At each time step, agents can update their relationships. This update is determined by their own opinion, and by their preference to make connections with individuals sharing the same opinion, or rather with opponents. In this way, the network is built in an adaptive manner, in the sense that its structure is correlated and evolves with the dynamics of the agents. The simplicity of the model allows us to examine several issues analytically. We establish criteria to determine whether consensus or polarization will be the outcome of the dynamics and on what time scales these states will be reached. In finite systems consensus is typical, while in infinite systems a disordered metastable state can emerge and persist for infinitely long time before consensus is reached.

French opinion on Nuclear Energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bucaille, A.

2003-01-01

Contrary to what many think or say, most French people do not have a clear-cut opinion about nuclear power. And until public opinion can be accurately assessed, we should be worried of speaking on its behalf. More than half the population of France believes that nuclear power is the cheapest option, but 40% of them have no idea what the situation really is. The French are keenly aware of the what is at stake at the international level, and the fact that energy is becoming a worldwide issue. What they are most concerned about is nuclear waste and the possibility of a catastrophe of the Chernobyl type occurring. Disquiet about the first is now dissipating, after having increased. But attitudes about the second are ambivalent. A quarter of the French are very ignorant about radioactivity. 20% of the population complain that not enough information is forthcoming, particularly as concerns advances in technology. As can be anticipated, awareness of the question of climate change is growing year by year, with increased reporting of storms, floods and heat waves

Perspectives and reconciliation of viewpoints on risk assessment issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Smith, C.F.; Cohen, J.J.

1980-01-01

It is important to recognize the distinction between risk assessment and its components which include risk analysis, perspectives study, and decision analysis. Divergence of opinion within the scientific community as well as the public at large is a characteristic of issues related to nuclear power. The divergent opinions can largely be characterized as either optimistic or pessimistic in nature. Reconciliation of divergent viewpoints presents some difficult challenges. It is doubtful that issues which have an emotional or philosophical basis can be resolved through technical efforts. Public education on the technical issues might prove helpful

45 CFR 73.735-806 - Documentation and publication of opinions.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

...-806 Section 73.735-806 Public Welfare DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES GENERAL ADMINISTRATION... Department Ethics Counselor, deputy ethics counselors, and any other individuals required to be involved in... Department Ethics Counselor shall publish summaries of advisory opinions issued by his or her office...

Opinions about the new law on end-of-life issues in a sample of french patients receiving palliative care.

Science.gov (United States)

Boulanger, Augustin; Chabal, Théo; Fichaux, Marie; Destandau, Mireille; La Piana, Jean Marc; Auquier, Pascal; Baumstarck, Karine; Salas, Sébastien

2017-01-21

In February 2nd 2016, the French government enacted the Claeys-Leonetti law that forbade euthanasia and established the right to deep and continuous sedation for end-of-life patients. Moreover, the law also obliges clinicians to abide by any advance directives regarding treatment and investigation, except in cases where they are "obviously inappropriate" in a given medical situation, or in cases of emergency, in order to allow medical staff to take time to assess the patient's situation. Artificial feeding and hydration are considered as treatment. The aim of this report is to investigate individuals receiving palliative care about their opinion about euthanasia, about advance directives, about the right to deep and continuous sedation, and the right to stopping artificial feeding and hydration. The study was an opinion survey conducted among patients treated in two different palliative care institutions: a palliative care unit at the University Hospital (Timone, Marseille, France) and a non-profit association palliative care home ("La Maison", Gardanne, France). Face-to-face interviews were performed by two investigators. The survey included sociodemographics, clinical data, and opinions about euthanasia, deep and continuous sedation, stopping artificial feeding and hydration, and advance directives. Forty patients were interviewed. The mean age was 59.8 years (standard deviation 12). Fifty three percent reported opposition to legalized euthanasia. Eighty three percent were in favour of the right to deep and continuous sedation in patients with refractory pain, 75% when it concerns a patient unable to express their wishes, and 68% when the patient decides to stop vital treatment. Fifty eight percent reported that artificial nutrition and hydration should be considered as care. Fifty eight percent of the patients interviewed would like to see doctors follow the express wishes contained in advance care directives and 53% that advance directives should be subject to

Ugandan opinion-leaders' knowledge and perceptions of unsafe abortion.

Science.gov (United States)

Moore, Ann M; Kibombo, Richard; Cats-Baril, Deva

2014-10-01

While laws in Uganda surrounding abortion remain contradictory, a frequent interpretation of the law is that abortion is only allowed to save the woman's life. Nevertheless abortion occurs frequently under unsafe conditions at a rate of 54 abortions per 1000 women of reproductive age annually, taking a large toll on women's health. There are an estimated 148,500 women in Uganda who experience abortion complications annually. Understanding opinion leaders' knowledge and perceptions about unsafe abortion is critical to identifying ways to address this public health issue. We conducted in-depth, semi-structured interviews with 41 policy-makers, cultural leaders, local politicians and leaders within the health care sector in 2009-10 at the national as well as district (Bushenyi, Kamuli and Lira) level to explore their knowledge and perceptions of unsafe abortion and the potential for policy to address this issue. Only half of the sample knew the current law regulating abortion in Uganda. Respondents understood that the result of the current abortion restrictions included long-term health complications, unwanted children and maternal death. Perceived consequences of increasing access to safe abortion included improved health as well as overuse of abortion, marital conflict and less reliance on preventive behaviour. Opinion leaders expressed the most support for legalization of abortion in cases of rape when the perpetrator was unknown. Understanding opinion leaders' perspectives on this politically sensitive topic provides insight into the policy context of abortion laws, drivers behind maintaining the status quo, and ways to improve provision under the law: increase education among providers and opinion leaders. Published by Oxford University Press in association with The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine © The Author 2013; all rights reserved.

Contribution of records management to audit opinions and accountability in government

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodreck David

2017-05-01

Full Text Available Background: Auditing can support national democratic processes, national development and government good will. Supreme Audit Institutions (SAI, such as offices of Auditor General, publish consolidated reports on audit outcomes for local authorities, government departments, parastatals and related public entities. These reports identify broad areas analysed during audit exercises that often include financial management, governance, asset management, risk management, revenue collection and debt recovery. They highlight trends that were detected during audit exercises at the end of a financial year. The reports further show how records and records management affect audit exercises as well as financial management within the audited institutions. Objectives: The intention of the research was to ascertain the contribution of records management to audit opinions and accountability in financial management in Zimbabwean government entities. Method: A document analysis of Comptroller and Auditor General of Zimbabwe (CAGZ’s reports was used to identify the types of decisions and recommendations (audit opinions issued, in juxtaposition to the records management issues raised. Results and Conclusion: This study shows that there is a strong correlation between records management concerns and audit opinions raised by the CAGZ’s narrative audit reports. Inadequate records management within government entities was associated with adverse and qualified opinions and, in some cases, unqualified opinions that had emphases of matter. There was a causal loop in which lack of documentary evidence of financial activities was the source cause of poor accounting and poor audit reports. Errors resulting from incomplete or inaccurate records meant that government entities were not showing a true picture of their financial status and their financial statements could be materially misstated. As an important monitoring and control system, records management should be

Personality Traits and Foreign Policy Attitudes in German Public Opinion

Science.gov (United States)

Schoen, Harald

2007-01-01

This article examines the effects of personality traits on attitudes toward foreign policy issues among the German public. Building on previous research, it argues that personality characteristics shape an individual's motivation, goals, and values, thereby providing criteria to evaluate external stimuli and affecting foreign policy opinions. An…

Using Spatial, Economic, and Ecological Opinion Data to Inform Gray Wolf Conservation.

Science.gov (United States)

Berry, Meredith S; Nickerson, Norma P; Metcalf, Elizabeth Covelli

2016-09-01

Public opinion can be an influential factor in wildlife management decisions. Evaluating public opinions can help legitimize, or delegitimize, management and facilitate long-term conservation goals. This is especially true for the controversial issues surrounding the management of predators. We surveyed Montana, USA, residents during summer of 2013 to measure public opinion regarding economic and ecological impacts of the gray wolf ( Canis lupus ), and current management of this species. Although opinions were polarized in some areas, a greater percentage of Montanans think that wolves negatively affect the economy, but impact tourism (which contributes to the economy) positively. These differences may reflect the belief that rancher economic losses from wolf predation of cattle is greater than overall tourism gains related to wolves (e.g., wolf-watching), in addition to the perception of wolves negatively affecting big game (e.g., elk [ Cervus canadensis ]). Results also show that a slightly greater percentage of Montanans feel that wolves positively rather than negatively affect the ecosystem. Regarding specific practices, more Montanans than not have a positive opinion of maintaining wolves on the landscape and also support hunting of wolves. More Montanans hold negative rather than positive opinions, however, regarding wolf trapping. This result was most evident in western Montana as assessed by a spatial distribution of opinions by county and has implications for current wolf management and nontarget species. Results of ordinal regression analyses revealed that big game hunters, males, and those who held negative opinions of the effect of wolves on the Montana ecosystem and economy were significantly more likely to support both hunting and trapping practices. Living in western Montana predicted positive opinions of hunting, but alternatively, negative opinions of trapping. These results provide an understanding of public opinion of wolf management by county as

Using Spatial, Economic, and Ecological Opinion Data to Inform Gray Wolf Conservation

Science.gov (United States)

Berry, Meredith S.; Nickerson, Norma P.; Metcalf, Elizabeth Covelli

2018-01-01

Public opinion can be an influential factor in wildlife management decisions. Evaluating public opinions can help legitimize, or delegitimize, management and facilitate long-term conservation goals. This is especially true for the controversial issues surrounding the management of predators. We surveyed Montana, USA, residents during summer of 2013 to measure public opinion regarding economic and ecological impacts of the gray wolf (Canis lupus), and current management of this species. Although opinions were polarized in some areas, a greater percentage of Montanans think that wolves negatively affect the economy, but impact tourism (which contributes to the economy) positively. These differences may reflect the belief that rancher economic losses from wolf predation of cattle is greater than overall tourism gains related to wolves (e.g., wolf-watching), in addition to the perception of wolves negatively affecting big game (e.g., elk [Cervus canadensis]). Results also show that a slightly greater percentage of Montanans feel that wolves positively rather than negatively affect the ecosystem. Regarding specific practices, more Montanans than not have a positive opinion of maintaining wolves on the landscape and also support hunting of wolves. More Montanans hold negative rather than positive opinions, however, regarding wolf trapping. This result was most evident in western Montana as assessed by a spatial distribution of opinions by county and has implications for current wolf management and nontarget species. Results of ordinal regression analyses revealed that big game hunters, males, and those who held negative opinions of the effect of wolves on the Montana ecosystem and economy were significantly more likely to support both hunting and trapping practices. Living in western Montana predicted positive opinions of hunting, but alternatively, negative opinions of trapping. These results provide an understanding of public opinion of wolf management by county as

Sentiment classification of Roman-Urdu opinions using Naïve Bayesian, Decision Tree and KNN classification techniques

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Bilal

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Sentiment mining is a field of text mining to determine the attitude of people about a particular product, topic, politician in newsgroup posts, review sites, comments on facebook posts twitter, etc. There are many issues involved in opinion mining. One important issue is that opinions could be in different languages (English, Urdu, Arabic, etc.. To tackle each language according to its orientation is a challenging task. Most of the research work in sentiment mining has been done in English language. Currently, limited research is being carried out on sentiment classification of other languages like Arabic, Italian, Urdu and Hindi. In this paper, three classification models are used for text classification using Waikato Environment for Knowledge Analysis (WEKA. Opinions written in Roman-Urdu and English are extracted from a blog. These extracted opinions are documented in text files to prepare a training dataset containing 150 positive and 150 negative opinions, as labeled examples. Testing data set is supplied to three different models and the results in each case are analyzed. The results show that Naïve Bayesian outperformed Decision Tree and KNN in terms of more accuracy, precision, recall and F-measure.

Radiation safety and formation of public opinion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Qurbanov, M.

2002-01-01

Full text: Team-administrative system of long years has been a reason of environmental pollution and health consequences and still does. This includes soil pollution with pesticides, ecological condition of micro and macro flora of the Caspian Sea, soil pollution with oil, deforestation and etc. Scientists and environmental NGOs have given some information to public and public opinion has already been formed on this issue. But public opinion is not necessarily formed on radiation - the most important and invisible problem. The reason of this is that radiation danger has been hidden as a closed theme from the public. After the soviet collapse this problem is also being revealed. Number of NGOs have held the seminar on this issue and given some information to public. The researches cover the following problems:To hold the public monitoring in the fields polluted with oil and separate it from the other fields by determining the fields polluted with radiation. To take measures in order to prevent public entrance to these fields; To inform about the usage of radiation based equipment in the industrial fields and to hold the regular monitoring; To advertise the differential signs of radiation sources in the city landfill and other polluted zones; To broaden the advocacy on ultraviolet rays and their influence to human health; To disseminate the brochures and advertisement papers on high technical radiation and their influence to human health; To analyze the radio environmental condition around the Gabala Radar Station; To advocate the possible radiation danger in using the x-ray and other medical equipment; Analyze the possible radon danger in shipping materials; To create the idea on possible transition of radioactive gases and elements from neighbor countries; Creation of idea on possible danger around the high voltage. The formation of public opinion on mentioned problem will depend on combining the scientists' and NGOs activities

In black and white: Media's role in shaping public opinion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Choi Yearn-hong

2004-01-01

In a modern, democratic society, the newspaper's role is important and critical in shaping citizens' opinions on nuclear power and other issues. Citizens acquire knowledge on current issues in their society, nation, and the world through newspapers. Today, television and internet media is increasingly becoming more popular among citizens, but newspaper media continues to affect intellectual citizens, policy makers and think tanks. Therefore, assessing major daily newspaper editorials covering nuclear issues and affairs is necessary for their sound bridging between nuclear science and engineering and the public. Bridging the two cultures, science and humanities, is an enormous task for modern democratic society

Opinion and Persuasion

OpenAIRE

Ioan Constantin Dima; Daniela Gîfu

2014-01-01

The research proves that persuasion has two types of objectives. Its main objective is the change of opinion. Its fundamental and foundational objectives are the change in attitude, generic conduct and situational behaviour. The main objective controls the fundamental objectives. The change in attitudes and conduct/behaviour is presided by changes in opinion. Persuasion is thus shown to be primarily and ultimately a matter of opinion. As such, its mechanism to manage and generate ...

Secondary School Students' Knowledge and Opinions on Astrobiology Topics and Related Social Issues

OpenAIRE

Oreiro Rey, Raquel; Solbes Matarredona, Jordi

2017-01-01

Astrobiology is the study of the origin of life on Earth and the distribution of life in the Universe. Its multidisciplinary approach, social and philosophical implications, and appeal within the discipline and beyond make astrobiology a uniquely qualified subject for general science education. In this study, student knowledge and opinions on astrobiology topics were investigated. Eighty-nine students in their last year of compulsory education (age 15) completed a written questionnaire that c...

Opinion dynamics in activity-driven networks

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Dandan; Han, Dun; Ma, Jing; Sun, Mei; Tian, Lixin; Khouw, Timothy; Stanley, H. Eugene

2017-10-01

Social interaction between individuals constantly affects the development of their personal opinions. Previous models such as the Deffuant model and the Hegselmann-Krause (HK) model have assumed that individuals only update their opinions after interacting with neighbors whose opinions are similar to their own. However, people are capable of communicating widely with all of their neighbors to gather their ideas and opinions, even if they encounter a number of opposing attitudes. We propose a model in which agents listen to the opinions of all their neighbors. Continuous opinion dynamics are investigated in activity-driven networks with a tolerance threshold. We study how the initial opinion distribution, tolerance threshold, opinion-updating speed, and activity rate affect the evolution of opinion. We find that when the initial fraction of positive opinion is small, all opinions become negative by the end of the simulation. As the initial fraction of positive opinions rises above a certain value —about 0.45— the final fraction of positive opinions sharply increases and eventually equals 1. Increased tolerance threshold δ is found to lead to a more varied final opinion distribution. We also find that if the negative opinion has an initial advantage, the final fraction of negative opinion increases and reaches its peak as the updating speed λ approaches 0.5. Finally we show that the lower the activity rate of individuals, the greater the fluctuation range of their opinions.

(Miscommunication across the Borders: Politics, Media and Public Opinion in Turkey

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Banu Baybars-Hawks

2015-08-01

surveys may not only yield important insights into public's opinion regarding contemporary agendas of the country, but also into the correlates shaping public policies. This article focuses on variables setting the current agenda in Turkey. For that purpose, two surveys were carried out in December of 2014 and consecutively in April 2015 to determine the social and political trends and perceptions on gender issues in Turkey.

STEM field courses that increase interest, opinions and confidence in conservation- related fields

Science.gov (United States)

Christensen, B. A.; Freeman, A. S.; Donovan, C.; Cooperstein, D.; Foellmer, M.; Ward, A.

2016-12-01

Students in the Environmental Studies and Biology programs at Adelphi University, situated in the NYC metropolitan area, have had little exposure to the outdoors or nature and are often reluctant to engage in field activities. We developed three courses to provide outdoor experiences at different levels of intensity, financial and travel/ time commitments. Adelphi in Australia is a three-week field course taught mostly at a marine station that includes day and night hikes, snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and independent research. Adelphi in the U.S. Virgin Islands is a one-week field `starter course' focusing on snorkeling and hiking. Observing Nature is an on-campus, once a week course with nature-based readings, weekend hikes and camping. It was developed after Hurricane Sandy revealed a lack of experience and confidence living without some modern infrastructure. We evaluated student opinions, interests and career goals in a survey administered at the start and at the end of the course that focused on knowledge, skills, opinion, and interest in STEM. Opinion questions addressed confidence, awareness of conservation issues, and interest in outdoor activities. The survey confirmed most of our students have a limited relationship with the outdoors when they start our field classes. More than half had never camped. Most had learned about nature through school trips and family. When asked to rank hiking against other activities, the majority regularly placed hiking below `going to the beach' and 'watching a movie'. The post-survey asked how students would apply what they had learned (interest in the environment; staying in the sciences). The generally positive results indicate the courses play an important role in connecting our students with the outdoors, and may have a lasting impact if they in turn connect others or get involved with local conservation programs.

A multi-particle model applicable to social issues--time-evolution of Japanese public opinion on nuclear energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ohnishi, Teruaki

2002-01-01

The characteristics of an interacting multi-particle system in natural sciences can form a useful model for the evolution of public attitudes and opinions, provided that each particle corresponds to one individual. A simulation model which uses a multi-particle system to represent society was developed. By using this model, the time evolution of the public attitudes to nuclear energy were investigated. The nuclear attitude of an individual was assumed to be influenced by three factors: a uniform information environment, mutual interactions between members of the public, and spontaneous recovery of the original attitude with time. Also the time-evolution of the socio-psychological position of members of the public was assumed to be given by a Langevin-type equation. Various attributes of individuals obtained by public opinion surveys together with data on the secular variation of availability of nuclear information were used as the input. By numerically solving the simultaneous differential equations for the system of a 1000 particles, the time behavior of Japanese public opinion regarding the promotion of nuclear generation was investigated. It was found from this calculation that the public aversion to nuclear energy is catastrophically aggravated with every large-scale nuclear accident, that the opinions of individual members of the public as to the value of nuclear energy were gradually attracted to a few views with time, and that the unification of such views occurred with the Chernobyl accident as a promoter. It also became clear that the public attitude at a particular time is governed by the information environment over several years immediately prior to that time

Studies in Swedish Energy Opinion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holmberg, Soeren; Hedberg, Per

2012-07-01

-length studies of Swedish mass attitudes toward nuclear power appeared already in the late 1970-ies. Since then all SNES surveys have included measurements of Swedish opinions on various energy issues. A special election study was done in 1980 covering the nuclear power referendum. Beginning in 1986, SNES's election year measurements were supplemented by annual studies done by the newly founded SOM Institute at Univ. of Gothenburg. These annual measurements were from the start designed and coordinated by the research project Energy Opinion in Sweden, originally financially supported by the now non-existent National Board for Spent Fuel, but since 1999 financed by The Swedish Energy Agency. The analyses in the chapters in this English language book compendium have all been done and published under the auspices of the research project Energy Opinion in Sweden. The time span is quite long, over twenty years. The writing in Chapter 1 appeared already in 1991, while the results in Chapters 7 and 8 are from 2011.

Expert Opinions on Nutrition Issues in Clinical Dentistry.

Science.gov (United States)

Palmer, Carole A.; And Others

1990-01-01

A survey of 79 experts in dental nutrition sought consensus on the appropriate scope of nutrition in clinical dentistry. Results support the need for greater attention to nutrition issues in dental schools and better models for nutrition interventions in dental practice. (Author/MSE)

Key Issues Concerning Biolog Use for Aerobic and Anaerobic Freshwater Bacterial Community-Level Physiological Profiling

Science.gov (United States)

Christian, Bradley W.; Lind, Owen T.

2006-06-01

Bacterial heterotrophy in aquatic ecosystems is important in the overall carbon cycle. Biolog MicroPlates provide information into the metabolic potential of bacteria involved in carbon cycling. Specifically, Biolog EcoPlatesTM were developed with ecologically relevant carbon substrates to allow investigators to measure carbon substrate utilization patterns and develop community-level physiological profiles from natural bacterial assemblages. However, understanding of the functionality of these plates in freshwater research is limited. We explored several issues of EcoPlate use for freshwater bacterial assemblages including inoculum density, incubation temperature, non-bacterial color development, and substrate selectivity. Each of these has various effects on plate interpretation. We offer suggestions and techniques to resolve these interpretation issues. Lastly we propose a technique to allow EcoPlate use in anaerobic freshwater bacterial studies.

Travel opinion leaders and seekers

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Yoo, Kyung-Hyan; Gretzel, Ulrike; Zach, Florian

2011-01-01

While opinion leadership has been recognized as important in tourism, there has been very little empirical research investigating the phenomenon. Given new developments in social media technologies, it is especially important to understand whether travel opinion leadership and seeking are drivers...... of specific social media perceptions and behaviours. Based on an online survey of US online travellers, this paper seeks to identify travel opinion leaders and seekers and their characteristics. Further, the research conducted investigated linkages between travel opinion leadership/seeking and travel social...... media use. The findings suggest that travel opinion leadership and seeking are distinct but connected. Both opinion leaders and seekers are technology savvy, young, educated, involved in travel planning and engaged in social media use for travel. What distinguishes opinion leaders is their greater...

Quantification of informed opinion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rasmuson, D.M.

1985-01-01

The objective of this session, Quantification of Informed Opinion, is to provide the statistician with a better understanding of this important area. The NRC uses informed opinion, sometimes called engineering judgment or subjective judgment, in many areas. Sometimes informed opinion is the only source of information that exists, especially in phenomenological areas, such as steam explosions, where experiments are costly and phenomena are very difficult to measure. There are many degrees of informed opinion. These vary from the weatherman who makes predictions concerning relatively high probability events with a large data base to the phenomenological expert who must use his intuition tempered with basic knowledge and little or no measured data to predict the behavior of events with a low probability of occurrence. The first paper in this session provides the reader with an overview of the subject area. The second paper provides some aspects that must be considered in the collection of informed opinion to improve the quality of the information. The final paper contains an example of the use of informed opinion in the area of seismic hazard characterization. These papers should be useful to researchers and statisticians who need to collect and use informed opinion in their work

Synthetic Biology between Self-Regulation and Public Discourse: Ethical Issues and the Many Roles of the Ethicist.

Science.gov (United States)

Arnason, Gardar

2017-04-01

This article discusses the roles of ethicists in the governance of synthetic biology. I am particularly concerned with the idea of self-regulation of bioscience and its relationship to public discourse about ethical issues in bioscience. I will look at the role of philosophical ethicists at different levels and loci, from the "embedded ethicist" in the laboratory or research project, to ethicists' impact on policy and public discourse. In a democratic society, the development of governance frameworks for emerging technologies, such as synthetic biology, needs to be guided by a well-informed public discourse. In the case of synthetic biology, the public discourse has to go further than merely considering technical issues of biosafety and biosecurity, or risk management, to consider more philosophical issues concerning the meaning and value of "life" between the natural and the synthetic. I argue that ethicists have moral expertise to bring to the public arena, which consists not only in guiding the debate but also in evaluating arguments and moral positions and making normative judgments. When ethicists make normative claims or moral judgments, they must be transparent about their theoretical positions and basic moral standpoints.

Opinion Integration and Summarization

Science.gov (United States)

Lu, Yue

2011-01-01

As Web 2.0 applications become increasingly popular, more and more people express their opinions on the Web in various ways in real time. Such wide coverage of topics and abundance of users make the Web an extremely valuable source for mining people's opinions about all kinds of topics. However, since the opinions are usually expressed as…

Creating informed public opinion: citizen deliberation about nanotechnologies for human enhancements

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cobb, Michael D.

2011-01-01

Many people believe that ordinary citizens should influence scientific and technological developments, but the American public is routinely uninformed about these issues. As a solution, some scholars advocate creating informed public opinions by encouraging citizens to deliberate about the issues. Although this idea is currently widely applauded in the science and technology literature, deliberative outcomes are infrequently measured and the practice of deliberation is routinely criticized in other disciplines. This research contributes to our understanding of the effectiveness of citizen deliberation as a method for increasing public engagement with science. I report data measuring results of deliberation in a national citizens’ technology forum (NCTF) about nanotechnologies for human enhancement. The NCTF was a month-long process involving six groups of 9–15 ordinary citizens who deliberated in different locations across the United States with the goal of reaching consensus about policy recommendations within their groups. I find that structured deliberation generated informed opinions, sometimes meaningful shifts in preferences, and increased trust and internal efficacy among the participants. Nevertheless, the NCTF has important shortcomings, and it is not obvious that consensus conferences should be preferred over other mechanisms for creating informed opinions. Future research is needed to corroborate the findings of this study and to systematically compare outcomes of structured citizen deliberation to other less resource intensive forms of engagement.

The crucial contribution of veterinarians to conservation biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Reading, Richard P; Kenny, David E; Fitzgerald, Kevin T

2013-11-01

Conservation biology is a relatively new (began in the 1980s), value-based discipline predicated on the belief that biological diversity-from genes to populations to species to communities to ecosystems-is good and extinction is bad. Conservation biology grew from the recognition that the Earth has entered its sixth great extinction event, one that differs from previous great extinctions in that a single species-Homo sapiens-has caused this biodiversity crisis. A diverse, interacting set of variables drive current extinctions. As such, to succeed, conservation efforts usually require broad-based, interdisciplinary approaches. Conservationists increasingly recognize the importance of contributions by veterinary science, among many other disciplines, to collaborative efforts aimed at stemming the loss of biodiversity. We argue that, to improve success rates, many wildlife conservation programs must incorporate veterinarians as part of an interdisciplinary team to assess and address problems. Ideally, veterinarians who participate in conservation would receive specialized training and be willing to work as partners as part of a larger team of experts who effectively integrate their work rather than work independently (i.e., work as interdisciplinary, as opposed to multidisciplinary, teams, respectively). In our opinion, the most successful and productive projects involve interdisciplinary teams involving both biological and nonbiological specialists. Some researchers hold multiple degrees in biology and veterinary medicine or the biological and social sciences. These experts can often offer unique insight. We see at least 3 major areas in which veterinarians can immediately offer great assistance to conservation efforts: (1) participation in wildlife capture and immobilization, (2) leadership or assistance in addressing wildlife health issues, and (3) leadership or assistance in addressing wildlife disease issues, including using wildlife as sentinels to identify new

The IRSN 2006 barometer. The opinion on risks and security of the French population. Global results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2006-01-01

This report presents and comments the results of a survey during which a sample of the French population has been questioned on their current concerns (about the society, about the environment, about their opinion on industrial risks, on scientific expertise, on who should control a risky installation), the opinion on 28 risk situations (risks to which French people feel exposed, confidence in authorities, truth of information on hazards, hierarchy of the 28 situations, acceptability of installations), the opinion on the nuclear activity and industry (the nuclear risk, the credibility and expertise of interveners, and the issue of radioactive wastes and public debate)

Issues in Biological Shape Modelling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hilger, Klaus Baggesen

This talk reflects parts of the current research at informatics and Mathematical Modelling at the Technical University of Denmark within biological shape modelling. We illustrate a series of generalizations, modifications, and applications of the elements of constructing models of shape or appear......This talk reflects parts of the current research at informatics and Mathematical Modelling at the Technical University of Denmark within biological shape modelling. We illustrate a series of generalizations, modifications, and applications of the elements of constructing models of shape...

Synthetic biology: Novel approaches for microbiology.

Science.gov (United States)

Padilla-Vaca, Felipe; Anaya-Velázquez, Fernando; Franco, Bernardo

2015-06-01

In the past twenty years, molecular genetics has created powerful tools for genetic manipulation of living organisms. Whole genome sequencing has provided necessary information to assess knowledge on gene function and protein networks. In addition, new tools permit to modify organisms to perform desired tasks. Gene function analysis is speed up by novel approaches that couple both high throughput data generation and mining. Synthetic biology is an emerging field that uses tools for generating novel gene networks, whole genome synthesis and engineering. New applications in biotechnological, pharmaceutical and biomedical research are envisioned for synthetic biology. In recent years these new strategies have opened up the possibilities to study gene and genome editing, creation of novel tools for functional studies in virus, parasites and pathogenic bacteria. There is also the possibility to re-design organisms to generate vaccine subunits or produce new pharmaceuticals to combat multi-drug resistant pathogens. In this review we provide our opinion on the applicability of synthetic biology strategies for functional studies of pathogenic organisms and some applications such as genome editing and gene network studies to further comprehend virulence factors and determinants in pathogenic organisms. We also discuss what we consider important ethical issues for this field of molecular biology, especially for potential misuse of the new technologies. Copyright© by the Spanish Society for Microbiology and Institute for Catalan Studies.

78 FR 53138 - South Carolina Public Service Authority; Notice of Meeting to Discuss Santee-Cooper Biological...

Science.gov (United States)

2013-08-28

... DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY Federal Energy Regulatory Commission [Project No. 199-205] South Carolina Public Service Authority; Notice of Meeting to Discuss Santee-Cooper Biological Opinion On July 15, 2010, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) filed its Biological Opinion (BO) on the relicensing of...

Discrete model of opinion changes using knowledge and emotions as control variables.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Pawel Sobkowicz

Full Text Available We present a new model of opinion changes dependent on the agents emotional state and their information about the issue in question. Our goal is to construct a simple, yet nontrivial and flexible representation of individual attitude dynamics for agent based simulations, that could be used in a variety of social environments. The model is a discrete version of the cusp catastrophe model of opinion dynamics in which information is treated as the normal factor while emotional arousal (agitation level determining agent receptiveness and rationality is treated as the splitting factor. Both variables determine the resulting agent opinion, which itself can be in favor of the studied position, against it, or neutral. Thanks to the flexibility of implementing communication between the agents, the model is potentially applicable in a wide range of situations. As an example of the model application, we study the dynamics of a set of agents communicating among themselves via messages. In the example, we chose the simplest, fully connected communication topology, to focus on the effects of the individual opinion dynamics, and to look for stable final distributions of agents with different emotions, information and opinions. Even for such simplified system, the model shows complex behavior, including phase transitions due to symmetry breaking by external propaganda.

Discrete model of opinion changes using knowledge and emotions as control variables.

Science.gov (United States)

Sobkowicz, Pawel

2012-01-01

We present a new model of opinion changes dependent on the agents emotional state and their information about the issue in question. Our goal is to construct a simple, yet nontrivial and flexible representation of individual attitude dynamics for agent based simulations, that could be used in a variety of social environments. The model is a discrete version of the cusp catastrophe model of opinion dynamics in which information is treated as the normal factor while emotional arousal (agitation level determining agent receptiveness and rationality) is treated as the splitting factor. Both variables determine the resulting agent opinion, which itself can be in favor of the studied position, against it, or neutral. Thanks to the flexibility of implementing communication between the agents, the model is potentially applicable in a wide range of situations. As an example of the model application, we study the dynamics of a set of agents communicating among themselves via messages. In the example, we chose the simplest, fully connected communication topology, to focus on the effects of the individual opinion dynamics, and to look for stable final distributions of agents with different emotions, information and opinions. Even for such simplified system, the model shows complex behavior, including phase transitions due to symmetry breaking by external propaganda.

Discrete Model of Opinion Changes Using Knowledge and Emotions as Control Variables

Science.gov (United States)

Sobkowicz, Pawel

2012-01-01

We present a new model of opinion changes dependent on the agents emotional state and their information about the issue in question. Our goal is to construct a simple, yet nontrivial and flexible representation of individual attitude dynamics for agent based simulations, that could be used in a variety of social environments. The model is a discrete version of the cusp catastrophe model of opinion dynamics in which information is treated as the normal factor while emotional arousal (agitation level determining agent receptiveness and rationality) is treated as the splitting factor. Both variables determine the resulting agent opinion, which itself can be in favor of the studied position, against it, or neutral. Thanks to the flexibility of implementing communication between the agents, the model is potentially applicable in a wide range of situations. As an example of the model application, we study the dynamics of a set of agents communicating among themselves via messages. In the example, we chose the simplest, fully connected communication topology, to focus on the effects of the individual opinion dynamics, and to look for stable final distributions of agents with different emotions, information and opinions. Even for such simplified system, the model shows complex behavior, including phase transitions due to symmetry breaking by external propaganda. PMID:22984516

Breaking The Traditional Communication Flow: Exploration of Social Media Opinion Leaders in Health

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mohamad Emma

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Opinion leaders play an important role in mitigating health issues and are able to influence attitudes and health behaviors to a certain extent. However, in the world we are living today, individual health decision making no longer rely fully on doctor’s advice, but often persuaded by people or organisations deemed reliable and trustworthy. Interestingly, one does not have to have a medical degree to be seen as “reliable” or “trustworthy” in giving out medical advices. Computer-mediated-communication changes the way opinion leaders emerge in virtual communities, specifically in the context of health. Through increased access to both traditional and online media, people have a fair access to communication technology and therefore, our definition of opinion leaders have shifted from how we used to understand it through Lazarsfeld’s two-steps flow theory. In fact, the way opinion leaders operate via social media platform is very different from how it used to be through the traditional mass media. This paper will discuss on the characteristics of new media opinion leaders, particularly in the context of health, in hopes to learn new ways to promote health in future communication campaigns.

Opinion of gastroenterologists towards quality assurance in endoscopy.

Science.gov (United States)

de Jonge, Vincent; Kuipers, Ernst J; van Leerdam, Monique E

2011-03-01

Quality assurance has become an important issue. Many societies are adopting quality assurance programs in order to monitor and improve quality of care. To assess the opinion of gastroenterologists towards quality assurance on the endoscopy department. A survey was sent to all gastroenterologists (n=319) in the Netherlands. It assessed their opinion on a quality assurance program for endoscopy units, including its design, logistics, and content. 200 gastroenterologists (63%) completed the questionnaire. 95% had a positive opinion towards quality assurance and 67% supposed an increase in quality. 28% assumed a negative impact on the time available for patient contact by introducing a quality assurance program and 35% that the capacity would decrease. A negative attitude towards disclosure of results to insurance companies (23%) and media (53%) was reported. Female gastroenterologists were less positive to share the results with other stakeholders (pquality measurements were assessment of complications (97%), standardised reporting (96%), and adequate patient information (95%). Gastroenterologists have a positive attitude towards quality assurance. However, concerns do exist about time investment and disclosure of results to others. Information provision and procedure characteristics were considered the most important aspects of quality assurance. Copyright © 2010 Editrice Gastroenterologica Italiana S.r.l. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Interaction of the bodies and institutions of the Russian Inspectorate for the protection of consumer rights and human welfare on sanitary-and-epidemiological examinations and issuing sanitary-and-epidemiological opinions].

Science.gov (United States)

Safonkina, S G

2009-01-01

The paper describes problems in the organization of the interaction of the Russian Inspectorate for the Protection of Consumer Rights and Human Welfare in Moscow and the Center for Hygiene and Epidemiology in Moscow to perform sanitary-and-epidemiological examinations and to issue sanitary-and-epidemiological opinions. The goals of setting up a one-window service and measures required for its effective work are defined. Positive results of one-window activities are shown.

Predicting online ratings based on the opinion spreading process

Science.gov (United States)

He, Xing-Sheng; Zhou, Ming-Yang; Zhuo, Zhao; Fu, Zhong-Qian; Liu, Jian-Guo

2015-10-01

Predicting users' online ratings is always a challenge issue and has drawn lots of attention. In this paper, we present a rating prediction method by combining the user opinion spreading process with the collaborative filtering algorithm, where user similarity is defined by measuring the amount of opinion a user transfers to another based on the primitive user-item rating matrix. The proposed method could produce a more precise rating prediction for each unrated user-item pair. In addition, we introduce a tunable parameter λ to regulate the preferential diffusion relevant to the degree of both opinion sender and receiver. The numerical results for Movielens and Netflix data sets show that this algorithm has a better accuracy than the standard user-based collaborative filtering algorithm using Cosine and Pearson correlation without increasing computational complexity. By tuning λ, our method could further boost the prediction accuracy when using Mean Absolute Error (MAE) and Root Mean Squared Error (RMSE) as measurements. In the optimal cases, on Movielens and Netflix data sets, the corresponding algorithmic accuracy (MAE and RMSE) are improved 11.26% and 8.84%, 13.49% and 10.52% compared to the item average method, respectively.

Concierge and Second-Opinion Radiology: Review of Current Practices.

Science.gov (United States)

Shaikh, Shehbaz; Bafana, Rounak; Halabi, Safwan S

2016-01-01

Radiology's core assets include the production, interpretation, and distribution of quality imaging studies. Second-opinion services and concierge practices in radiology aim to augment traditional services by providing patient-centered and physician-centered care, respectively. Patient centeredness enhances patients' understanding and comfort with their radiology tests and procedures and allows them to make better decisions about their health care. As the fee-for-service paradigm shifts to value-based care models, radiology practices have begun to diversify imaging service delivery and communication to coincide with the American College of Radiology Imaging 3.0 campaign. Physician-centered consultation allows for communication of evidence-based guidelines to assist referring physicians and other providers in making the most appropriate imaging or treatment decision for a specific clinical condition. There are disparate practice models and payment schema for the various second-opinion and concierge practices. This review article explores the current state and payment models of second-opinion and concierge practices in radiology. This review also includes a discussion on the benefits, roadblocks, and ethical issues that surround these novel types of practices. Copyright © 2015 Mosby, Inc. All rights reserved.

Emerging issues and methodological advances in fisheries reproductive biology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Lowerre-Barbieri, Susan K.; Brown-Peterson, Nancy J.; Murua, Hilario

2011-01-01

Although incorporating detailed reproductive data into all stock assessments is not a practical goal, the need to understand how reproductive biology affects population productivity is being increasingly recognized.More research focused on reproductive biology—coupled with a shift towards...... a resilience perspective in fisheries science—is resulting in challenges to many long-held assumptions; the emergence of important new issues; and identification of the need to improve data and methods used in reproductive studies. Typically, data for reproductive studies are based on an assessment of gonadal...... while introducing improved and new histological techniques. In this introduction, we address the following needs: (1) to employ standardization, thereby improving our ability to conduct comparative studies; (2) to better understand patterns of gonadal development and spawning events over time; and (3...

Villain of Molecular Biology: Why are we not reproducible in research? [v1; ref status: indexed, http://f1000r.es/5ou

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vikash Bhardwaj

2015-07-01

Full Text Available Worldwide, there is an issue of irreproducibility in life science research. In the USA alone $28 billion per year spent on preclinical research is not reproducible. Within this opinion article, I provide a brief historical account of the discovery of the Watson-Crick DNA model and introduce another neglected model of DNA. This negligence may be one of the fundamental reasons behind irreproducibility in molecular biology research.

Opinions of women towards cesarean delivery and priority issues of care in the postpartum period.

Science.gov (United States)

Kisa, Sezer; Zeyneloğlu, Simge

2016-05-01

This study was conducted, in order to determine the opinions of women who had a cesarean delivery and the problems that they faced in the postpartum period. This descriptive study was conducted with 337 women who delivered babies by cesarean section. The data were collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. The results of the study showed that 53.4% of women underwent cesarean delivery for the first time, and 83.1% said that it was the obstetrician's decision to have a cesarean delivery. More than half of the women (61.1%) had a negative experience with cesarean delivery due to postpartum pain (44.7%) and inability to care for their infant (35.9%). The most common problems associated with cesarean delivery were postpartum pain (96.1%), back pain (68.2%), problems passing gas (62.0%), bleeding (56.1%), breastfeeding problems (49.6%) and limitation of movement (43.6%) respectively. Understanding the the opinions and problems of women towards cesarean delivery assists healthcare professionals in identifying better ways to provide appropriate care and support. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A 2018 Horizon Scan of Emerging Issues for Global Conservation and Biological Diversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Sutherland, William J; Butchart, Stuart H M; Connor, Ben; Culshaw, Caroline; Dicks, Lynn V; Dinsdale, Jason; Doran, Helen; Entwistle, Abigail C; Fleishman, Erica; Gibbons, David W; Jiang, Zhigang; Keim, Brandon; Roux, Xavier Le; Lickorish, Fiona A; Markillie, Paul; Monk, Kathryn A; Mortimer, Diana; Pearce-Higgins, James W; Peck, Lloyd S; Pretty, Jules; Seymour, Colleen L; Spalding, Mark D; Tonneijck, Femke H; Gleave, Rosalind A

2018-01-01

This is our ninth annual horizon scan to identify emerging issues that we believe could affect global biological diversity, natural capital and ecosystem services, and conservation efforts. Our diverse and international team, with expertise in horizon scanning, science communication, as well as conservation science, practice, and policy, reviewed 117 potential issues. We identified the 15 that may have the greatest positive or negative effects but are not yet well recognised by the global conservation community. Themes among these topics include new mechanisms driving the emergence and geographic expansion of diseases, innovative biotechnologies, reassessments of global change, and the development of strategic infrastructure to facilitate global economic priorities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Another issue comes out: gay rights policy voting in recent U.S. presidential elections.

Science.gov (United States)

Rhodebeck, Laurie A

2015-01-01

Drawing from the theory of policy voting, this study examines the impact of opinions about gay rights on voting for presidential candidates. Qualitative analysis of the major party platforms and candidate campaign rhetoric from the six presidential elections held between 1988 and 2008 indicates that Democratic and Republican presidential candidates began openly expressing opposing positions on gay rights issues in 1992. Quantitative analysis of public opinion shows that, starting in 1992 and continuing through 2008, gay rights issues became more salient to the public, and opinions about gay rights began to exert a significant effect on vote choice. The study concludes with a discussion of the partisan forces that shaped the electoral significance of gay rights issues during the period from 1988 to 2008 and speculation about the role of gay rights issues in shaping future partisan electoral strategy.

Expert opinion vs. empirical evidence

OpenAIRE

Herman, Rod A; Raybould, Alan

2014-01-01

Expert opinion is often sought by government regulatory agencies when there is insufficient empirical evidence to judge the safety implications of a course of action. However, it can be reckless to continue following expert opinion when a preponderance of evidence is amassed that conflicts with this opinion. Factual evidence should always trump opinion in prioritizing the information that is used to guide regulatory policy. Evidence-based medicine has seen a dramatic upturn in recent years sp...

How does public opinion become extreme?

Science.gov (United States)

Ramos, Marlon; Shao, Jia; Reis, Saulo D S; Anteneodo, Celia; Andrade, José S; Havlin, Shlomo; Makse, Hernán A

2015-05-19

We investigate the emergence of extreme opinion trends in society by employing statistical physics modeling and analysis on polls that inquire about a wide range of issues such as religion, economics, politics, abortion, extramarital sex, books, movies, and electoral vote. The surveys lay out a clear indicator of the rise of extreme views. The precursor is a nonlinear relation between the fraction of individuals holding a certain extreme view and the fraction of individuals that includes also moderates, e.g., in politics, those who are "very conservative" versus "moderate to very conservative" ones. We propose an activation model of opinion dynamics with interaction rules based on the existence of individual "stubbornness" that mimics empirical observations. According to our modeling, the onset of nonlinearity can be associated to an abrupt bootstrap-percolation transition with cascades of extreme views through society. Therefore, it represents an early-warning signal to forecast the transition from moderate to extreme views. Moreover, by means of a phase diagram we can classify societies according to the percolative regime they belong to, in terms of critical fractions of extremists and people's ties.

How does public opinion become extreme?

Science.gov (United States)

Ramos, Marlon; Shao, Jia; Reis, Saulo D. S.; Anteneodo, Celia; Andrade, José S.; Havlin, Shlomo; Makse, Hernán A.

2015-05-01

We investigate the emergence of extreme opinion trends in society by employing statistical physics modeling and analysis on polls that inquire about a wide range of issues such as religion, economics, politics, abortion, extramarital sex, books, movies, and electoral vote. The surveys lay out a clear indicator of the rise of extreme views. The precursor is a nonlinear relation between the fraction of individuals holding a certain extreme view and the fraction of individuals that includes also moderates, e.g., in politics, those who are “very conservative” versus “moderate to very conservative” ones. We propose an activation model of opinion dynamics with interaction rules based on the existence of individual “stubbornness” that mimics empirical observations. According to our modeling, the onset of nonlinearity can be associated to an abrupt bootstrap-percolation transition with cascades of extreme views through society. Therefore, it represents an early-warning signal to forecast the transition from moderate to extreme views. Moreover, by means of a phase diagram we can classify societies according to the percolative regime they belong to, in terms of critical fractions of extremists and people’s ties.

Expert opinion vs. empirical evidence

Science.gov (United States)

Herman, Rod A; Raybould, Alan

2014-01-01

Expert opinion is often sought by government regulatory agencies when there is insufficient empirical evidence to judge the safety implications of a course of action. However, it can be reckless to continue following expert opinion when a preponderance of evidence is amassed that conflicts with this opinion. Factual evidence should always trump opinion in prioritizing the information that is used to guide regulatory policy. Evidence-based medicine has seen a dramatic upturn in recent years spurred by examples where evidence indicated that certain treatments recommended by expert opinions increased death rates. We suggest that scientific evidence should also take priority over expert opinion in the regulation of genetically modified crops (GM). Examples of regulatory data requirements that are not justified based on the mass of evidence are described, and it is suggested that expertise in risk assessment should guide evidence-based regulation of GM crops. PMID:24637724

TOOL: The Open Opinion Layer

OpenAIRE

Masum, Hassan

2002-01-01

Shared opinions drive society: what we read, how we vote, and where we shop are all heavily influenced by the choices of others. However, the cost in time and money to systematically share opinions remains high, while the actual performance history of opinion generators is often not tracked. This article explores the development of a distributed open opinion layer, which is given the generic name of TOOL. Similar to the evolution of network protocols as an underlying layer for many comput...

THE IMPACT OF AUDITOR`S OPINION ON EARNINGS MANAGEMENT: EVIDENCE FROM ROMANIA

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Andra GAJEVSZKY

2014-06-01

Full Text Available The aim of this research is to analyze the relation between modified audit opinion and abnormal accruals in the case of listed Romanian entities. In order to investigate the influence of auditor`s opinion on earnings management, a multiple regression was designed. The final sample, after eliminating the financial institutions due to homogeneity considerations, consists of 61 companies listed on Bucharest Stock Exchange – tier I, II and III- through a period of five years, from 2008 until 2012. The dependent variable of the regression which measures the discretionary accruals is represented by abnormal accruals, while the independent variables, namely audit opinion, audit firm size, firm size and current ratio of liquidity, constitute the explanatory variables of the regression which aims to capture properly the impact of auditor`s opinion on reducing earnings management in order to improve the quality of financial reporting process. This research contributes to the existent literature in several ways. First of all, at this point, it is the first article that tackles the issue of auditor`s opinion impact on earnings management in Romania. Second, the results of this study might influence the academic environment by contributing to a better understanding of the theoretical implications that can be adapted into an improved practice for the Romanian listed entities.

Major Deficiencies Preventing Auditors From Rendering Audit Opinions on DOD General Fund Financial Statements

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Rauu, Russell

1995-01-01

.... We plan to issue a similar report each year. The audit objective was to identify and summarize the major deficiencies that prevented auditors from rendering audit opinions, other than disclaimers, on Army and Air Force general fund financial...

Public Opinion regarding Juvenile Life without Parole in Consecutive Statewide Surveys

Science.gov (United States)

Kubiak, Sheryl Pimlott; Allen, Terrence

2011-01-01

Abolition of the death penalty results in life without parole (LWOP) as the most severe sanction for convicted juveniles. Although internationally the use of LWOP for juveniles is rare, 2,225 youth have been sentenced to LWOP within the United States. To address the dearth of public opinion on the issue, the authors proposed questions to the…

Epidemic spreading in multiplex networks influenced by opinion exchanges on vaccination.

Science.gov (United States)

Alvarez-Zuzek, Lucila G; La Rocca, Cristian E; Iglesias, José R; Braunstein, Lidia A

2017-01-01

Through years, the use of vaccines has always been a controversial issue. People in a society may have different opinions about how beneficial the vaccines are and as a consequence some of those individuals decide to vaccinate or not themselves and their relatives. This attitude in face of vaccines has clear consequences in the spread of diseases and their transformation in epidemics. Motivated by this scenario, we study, in a simultaneous way, the changes of opinions about vaccination together with the evolution of a disease. In our model we consider a multiplex network consisting of two layers. One of the layers corresponds to a social network where people share their opinions and influence others opinions. The social model that rules the dynamic is the M-model, which takes into account two different processes that occurs in a society: persuasion and compromise. This two processes are related through a parameter r, r 1 the society tends to have extremist opinions, while r = 1 represents a neutral society. This social network may be of real or virtual contacts. On the other hand, the second layer corresponds to a network of physical contacts where the disease spreading is described by the SIR-Model. In this model the individuals may be in one of the following four states: Susceptible (S), Infected(I), Recovered (R) or Vaccinated (V). A Susceptible individual can: i) get vaccinated, if his opinion in the other layer is totally in favor of the vaccine, ii) get infected, with probability β if he is in contact with an infected neighbor. Those I individuals recover after a certain period tr = 6. Vaccinated individuals have an extremist positive opinion that does not change. We consider that the vaccine has a certain effectiveness ω and as a consequence vaccinated nodes can be infected with probability β(1 - ω) if they are in contact with an infected neighbor. In this case, if the infection process is successful, the new infected individual changes his opinion from

Epidemic spreading in multiplex networks influenced by opinion exchanges on vaccination.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lucila G Alvarez-Zuzek

Full Text Available Through years, the use of vaccines has always been a controversial issue. People in a society may have different opinions about how beneficial the vaccines are and as a consequence some of those individuals decide to vaccinate or not themselves and their relatives. This attitude in face of vaccines has clear consequences in the spread of diseases and their transformation in epidemics. Motivated by this scenario, we study, in a simultaneous way, the changes of opinions about vaccination together with the evolution of a disease. In our model we consider a multiplex network consisting of two layers. One of the layers corresponds to a social network where people share their opinions and influence others opinions. The social model that rules the dynamic is the M-model, which takes into account two different processes that occurs in a society: persuasion and compromise. This two processes are related through a parameter r, r 1 the society tends to have extremist opinions, while r = 1 represents a neutral society. This social network may be of real or virtual contacts. On the other hand, the second layer corresponds to a network of physical contacts where the disease spreading is described by the SIR-Model. In this model the individuals may be in one of the following four states: Susceptible (S, Infected(I, Recovered (R or Vaccinated (V. A Susceptible individual can: i get vaccinated, if his opinion in the other layer is totally in favor of the vaccine, ii get infected, with probability β if he is in contact with an infected neighbor. Those I individuals recover after a certain period tr = 6. Vaccinated individuals have an extremist positive opinion that does not change. We consider that the vaccine has a certain effectiveness ω and as a consequence vaccinated nodes can be infected with probability β(1 - ω if they are in contact with an infected neighbor. In this case, if the infection process is successful, the new infected individual changes his

Urban Sloths: Public Knowledge, Opinions, and Interactions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kissia Ferreira Pereira

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Free-range sloths living in an urban environment are rare. In this study, the opinions, attitudes, and interactions with a population of Bradypus variegatus were investigated through short, structured interviews of people in the pubic square where the sloths live, in addition to informal, opportunistic observations of human-sloth interactions. A questionnaire was applied to people in the square where the sloths reside, and informal, opportunistic observations of human-sloth interactions were made. 95% of respondents knew of the sloths’ existence in the square and 87.8% liked their presence. Opinions about population size differed greatly and younger people were concerned as to whether the square was an appropriate place for them. Some human-sloth interactions showed the consequences of a lack of biological knowledge. People initiated all sloth-human interactions. The fact that sloths are strictly folivorous has avoided interactions with humans and, consequently, mitigated any negative impacts of the human-animal interaction on their wellbeing. These results demonstrate that, while there is a harmonious relationship between people and sloths, actions in environmental education of the square’s public could be beneficial for the sloths.

Opinion competition dynamics on multiplex networks

Science.gov (United States)

Amato, R.; Kouvaris, N. E.; San Miguel, M.; Díaz-Guilera, A.

2017-12-01

Multilayer and multiplex networks represent a good proxy for the description of social phenomena where social structure is important and can have different origins. Here, we propose a model of opinion competition where individuals are organized according to two different structures in two layers. Agents exchange opinions according to the Abrams-Strogatz model in each layer separately and opinions can be copied across layers by the same individual. In each layer a different opinion is dominant, so each layer has a different absorbing state. Consensus in one opinion is not the only possible stable solution because of the interaction between the two layers. A new mean field solution has been found where both opinions coexist. In a finite system there is a long transient time for the dynamical coexistence of both opinions. However, the system ends in a consensus state due to finite size effects. We analyze sparse topologies in the two layers and the existence of positive correlations between them, which enables the coexistence of inter-layer groups of agents sharing the same opinion.

Orthopedic surgeons’ and neurologists’ attitudes towards second opinions in the Israeli healthcare system: a qualitative study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Greenfield Geva

2012-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Second opinion is a treatment ratification tool that may critically influence diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis. Second opinions constitute one of the largest expenditures of the supplementary health insurance programs provided by the Israeli health funds. The scarcity of data on physicians’ attitudes toward second opinion motivated this study to explore those attitudes within the Israeli healthcare system. Methods We interviewed 35 orthopedic surgeons and neurologists in Israel and qualitatively analyzed the data using the Grounded Theory approach. Results As a common tool, second opinion reflects the broader context of the Israeli healthcare system, specifically tensions associated with health inequalities. We identified four issues: (1 inequalities between central and peripheral regions of Israel; (2 inequalities between private and public settings; (3 implementation gap between the right to a second opinion and whether it is covered by the National Health Insurance Law; and (4 tension between the authorities of physicians and religious leaders. The physicians mentioned that better mechanisms should be implemented for guiding patients to an appropriate consultant for a second opinion and for making an informed choice between the two opinions. Conclusions While all the physicians agreed on the importance of the second opinion as a tool, they raised concerns about the way it is provided and utilized. To be optimally implemented, second opinion should be institutionalized and regulated. The National Health Insurance Law should strive to provide the mechanisms to access second opinion as stipulated in the Patient’s Rights Law. Further studies are needed to assess the patients' perspectives.

Marine biotechnologies and synthetic biology, new issues for a fair and equitable profit-sharing commercial use.

Science.gov (United States)

Bloch, Jean-François; Tardieu-Guigues, Elisabeth

2014-10-01

The sea will be a source of economic development in the next years. Today the research works in marine biotechnologies supply new products and processes. The introduction in the laboratories of a new technology, synthesis biology, is going to increase the possibilities of creation of new products. Exploitation of product stemming from marine biodiversity has to be made with regard to various rights among which industrial property law, maritime law and the Convention on BioDiversity. All participants involved in the promotion of research in marine biotechnology must address the fair and equitable sharing of any commercial exploitation. Carrying out work involving synthetic biology has increased the number of unanswered questions about how operators should manage in order to avoid any threat of being sued for infringements of IP rights or for alleged bio-piracy. This paper, by no means exhaustive in the field, analyzes some of the issues raised on the modification to the landscape in marine biotechnology by the advent of synthetic biology. Such issues indicate how important the collaboration between researchers, industrialists, lawyers is for allowing proper use of marine biotech. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Non-consensus Opinion Models on Complex Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Qian; Braunstein, Lidia A.; Wang, Huijuan; Shao, Jia; Stanley, H. Eugene; Havlin, Shlomo

2013-04-01

Social dynamic opinion models have been widely studied to understand how interactions among individuals cause opinions to evolve. Most opinion models that utilize spin interaction models usually produce a consensus steady state in which only one opinion exists. Because in reality different opinions usually coexist, we focus on non-consensus opinion models in which above a certain threshold two opinions coexist in a stable relationship. We revisit and extend the non-consensus opinion (NCO) model introduced by Shao et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 103:01870, 2009). The NCO model in random networks displays a second order phase transition that belongs to regular mean field percolation and is characterized by the appearance (above a certain threshold) of a large spanning cluster of the minority opinion. We generalize the NCO model by adding a weight factor W to each individual's original opinion when determining their future opinion (NCO W model). We find that as W increases the minority opinion holders tend to form stable clusters with a smaller initial minority fraction than in the NCO model. We also revisit another non-consensus opinion model based on the NCO model, the inflexible contrarian opinion (ICO) model (Li et al. in Phys. Rev. E 84:066101, 2011), which introduces inflexible contrarians to model the competition between two opinions in a steady state. Inflexible contrarians are individuals that never change their original opinion but may influence the opinions of others. To place the inflexible contrarians in the ICO model we use two different strategies, random placement and one in which high-degree nodes are targeted. The inflexible contrarians effectively decrease the size of the largest rival-opinion cluster in both strategies, but the effect is more pronounced under the targeted method. All of the above models have previously been explored in terms of a single network, but human communities are usually interconnected, not isolated. Because opinions propagate not

Current Issues in Maritime Health

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Wagtmann, Maria Anne

2008-01-01

 In the early part of 2008, Maria Anne Wagtmann had the opportunity to interview the former president of the International Maritime Health Association, Dr. Tim Carter, in London about a number of current maritime health issues. In this interview, Dr. Tim Carter, who is cur­rently employed...... as the Chief Medical Advisor for the British government's Department for Transport, gives his personal - and thus non-official - opinions on these issues....

College Students Opinions on Gun Violence.

Science.gov (United States)

Lewis, Rhonda K; LoCurto, Jamie; Brown, Kyrah; Stowell, David; Maryman, J'Vonnah; Dean, Amber; McNair, Thoi; Ojeda, Debbie; Siwierka, Julia

2016-06-01

Gun violence and control issues have become serious public health problems. This study gathered the opinions from 419 college students from a Midwestern University. Participants were asked about beliefs about purchasing assault weapons, beliefs about bringing handguns to college campuses and beliefs about contributing factors that lead to gun violence. Participants completed surveys online. The findings showed that overall 54 % of respondents believed that military assault weapons should be banned and 53 % agree that teachers should be allowed to carry a registered handgun on campus. There were statistically significant differences between males and females on these issues. For instance, females believed military assault weapons and high capacity magazines should be banned more than 1.9 times (p = .004) p gun violence were decline in parenting and family values (17 %), gang involvement (14 %), bullying (13.8 %) and guns being easy to obtain (13.8 %). Limitations and implications for policy work are discussed.

Biological anti-TNF drugs

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Prado, Mônica Simon; Bendtzen, Klaus; Andrade, Luis Eduardo Coelho

2017-01-01

practice shows a significant percentage of individuals who do not exhibit the desired response. Loss of therapeutic benefit after initial successful response is designated secondary failure. Immune-biological agents are not self-antigens and are therefore potentially immunogenic. Secondary failure...... is frequently caused by antibodies against immune-biologicals, known as anti-drug antibodies (ADA). ADA that neutralize circulating immune-biologicals and/or promote their clearance can reduce treatment efficacy. Furthermore, ADA can induce adverse events by diverse immunological mechanisms. This review...... provides a comprehensive overview of ADA in rheumatoid arthritis patients treated with anti-TNF immune-biologicals, and explores the concept of therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) as an effective strategy to improve therapeutic management. Expert opinion: Monitoring circulating ADA and therapeutic immune-biological...

Should over-treatment of axial spondyloarthritis with biologics remain a concern after the issue of the new ASAS criteria? Data from REGISPONSERBIO (Spanish Register of Biological Therapy in Spondyloarthritides).

Science.gov (United States)

Moreno, Mireia; Gratacós, Jordi; Navarro-Compán, Victoria; de Miguel, Eugenio; Font, Pilar; Clavaguera, Teresa; Linares, Luis Francisco; Joven, Beatriz; Juanola, Xavier

2018-05-08

To study whether disease status at treatment initiation has changed after the issue of the ASAS classification criteria. REGISPONSERBIO registers patients with axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA) on biological treatment since 2013. It includes patients starting biological treatment (incident) or already on biological therapies (prevalent). Patients in both groups were compared in terms of: age at disease onset and at treatment start, disease duration, gender, HLA-B27, body mass index (BMI), BASDAI, BASFI, C-reactive protein, ESR, metrological data, ASQoL, WAPAI, extra-articular manifestations, comorbidities, radiological study, type of biological treatment and concomitant treatments. 256 patients were included, of whom 174 (65%) were already on biologic therapy. Compared to incident patients, prevalent patients started treatment with longer disease duration (15 vs. 8.6 years; p<0.001), a higher proportion of them were men (83% vs. 67%; p=0.01), a smaller proportion of them showed non-radiographic axial spondylarthritis (nr-axSpA)(17% vs. 32%; p<0.01), and a higher proportion had HLAB27 (85% vs. 73%; p=0.02). There were no statistically significant differences in terms of disease activity, degree of disability, quality of life, or prevalence of extra-articular manifestations. Data suggest that, after the issue of the new classification criteria for SpA, biological therapy is being administered earlier than previously in SpA patients and in a higher proportion of patients with nr-axSpA. However, this change in prescribing profile, apparently, has not caused an over-treatment, as patients do not seem to have a lower disease burden than prior to the issue of the criteria.

Fashion clothing involvement, opinion leadership and opinion seeking amongst black generation Y students / Pulaki Joseph Tshabalala

OpenAIRE

Tshabalala, Pulaki Joseph

2014-01-01

Opinion leadership and opinion seeking are central constructs in academic studies of new product innovations. Fashion opinion leaders as those individuals who accelerate the fashion maturity process by legitimising a fashionable trend and influence other consumers to adopt the new innovative style as a replacement for the current accepted one. Consumers who accept information and adopt new style innovations are called opinion seekers and are important to the diffusion of new fashions because ...

Experts' opinions on the role of diet in caries prevention.

Science.gov (United States)

van Loveren, C; Duggal, M S

2004-01-01

A questionnaire was sent to 54 experts in preventive dentistry in 23 European countries in order to make an inventory of existing national dietary guidelines for the prevention of dental caries. In addition, the experts were asked to give their personal opinion on several issues concerning the relationship between diet and dental caries. Forty-five experts from 20 countries returned the questionnaire. In 13 European countries dietary guidelines for caries prevention were available issued by a National (Dental) Association or a Government Body. All guidelines emphasised a reduction of the frequency of intakes of cariogenic foods. Two of them included a threshold level for the amount of sugar. When asked for their personal opinions, almost all experts mentioned reduction of frequency of 'cariogenic' intakes as the principal dietary messages for caries prevention. Four experts, however, explicitly mentioned that proper oral hygiene with fluoride toothpaste is more important. There was no agreement among the experts about a daily number of cariogenic intakes in between meals that can be regarded as safe, nor whether the message: 'Use products with sugar substitutes' should be part of the dietary guidelines for the prevention of dental caries. There was no agreement amongst experts on preventive dentistry in Europe on the contemporary validity of the paradigm: 'Sucrose is the arch criminal of dental caries.' Taking the variation in opinions into account and the fact that a balanced diet may lead to a moderate eating and snacking frequency, the authors propose that the emphasis on good versus bad foods for caries prevention should be replaced by an emphasis on good versus bad diets. Copyright 2004 S. Karger AG, Basel

Plutonium - the ultrapoison? An expert's opinion about an expert opinion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Stoll, W.; Becker, K.

1989-01-01

In an expert opinion written by Professor H. Kuni, Marburg, for the North Rhine-Westphalian state government, plutonium is called by far the most dangerous element in the Periodic Table. The Marburg medical expert holds that even improved legal instruments are unable to warrant effective protection of the workers handling this material, in the light of the present standards of industrial safety, because of radiological conditions and measuring problems with plutonium isotopes. In this article by an internationally renowned expert in the field, the ideas expressed in the expert opinion about the toxicity of plutonium, the cause-and-effect relationship in radiation damage by plutonium, and recent findings about the toxicity are subjected to a critical review. On the basis of results of radiation protection and of case studies, the statements in the expert opinion are contrasted with facts which make them appear in a very different light. (orig./RB) [de

Developing convolutional neural networks for measuring climate change opinions from social media data

Science.gov (United States)

Mao, H.; Bhaduri, B. L.

2016-12-01

Understanding public opinions on climate change is important for policy making. Public opinion, however, is typically measured with national surveys, which are often too expensive and thus being updated at a low frequency. Twitter has become a major platform for people to express their opinions on social and political issues. Our work attempts to understand if Twitter data can provide complimentary insights about climate change perceptions. Since the nature of social media is real-time, this data source can especially help us understand how public opinion changes over time in response to climate events and hazards, which though is very difficult to be captured by manual surveys. We use the Twitter Streaming API to collect tweets that contain keywords, "climate change" or "#climatechange". Traditional machine-learning based opinion mining algorithms require a significant amount of labeled data. Data labeling is notoriously time consuming. To address this problem, we use hashtags (a significant feature used to mark topics of tweets) to annotate tweets automatically. For example, hashtags, #climatedenial and #climatescam, are negative opinion labels, while #actonclimate and #climateaction are positive. Following this method, we can obtain a large amount of training data without human labor. This labeled dataset is used to train a deep convolutional neural network that classifies tweets into positive (i.e. believe in climate change) and negative (i.e. do not believe). Based on the positive/negative tweets obtained, we will further analyze risk perceptions and opinions towards policy support. In addition, we analyze twitter user profiles to understand the demographics of proponents and opponents of climate change. Deep learning techniques, especially convolutional deep neural networks, have achieved much success in computer vision. In this work, we propose a convolutional neural network architecture for understanding opinions within text. This method is compared with

Feedback dynamics and cell function: Why systems biology is called Systems Biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Wolkenhauer, Olaf; Mesarovic, Mihajlo

2005-05-01

A new paradigm, like Systems Biology, should challenge the way research has been conducted previously. This Opinion article aims to present Systems Biology, not as the application of engineering principles to biology but as a merger of systems- and control theory with molecular- and cell biology. In our view, the central dogma of Systems Biology is that it is system dynamics that gives rise to the functioning and function of cells. The concepts of feedback regulation and control of pathways and the coordination of cell function are emphasized as an important area of Systems Biology research. The hurdles and risks for this area are discussed from the perspective of dynamic pathway modelling. Most of all, the aim of this article is to promote mathematical modelling and simulation as a part of molecular- and cell biology. Systems Biology is a success if it is widely accepted that there is nothing more practical than a good theory.

USING STATISTICAL METHODS FOR ESTIMATING STUDENTS’ OPINION ON THE PURPOSE OF HUMAN LIFE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Aivaz M. KAMER AINUR

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Currently, two anthropological models are dominant in Romania. The first is the atheistic-evolutionary model and the second is the Christian model. The purpose of this article is to assess the students’ opinion on the two anthropological models and, in particular, on the purpose of human life. To that effect, there have been used the coefficients of association between the main aspects of the two models. Starting from the two outlined approaches, this paper aims to investigate the opinions of the students from two different specializations within Ovidius University of Constanta – the Faculty of Economics and the Faculty of Theology – on the issues mentioned above

THE LANGUAGE AND IDEOLOGY OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT FOR DRUG CONVICTS FOUND IN SELECTED OPINIONS IN THE JAKARTA POST

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arina Isti’anah

2016-02-01

Full Text Available This research is an investigation into the language use in peoples opinions of capital punishment for drug convicts in The Jakarta Post. Capital punishment was executed to six drug convicts on January 18th , 2015. Controversy about this action has risen before and after the execution. People give their opinions in social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and newspapers. The Jakarta Post is a well-known English newspaper in Indonesia which has a lot of readers. People choose this newspaper to convey their ideas so that their opinions will be read by people around the world. As the issue about capital punishment is popular recently, this research attempts at finding out peoples ideology about capital punishment for drug convicts. Critical discourse analysis was conducted in this research as an approach to figure out how language use by the people can reveal their ideology of capital punishment. This research focused on observing four opinions of capital punishment for drug convicts in The Jakarta Post. The analysis shows that material processes dominate the opinions, followed by relational, mental and verbal processes. The ideologies revealed in the opinions are power, pessimism, and criticism. Before the execution, pessimism dominates the opinions, while after the execution criticism appears most in the opinions.

A mobile phone application for the collection of opinion data for forest planning purposes.

Science.gov (United States)

Kangas, Annika; Rasinmäki, Jussi; Eyvindson, Kyle; Chambers, Philip

2015-04-01

The last 30 years has seen an increase in environmental, socio-economic, and recreational objectives being considered throughout the forest planning process. In the Finnish context these are considered mainly at the regional level potentially missing out on more local issues and problems. Such local information would be most efficiently collected with a participatory GIS approach. A mobile participatory GIS application called Tienoo was developed as a tool for collecting location-specific opinions of recreational and aesthetical characteristics of forests and forest management. The application also contains information the user can access regarding the practical details of the area, for instance about the recreational infrastructure. The application was tested in Ruunaa National Hiking Area, North Karelia, Eastern Finland. Through this application it is possible to continuously collect geolocated preference information. As a result, the collected opinions have details which can be located in both time and space. This allows for the possibility to monitor the changes in opinions when the stands are treated, and it also allows for easily analyzing the effect of time of year on the opinions. It is also possible to analyze the effect of the spatial location and the forest characteristics on the opinions using GIS analysis.

Nuclear Energy and Public Opinion: Chile's Case

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gonzalez, G.

2015-01-01

Public opinion is as old as history itself. Its origins date back to the ancient Greece where the Agora was consulted about matters of interest and at the same time it was practiced the art of persuasion through dialogue. Philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle gave proof of their knowledge and skills of persuasion. These aspects were inherited by the Roman Empire, which sought through the senate the idea of transmitting what we know as “Vox Populi” (The Greek doxa), a term that together with the “Consensus” used by Medieval thinkers, constitute its pre-modern origin. From a conceptual point of view, public opinion comes alongside the creation of the idea of the state and as a result of the historical process called the Enlightenment. Thinkers such as Rousseau, Locke, Montesquieu, Kant and Hegel contextualised it within the legal system of the state. For Rousseau, it should be understood as a expression of the general will; for Kant it was the highest realization of the Enlightenment era and a result of the use of reason and law and for Locke human behaviour was defined by three fundamental laws: the divine, civil and…Public Opinion!. Hegel was much more specific and expressed that public opinion was called to be the instrument by which society expressed its support or rejection to the rulers’ decisions. It was in coffee shops and gatherings where opinion was born; for this reason, it was only the elite who was able to expressed about general interest’s topics, therefore the importance of sociability during modern times. This is how we arrive to the contemporary definition of the term. Since the French Revolution the concept has been associated with the sovereignty of the states and people, i.e. the rule of the majority. Today due to the massive participation of people in issues of importance, the opinion delivered by the media, and the globalization of communications, it is difficult to arrive at a definition of the term we have been

Contemporary issues in evolutionary biology

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

These discussions included, among others, the possible consequences of nonDNA-based inheritance—epigenetics and cultural evolution, niche construction, and developmental mechanisms on our understanding of the evolutionary process, speciation, complexity in biology, and constructing a formal evolutionary theory.

Biologic agents in rheumatology: unmet issues after 200 trials and $200 billion sales.

Science.gov (United States)

Ioannidis, John P A; Karassa, Fotini B; Druyts, Eric; Thorlund, Kristian; Mills, Edward J

2013-11-01

Anti-TNF agents and other biologic therapies are widely prescribed for a variety of indications, with total sales that exceed $200 billion to date. In rheumatic diseases, biologic agents have now been studied in more than 200 randomized clinical trials and over 100 subsequent meta-analyses; however, the information obtained does not always meet the needs of patients and clinicians. In this Review, we discuss the current issues concerning the evidence derived from such studies: potential biases favouring positive results; a paucity of head-to-head comparisons between biologically active agents; overwhelming involvement of manufacturer sponsors in trials and in the synthesis of the evidence; the preference for trials with limited follow-up; and the potential for spurious findings on adverse events, leading to endless debates about malignancy risk. We debate the responsibilities of regulatory authorities, the pharmaceutical industry and academia in attempting to solve these shortcomings and challenges. We propose that improvements in the evidence regarding biologic treatments that are continually being added to the therapeutic armamentarium for rheumatic diseases might require revisiting the design and conduct of studies. For example, trials with long-term follow-up that are independent of the pharmaceutical industry, head-to-head comparisons of therapeutic agents and the use of rigorous clinical outcomes should be considered, and public availability of raw data endorsed.

Opinions of veterinarians on antimicrobial use in farm animals in Flanders and the Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Speksnijder, D. C.; Jaarsma, A. D. C.; Verheij, T. J. M.; Wagenaar, J. A.; Dewulf, J.

2016-01-01

Veterinarians play an important role in the reduction of antimicrobial use in farm animals. This study aims to quantify opinions of veterinarians from the Netherlands and Flanders regarding antimicrobial use and resistance issues in farm animals. An online survey was sent out to 678 and 1100 farm

Choice Shift in Opinion Network Dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Gabbay, Michael

Choice shift is a phenomenon associated with small group dynamics whereby group discussion causes group members to shift their opinions in a more extreme direction so that the mean post-discussion opinion exceeds the mean pre-discussion opinion. Also known as group polarization, choice shift is a robust experimental phenomenon and has been well-studied within social psychology. In opinion network models, shifts toward extremism are typically produced by the presence of stubborn agents at the extremes of the opinion axis, whose opinions are much more resistant to change than moderate agents. However, we present a model in which choice shift can arise without the assumption of stubborn agents; the model evolves member opinions and uncertainties using coupled nonlinear differential equations. In addition, we briefly describe the results of a recent experiment conducted involving online group discussion concerning the outcome of National Football League games are described. The model predictions concerning the effects of network structure, disagreement level, and team choice (favorite or underdog) are in accord with the experimental results. This research was funded by the Office of Naval Research and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

Opinion dynamics with confirmation bias.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Armen E Allahverdyan

Full Text Available Confirmation bias is the tendency to acquire or evaluate new information in a way that is consistent with one's preexisting beliefs. It is omnipresent in psychology, economics, and even scientific practices. Prior theoretical research of this phenomenon has mainly focused on its economic implications possibly missing its potential connections with broader notions of cognitive science.We formulate a (non-Bayesian model for revising subjective probabilistic opinion of a confirmationally-biased agent in the light of a persuasive opinion. The revision rule ensures that the agent does not react to persuasion that is either far from his current opinion or coincides with it. We demonstrate that the model accounts for the basic phenomenology of the social judgment theory, and allows to study various phenomena such as cognitive dissonance and boomerang effect. The model also displays the order of presentation effect-when consecutively exposed to two opinions, the preference is given to the last opinion (recency or the first opinion (primacy -and relates recency to confirmation bias. Finally, we study the model in the case of repeated persuasion and analyze its convergence properties.The standard Bayesian approach to probabilistic opinion revision is inadequate for describing the observed phenomenology of persuasion process. The simple non-Bayesian model proposed here does agree with this phenomenology and is capable of reproducing a spectrum of effects observed in psychology: primacy-recency phenomenon, boomerang effect and cognitive dissonance. We point out several limitations of the model that should motivate its future development.

Trendwatch combining expert opinion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Hendrix, E.M.T.; Kornelis, M.; Pegge, S.M.; Galen, van M.A.

2006-01-01

In this study, focus is on a systematic way to detect future changes in trends that may effect the dynamics in the agro-food sector, and on the combination of opinions of experts. For the combination of expert opinions, the usefulness of multilevel models is investigated. Bayesian data analysis is

The learning continuum of ecology based on teachers' opinion about student's level of competence and specific pedagogical learning material

Science.gov (United States)

Pramesti, Indah Cahaya; Subali, Bambang

2017-08-01

This study aims at designing learning continuum for developing a curriculum based on teachers' opinion about student's level of competence and specific pedagogical learning material on ecological aspect targeted for students of Primary and Secondary Education. This research is a descriptive research using survey methods. The researchers conducted a census by distributing questionnaires that had been validated from the aspects of construct validity and experts judgements to 147 natural science teachers at junior high school and 134 Biology teachers at senior high school as a population throughout 4 regencies and 1 city in Yogyakarta Special Region.. Data analysis techniques used descriptive analysis. In conclusion, teacher's opinion is influenced by curriculum that exist today. According to the opinions of Natural Science teachers at Junior High School, most of the ecological aspects such as characteristics of biomes, characteristics of ecosystems, characteristics of communities, characteristics of populations, etc. should be taught in grade VII with the level of competence: to understand (C2), while Biology teachers at Senior High School state that the ecological aspect should be taught in class X with the level of competence: to understand (C2), apply (C3) and analyze (C4). Teachers should be a privy in the formulation of the curriculum, so they're not only accept and apply the existing curriculum but also give opinions to improve the curriculum, especially in terms of ecology.

OpinionSeer: interactive visualization of hotel customer feedback.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yingcai; Wei, Furu; Liu, Shixia; Au, Norman; Cui, Weiwei; Zhou, Hong; Qu, Huamin

2010-01-01

The rapid development of Web technology has resulted in an increasing number of hotel customers sharing their opinions on the hotel services. Effective visual analysis of online customer opinions is needed, as it has a significant impact on building a successful business. In this paper, we present OpinionSeer, an interactive visualization system that could visually analyze a large collection of online hotel customer reviews. The system is built on a new visualization-centric opinion mining technique that considers uncertainty for faithfully modeling and analyzing customer opinions. A new visual representation is developed to convey customer opinions by augmenting well-established scatterplots and radial visualization. To provide multiple-level exploration, we introduce subjective logic to handle and organize subjective opinions with degrees of uncertainty. Several case studies illustrate the effectiveness and usefulness of OpinionSeer on analyzing relationships among multiple data dimensions and comparing opinions of different groups. Aside from data on hotel customer feedback, OpinionSeer could also be applied to visually analyze customer opinions on other products or services.

Ethical Issues in Media Practice

Institute of Scientific and Technical Information of China (English)

马慧

2009-01-01

Journalists are always confronted by ethical definitions on the daily basis during their media practice.In this article,some ethical issues happened in media practice are analyzed,and aspects of both news reporters and public opinion are deeply studied,and the balance between both professional and ethics is probed seriously as well.

Climate of opinion and information behaviour in the context of nuclear energy and the ENSI

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bonfadelli, H.; Kristiansen, S.

2012-11-01

This interim report issued by the University of Zurich for the Swiss Federal Nuclear Safety Inspectorate (ENSI) was elaborated as a result of the nuclear accident in Fukushima, Japan. The report discusses the questions raised concerning the independence of certain members of the inspectorate and discusses the results of an initial survey on the profile and reputation of the inspectorate. The development of public opinion concerning various aspects of nuclear energy over several years and for various categories of the population is noted in tables. Also, large changes in opinion after the Fukushima accident are noted. Risk assessments, confidence in the regulatory instances as well as opinions on how nuclear energy should be regulated are examined. Also, information and media use in connection with nuclear energy are looked at. Finally, the most important conclusions of the study are presented and discussed

Opinion formation models on a gradient.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Michael T Gastner

Full Text Available Statistical physicists have become interested in models of collective social behavior such as opinion formation, where individuals change their inherently preferred opinion if their friends disagree. Real preferences often depend on regional cultural differences, which we model here as a spatial gradient g in the initial opinion. The gradient does not only add reality to the model. It can also reveal that opinion clusters in two dimensions are typically in the standard (i.e., independent percolation universality class, thus settling a recent controversy about a non-consensus model. However, using analytical and numerical tools, we also present a model where the width of the transition between opinions scales proportional g(-1/4, not proportional g(-4/7 as in independent percolation, and the cluster size distribution is consistent with first-order percolation.

Opinions and attitudes on the relationship between spirituality, religiosity and health: A comparison between nursing students from Brazil and Portugal.

Science.gov (United States)

Cordero, Rocío de Diego; Romero, Bárbara Badanta; de Matos, Filomena Adelaide; Costa, Emília; Espinha, Daniele Corcioli Mendes; Tomasso, Claudia de Souza; Lucchetti, Alessandra Lamas Granero; Lucchetti, Giancarlo

2018-03-08

To compare the opinions and attitudes of Portuguese-speaking nursing students from Brazil and Portugal on the relationship between religiosity/spirituality and the ability to approach these issues with patients, in their undergraduate training and practice. Although there are studies investigating nursing students' opinions concerning religiosity and spirituality in clinical practice, few have investigated if there are cross-cultural differences between countries. Observational, cross-sectional and multicenter study carried out in 2010 and 2011 in Brazil and in 2016 in Portugal. A total of 260 third and fourth year nursing students (139 from Portugal and 121 from Brazil) from four nursing schools were included. Religious beliefs (Duke Religion Index), attitudes and opinions about spirituality and health (Curlin's questionnaire) were assessed. A comparison between students from both countries was carried out. Significant differences were found between nursing students from Brazil and Portugal, which are countries with the same language, but with different nursing training programs and population characteristics. Brazilian students were more religious and have stronger opinions on the influence and appropriateness of spirituality in clinical practice than Portuguese students. However, both groups of students indicated they should be prepared to address religiosity and spirituality with patients, that these subjects should be included in the curriculum and that they were not properly prepared to address spiritual issues. Although different opinions and attitudes were found between Brazilian and Portuguese nursing students, more training in these issues should be implemented in the undergraduate education. Cross-cultural studies could help fostering a broad discussion in the field. These findings could contribute to raise awareness on the importance of improving the training of relational competencies that prepare students to address the dimension of spirituality and

Introduction to the Special Issue: Beyond traits: integrating behaviour into plant ecology and biology.

Science.gov (United States)

Cahill, James F

2015-10-26

The way that plants are conceptualized in the context of ecological understanding is changing. In one direction, a reductionist school is pulling plants apart into a list of measured 'traits', from which ecological function and outcomes of species interactions may be inferred. This special issue offers an alternative, and more holistic, view: that the ecological functions performed by a plant will be a consequence not only of their complement of traits but also of the ways in which their component parts are used in response to environmental and social conditions. This is the realm of behavioural ecology, a field that has greatly advanced our understanding of animal biology, ecology and evolution. Included in this special issue are 10 articles focussing not on the tried and true metaphor that plant growth is similar to animal movement, but instead on how application of principles from animal behaviour can improve our ability to understand plant biology and ecology. The goals are not to draw false parallels, nor to anthropomorphize plant biology, but instead to demonstrate how existing and robust theory based on fundamental principles can provide novel understanding for plants. Key to this approach is the recognition that behaviour and intelligence are not the same. Many organisms display complex behaviours despite a lack of cognition (as it is traditionally understood) or any hint of a nervous system. The applicability of behavioural concepts to plants is further enhanced with the realization that all organisms face the same harsh forces of natural selection in the context of finding resources, mates and coping with neighbours. As these ecological realities are often highly variable in space and time, it is not surprising that all organisms-even plants-exhibit complex behaviours to handle this variability. The articles included here address diverse topics in behavioural ecology, as applied to plants: general conceptual understanding, plant nutrient foraging, root

[Medical data security in medico-legal opinioning].

Science.gov (United States)

Susło, Robert; Swiatek, Barbara

2005-01-01

Medical data security can be approached in medico-legal opinioning in three main situations: security of medical data, on which the opinion should be based, opinioning itself and whether the medical data security was properly ensured and ensuring medical data security during medico-legal opinion giving. The importance of medical data security, during collecting, processing and storing, as well in medical as in legal institutions, is of major importance for the possibility of providing a proper medico-legal opinion. Theoretically speeking, it is possible to give a proper medico-legal opinion using incorrect data, but the possibility is low. When the expert is given improper, unreadable, incomplete or even bogus in part or in the whole medical data it is extremely possible, that he fails in giving his opinion. The term "medical data" was defined and subsequently there was a brief review of medical data storing methods made and specific threats bound with them, based on modern literature. The authors also pointed out possible methods of preventing the threats. They listed Polish as well as international regulations and laws concerning the problem, accenting the importance of preserving medical data for the purposes of medico-legal opinioning.

An exploration of the dynamics and influences upon second medical opinion consultations in cancer care.

Science.gov (United States)

Philip, Jennifer; Gold, Michelle; Schwarz, Max; Komesaroff, Paul

2011-03-01

The aim of this study was to explore the dynamics within second medical opinion consultations in patients with cancer. Semi-structured interviews were held with four oncologists and were subjected to a thematic analysis to define the broad issues. These formed the basis of a survey distributed to Australian medical oncologists. Overall 65 surveys were returned representing an overall response rate of 30% (10% and 63% electronic and hardcopy response rates, respectively). The dynamics in giving second medical opinions are influenced by the collegiate relationships of the doctors. Nearly two-thirds of oncologists believed that the first doctors' treatment and recommendations influenced the outcome of the second opinion, more than one-third believed the outcome was influenced by the relationship between the two doctors, and 41% believed the public nature of a second opinion was influential. In each case, these figures were more than double their assessments of patients' beliefs of these influences. Care was taken not to criticise the primary doctor. Second medical opinions provide an opportunity for oncologists to review medical care and engage in enhanced communication with patients who have additional needs. These consultations do not, however, occur in a vacuum but are influenced by the need to attend to relationships between the patient and their primary doctor and between the doctors themselves. The second medical opinion is embedded within a network of relationships and within the illness journey. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd.

Opinion evolution in different social acquaintance networks

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xi; Zhang, Xiao; Wu, Zhan; Wang, Hongwei; Wang, Guohua; Li, Wei

2017-11-01

Social acquaintance networks influenced by social culture and social policy have a great impact on public opinion evolution in daily life. Based on the differences between socio-culture and social policy, three different social acquaintance networks (kinship-priority acquaintance network, independence-priority acquaintance network, and hybrid acquaintance network) incorporating heredity proportion ph and variation proportion pv are proposed in this paper. Numerical experiments are conducted to investigate network topology and different phenomena during opinion evolution, using the Deffuant model. We found that in kinship-priority acquaintance networks, similar to the Chinese traditional acquaintance networks, opinions always achieve fragmentation, resulting in the formation of multiple large clusters and many small clusters due to the fact that individuals believe more in their relatives and live in a relatively closed environment. In independence-priority acquaintance networks, similar to Western acquaintance networks, the results are similar to those in the kinship-priority acquaintance network. In hybrid acquaintance networks, similar to the Chinese modern acquaintance networks, only a few clusters are formed indicating that in modern China, opinions are more likely to reach consensus on a large scale. These results are similar to the opinion evolution phenomena in modern society, proving the rationality and applicability of network models combined with social culture and policy. We also found a threshold curve pv+2 ph=2.05 in the results for the final opinion clusters and evolution time. Above the threshold curve, opinions could easily reach consensus. Based on the above experimental results, a culture-policy-driven mechanism for the opinion dynamic is worth promoting in this paper, that is, opinion dynamics can be driven by different social cultures and policies through the influence of heredity and variation in interpersonal relationship networks. This

Survey Methods, Traditional, Public Opinion Polling

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Elmelund-Præstekær, Christian; Hopmann, David Nicolas; Pedersen, Rasmus Tue

2017-01-01

Traditional public opinion polls are surveys in which a random sample of a given population is asked questions about their attitudes, knowledge, or behavior. If conducted properly, the answers from such surveys are approximately representative of the entire population. Traditional public opinion...... polling is typically based on four different methods of data gathering, or combinations hereof: face-to-face, postal surveys, phone surveys, and web surveys. Given that opinion polls are based on a sample, we cannot be sure that the sample reflects public opinion perfectly, however—even if randomness...... is perfect. Moreover, responses may be highly dependent on the contextual information provided with the question. Also, it may be difficult to capture past or complex causes of attitudes or behavior. In short, surveys are a precise way of measuring public opinion, but they do not come without challenges....

Opinion Change: Information or Partisanship?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Justesen, Mogens K.; Klemmensen, Robert; Leavitt, Thomas

Currently two paradigms seek to explain how voters change their opinion when they are confronted with new information. One school argues that voters are bayesian updaters who rationally change their opinion. Another school argues that voters are inherently biased in their evaluation of new...... information. According to this line of thought voters are more likely to accept information that con_rms their opinion compared to information that contradict their point of view. Using a quasi experiment we investigate the extent to which voters rely on bayesian updating or on motivated reasoning when...

African Journals Online: Biology & Life Sciences

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Items 51 - 71 of 71 ... The journal publishes original articles in the broad discipline of basic genetics ... review articles, issues and opinions, special communications, letters to ... Ostrich: Journal of African Ornithology is a scientific journal published ...

Spent fuel storage choices: What public opinion polls tell us

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bisconti, A.S.

1995-01-01

The crux of the issue of spent nuclear fuel for much of the American public is that taking car of our waste now instead of leaving it for future generations is the safe and environmentally responsible think to do. This article summarizes a number of public opinion surveys. Although it is important to recognize that most people are not familiar with specifics, much of the American public has a strong opinions about the fundamental guiding principles for safely managing radioactive waste. First there is clear agreement that we need action. Second, safety means taking the waste to a permanent disposal facility instead of leaving it in many different locations. Third, most of the public would like to keep nuclear energy as a supply option. Fourth, the majority of the public agreed with the statement that the availability of nuclear energy as an option for future energy supply depends on building a national waste storage or disposal facility

Gas/electricity convergence : where is public opinion

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Edwards, R.G. [Gallup Canada Inc., Toronto, ON (Canada)

1998-09-01

The current status of public opinion regarding gas and electricity convergence was discussed. Gallup Canada Inc. has been in the business of conducting public opinion polls on important issues facing society for over 50 years. Citizens from coast to coast responded with a great deal of confusion, uncertainty and wariness when asked a question on the convergence and privatization of gas and electric utilities. Many expressed the hope that convergence and privatization of the energy industry will have the same effect as deregulation of long distance telephone services has had on choices and costs. For some, the answer meant satisfaction with the notion of competition. Others wanted to know what constituted the local `frozen` rate portion of the delivery. Still others expressed the view that they ought to be rewarded for using less energy and thus help in meeting conservation goals. At the same time, a not insignificant minority thought that they should be rewarded with better prices for consuming more. Improvement in the quality of service was another change that Canadian consumers expect to result from convergence and privatization. In the utility industry `branding` and `value added` to the product, i.e. moving beyond the basic and expected quality, might well be the key to success in developing customer loyalty.

Opinion Summarizationof CustomerComments

Science.gov (United States)

Fan, Miao; Wu, Guoshi

Web 2.0 technologies have enabled more and more customers to freely comment on different kinds of entities, such as sellers, products and services. The large scale of information poses the need and challenge of automatic summarization. In many cases, each of the user-generated short comments implies the opinions which rate the target entity. In this paper, we aim to mine and to summarize all the customer comments of a product. The algorithm proposed in this researchis more reliable on opinion identification because it is unsupervised and the accuracy of the result improves as the number of comments increases. Our research is performed in four steps: (1) mining the frequent aspects of a product that have been commented on by customers; (2) mining the infrequent aspects of a product which have been commented by customers (3) identifying opinion words in each comment and deciding whether each opinion word is positive, negative or neutral; (4) summarizing the comments. This paper proposes several novel techniques to perform these tasks. Our experimental results using comments of a number of products sold online demonstrate the effectiveness of the techniques.

Examining the Gap between Science and Public Opinion about Genetically Modified Food and Global Warming.

Science.gov (United States)

McFadden, Brandon R

2016-01-01

There is great uncertainty due to challenges of escalating population growth and climate change. Public perception that diverges from the scientific community may decrease the effectiveness of scientific inquiry and innovation as tools to solve these challenges. The objective of this study was to identify the factors associated with the divergence of public opinion from scientific consensus regarding the safety of genetically modified (GM) foods and human involvement in global warming (GW). Results indicate that the effects of knowledge on public opinion are complex and non-uniform across types of knowledge (i.e., perceived and actual) or issues. Political affiliation affects agreement with science; Democrats were more likely to agree that GM food is safe and human actions cause GW. Respondents who had relatively higher cognitive function or held illusionary correlations about GM food or GW were more likely to have an opinion that differed from the scientific community.

Examining the Gap between Science and Public Opinion about Genetically Modified Food and Global Warming

Science.gov (United States)

McFadden, Brandon R.

2016-01-01

There is great uncertainty due to challenges of escalating population growth and climate change. Public perception that diverges from the scientific community may decrease the effectiveness of scientific inquiry and innovation as tools to solve these challenges. The objective of this study was to identify the factors associated with the divergence of public opinion from scientific consensus regarding the safety of genetically modified (GM) foods and human involvement in global warming (GW). Results indicate that the effects of knowledge on public opinion are complex and non-uniform across types of knowledge (i.e., perceived and actual) or issues. Political affiliation affects agreement with science; Democrats were more likely to agree that GM food is safe and human actions cause GW. Respondents who had relatively higher cognitive function or held illusionary correlations about GM food or GW were more likely to have an opinion that differed from the scientific community. PMID:27829008

The IRSN 2012 barometer. The opinion on risks and security of the French population. Global results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

El Jammal, Marie-Helene; Rollinger, Francois; Mur, Emmanuelle

2012-01-01

This report presents and comments the results of a survey during which a sample of the French population has been questioned on their current concerns (what is the most concerning issue in the present society and in the environment, science within concerns), on their opinion on scientific expertise (who should control a risky installation, the role and image of experts, the access to expertise files, the perception of pluralist structures), on their opinion on 33 risk situations (risks to which French people feel exposed, confidence in authorities to protect them, truth of information on hazards, hierarchy of the 33 situations), on their opinion on the nuclear activity and industry (the nuclear risk, the credibility and expertise of interveners), and on the Fukushima accident (perception of the accident, quality of information, expectations on the assessment of nuclear power stations)

A Self-Categorization Explanation for Opinion Consensus Perceptions

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Jinguang; Reid, Scott A.

2013-01-01

The public expression of opinions (and related communicative activities) hinges upon the perception of opinion consensus. Current explanations for opinion consensus perceptions typically focus on egocentric and other biases, rather than functional cognitions. Using self-categorization theory we showed that opinion consensus perceptions flow from…

How to Choose between the Implant Materials Steel and Titanium in Orthopedic Trauma Surgery: Part 2 - Biological Aspects.

Science.gov (United States)

Perren, S M; Regazzoni, P; Fernandez, A A

2017-01-01

BIOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF STEEL AND TITANIUM AS IMPLANT MATERIAL IN ORTHOPEDIC TRAUMA SURGERY The following case from the ICUC database, where a titanium plate was implanted into a flourishing infection, represents the clinical experience leading to preferring titanium over steel. (Fig. 1) (6). Current opinions regarding biological aspects of implant function. The "street" opinions regarding the biological aspects of the use of steel versus titanium as a surgical trauma implant material differ widely. Statements of opinion leaders range from "I do not see any difference in the biological behavior between steel and titanium in clinical application" to "I successfully use titanium implants in infected areas in a situation where steel would act as foreign body "sustaining" infection." Furthermore, some comments imply that clinical proof for the superiority of titanium in human application is lacking. The following tries to clarify the issues addressing the different aspects more through a practical clinical approach than a purely scientific one, this includes simplifications. Today's overall biocompatibility of implant materials is acceptable but: As the vast majority of secondary surgeries are elective procedures this allows the selection of implant materials with optimal infection resistance. The different biological reactions of stainless steel and titanium are important for this segment of clinical pathologies. Biological tole - rance (18) depends on the toxicity and on the amount of soluble implant material released. Release, diffusion and washout through blood circulation determine the local concentration of the corrosion products. Alloying components of steel, especially nickel and chromium, are less than optimal in respect to tissue tolerance and allergenicity. Titanium as a pure metal provides excellent biological tolerance (3, 4, 16). Better strength was obtained by titanium alloys like TiAl6V4. The latter found limited application as surgical implants. It

Public opinion on Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hirose, Hirotada

2013-01-01

This article showed trend of public opinion on nuclear power after Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, for which the survey had been done five times under the same method and inquiries. Most unreliable source of information at disaster was government ministries and offices, whose unreliability sharply increased from 20% to about 50% after 3 months later and one year later after March 11 and reliability after 2 year and 5 months later (August 2013) was not high and almost comparable with unreliability of 27%. Nuclear disaster was most serious cause of Great East Japan earthquake disaster (60%) and not entirely ended due to such increase of contaminated water. Public opinion survey in August 2013 showed nuclear power stoppage totaled about 80% with immediate of about 30% and phaseout of about 50%, and possibility of occurrence of another nuclear accident comparable with Fukushima disaster was almost 80% with a belief not only earthquakes, tsunamis, terrorism but also human errors might initiate nuclear disaster if nuclear power restarted. Future most serious disaster would be earthquake (50%) and nuclear disaster (35%). Nuclear accident preparedness of government and local government was not enough (58% and 24%) and nothing (33% and 24%). Residents within UPZ (Urgent Protection action Planning Zone) of 30 km radius could not evacuate safely (57%) and entirely (22%). If government and local government encouraged damaged residents to come home with declaration of safety for evacuation area of nuclear accident, damaged residents might not return almost (46%) and entirely (9%). Notwithstanding people's strong feeling against nuclear power, LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) promoting nuclear power won an overwhelming victory at the election of House of Councilors in July 2013. Public opinion survey in August 2013 showed most important issue of voters was party's image (25%), economic measures (20%) and candidate's personality (13%), and nuclear power policy was only 5%. (T

Altruistic Surrogacy – Ethical Issues and Demographic Differences in Public Opinion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Krastev R.

2017-10-01

Full Text Available This is the first study of the attitude of Bulgarian people towards the allowing of altruistic surrogacy which is prohibited in Bulgaria. This study used an online survey which was active during one year (July 2010-June 2011 and which was answered by 951 respondents between 18-65 years of age. The majority of them (87% are young people between 18-43 years. The respondents are men and women with secondary, university and medical university education from the capital and the countryside. They have different marital status. The data were treated with statistical package SPSS 16. The link between the demographic characteristics (gender, age, education, marital status and place of residence and the answers of the respondents was identified. The majority of the respondents (73% think that the altruistic surrogacy must be allowed in Bulgaria and the main supporters are the women and the residents in the countryside – married or living with partner. Only 38% of the respondents mostly divorced middle aged persons accept the access of same sex couples to surrogacy. The majority of the respondents (53% fear that the surrogacy may transform poor women into incubators for babies. This opinion is shared by the men, by the youngest and the oldest respondents and by the unmarried persons.

Opinions of Illinois Secondary Business Teachers Concerning Political and Socio-Economic Issues

Science.gov (United States)

Scriven, Jolene Davidson

1975-01-01

The results of this study point to a need for business teachers to find ways of discussing political and socio-economic issues in their classrooms and that business teacher education institutions should be certain that graduates are prepared to include these issues in the courses they teach. (Author)

Anisotropic opinion dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Neirotti, Juan

2016-07-01

We consider the process of opinion formation in a society of interacting agents, where there is a set B of socially accepted rules. In this scenario, we observed that agents, represented by simple feed-forward, adaptive neural networks, may have a conservative attitude (mostly in agreement with B ) or liberal attitude (mostly in agreement with neighboring agents) depending on how much their opinions are influenced by their peers. The topology of the network representing the interaction of the society's members is determined by a graph, where the agents' properties are defined over the vertexes and the interagent interactions are defined over the bonds. The adaptability of the agents allows us to model the formation of opinions as an online learning process, where agents learn continuously as new information becomes available to the whole society (online learning). Through the application of statistical mechanics techniques we deduced a set of differential equations describing the dynamics of the system. We observed that by slowly varying the average peer influence in such a way that the agents attitude changes from conservative to liberal and back, the average social opinion develops a hysteresis cycle. Such hysteretic behavior disappears when the variance of the social influence distribution is large enough. In all the cases studied, the change from conservative to liberal behavior is characterized by the emergence of conservative clusters, i.e., a closed knitted set of society members that follow a leader who agrees with the social status quo when the rule B is challenged.

Opinion evolution in different social acquaintance networks.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Xi; Zhang, Xiao; Wu, Zhan; Wang, Hongwei; Wang, Guohua; Li, Wei

2017-11-01

Social acquaintance networks influenced by social culture and social policy have a great impact on public opinion evolution in daily life. Based on the differences between socio-culture and social policy, three different social acquaintance networks (kinship-priority acquaintance network, independence-priority acquaintance network, and hybrid acquaintance network) incorporating heredity proportion p h and variation proportion p v are proposed in this paper. Numerical experiments are conducted to investigate network topology and different phenomena during opinion evolution, using the Deffuant model. We found that in kinship-priority acquaintance networks, similar to the Chinese traditional acquaintance networks, opinions always achieve fragmentation, resulting in the formation of multiple large clusters and many small clusters due to the fact that individuals believe more in their relatives and live in a relatively closed environment. In independence-priority acquaintance networks, similar to Western acquaintance networks, the results are similar to those in the kinship-priority acquaintance network. In hybrid acquaintance networks, similar to the Chinese modern acquaintance networks, only a few clusters are formed indicating that in modern China, opinions are more likely to reach consensus on a large scale. These results are similar to the opinion evolution phenomena in modern society, proving the rationality and applicability of network models combined with social culture and policy. We also found a threshold curve p v +2p h =2.05 in the results for the final opinion clusters and evolution time. Above the threshold curve, opinions could easily reach consensus. Based on the above experimental results, a culture-policy-driven mechanism for the opinion dynamic is worth promoting in this paper, that is, opinion dynamics can be driven by different social cultures and policies through the influence of heredity and variation in interpersonal relationship networks. This

Six recommendations on “Synthetic Biology & Intellectual Property Rights”

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Minssen, Timo; Rutz, Berthold; van Zimmeren, Esther

2015-01-01

In September 2014 the European Commission’s Scientific Committees published a Final Opinion, which defines synthetic biology (SB) as follows: “SynBio is the application of science, technology and engineering to facilitate and accelerate the design, manufacture and/or modification of genetic...... materials in living organisms”. This operational definition offered by the Scientific Committees is derived from a working understanding of SynBio as a collection of conceptual and technological advances. It is sufficiently broad to include new developments in the field and also addresses the need...... for a definition that enables risk assessment.In order to promote an adequate development of SB that will secure innovation and cooperation and prevent fragmentation, it is important to identify and assess new risks and other issues early on to enable scientists, industry, funding agencies and other stakeholders...

How Public Opinion is Formed

Science.gov (United States)

Block, Edward M.

1977-01-01

Investigates the evolution of the definition of public relations by examining cultural and personal determinants of public opinion. Outlines functions of communicators and opinionmakers in forming and influencing public opinion. Available from: Public Relations Review, Ray Hiebert, Dean, College of Journalism, University of Maryland, College Park,…

Public Opinion and Capital Punishment: A Close Examination of the Views of Abolitionists and Retentionists.

Science.gov (United States)

Ellsworth, Phoebe C.; Ross, Lee

1983-01-01

Examined the attitudinal and informational bases of people's (N=500) opinions about the death penalty. Results showed 58.8 percent were proponents of capital punishment, 30.8 percent were opponents, and 10.4 percent were undecided. Respondents were generally ignorant on factual issues. Opponents favored due process guarantees more than did…

Opinion on the new financial products issued by financial institutions - structured products

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Baranga Laurentiu Paul

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Structured products are financial instruments issued by a financial institution where the amount claimed by the investor from the issuer depends on the variation of the price of the underlying instrument based on which the certificate is issued, namely: individual shares, share costs, stock indexes, currencies, commodities or combinations of these according to the prospectus. These products appeared with the development and diversification of financial services during the recent years, as well as due to the emergence of liquidity suppliers of international importance. The liquidity providers have developed on their own platforms a new range of derivatives which are different from the classical derivatives. These new derivatives, similar to contracts for difference (CFDs, have given to other institutions the possibility of transferring their risk more easily, regardless of the nature or type of the underlying asset. Thus, the financial institutions issuing structured financial products have found in liquidity providers the possibility of developing the CFDs required for their risk transfer operations. The issuers of structured products do not accept new risky positions when they issue certificates because they neutralize them through suitable risk transfer operations. The issuing financial institutions structure certificates from a variety of financial assets and/or commodities in order to adjust them to the various risk profiles of investors both in terms of expected return and in terms of the response to risk. Thus, products are issued that quickly respond to the trends of the financial or commodity markets. Investors in structured financial products benefit from the economic effect of a derivative but are exposed to financial risks that are more complex and more difficult to understand and at the same time depend on the reliability and stability of the contractual relationships between various financial institutions.

Because Political Knowledge Matters: The Impact of Deliberation on Young Citizens’ Opinions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anastasia Deligiaouri

2016-12-01

Full Text Available This paper addresses the importance of “knowledge” and “access to information” in the formation of young citizens’ opinion through deliberative procedures. The research presented in this paper is grounded in the theoretical framework of deliberative democracy as a democratic model and procedure that allows participants to be engaged in a rational and open dialogue before deciding on a particular issue. Our research draws empirically upon a deliberative event that took place in October 2014 at the Western Macedonia University of Applied Sciences in Greece. The topic of deliberation was “Political Public Opinion Polls.” The results of this study are commensurate with the dominant thesis in the relevant literature, which underlines that the deliberative procedure enriches the knowledge of citizens and thus enables them to participate effectively in the decision making process.

Examining the Gap between Science and Public Opinion about Genetically Modified Food and Global Warming.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Brandon R McFadden

Full Text Available There is great uncertainty due to challenges of escalating population growth and climate change. Public perception that diverges from the scientific community may decrease the effectiveness of scientific inquiry and innovation as tools to solve these challenges. The objective of this study was to identify the factors associated with the divergence of public opinion from scientific consensus regarding the safety of genetically modified (GM foods and human involvement in global warming (GW. Results indicate that the effects of knowledge on public opinion are complex and non-uniform across types of knowledge (i.e., perceived and actual or issues. Political affiliation affects agreement with science; Democrats were more likely to agree that GM food is safe and human actions cause GW. Respondents who had relatively higher cognitive function or held illusionary correlations about GM food or GW were more likely to have an opinion that differed from the scientific community.

The News Media PRISM: Shaping America’s Opinion of Congress

Science.gov (United States)

2003-01-01

public gleans much of its knowledge of the political process. Accordingly, the tone of media coverage has a remarkable impact as people form their opinions...conditions in sweatshops and the corruption of public officials. This activist journalism, dubbed "muckraking" by President Theodore Roosevelt, led to...then rush to buy a paper and read all the shocking details." 1 9 Both Hearst and Pulitzer, along with E.W. Scripps, covered social and political issues

Determinants of favourable opinions about euthanasia in a sample of French physicians.

Science.gov (United States)

Dany, Lionel; Baumstarck, Karine; Dudoit, Eric; Duffaud, Florence; Auquier, Pascal; Salas, Sébastien

2015-11-05

The question whether euthanasia should be legalised has led to substantial public debate in France. The objective of this study in a sample of French physicians was to establish the potential determinants of a favourable opinion about euthanasia in general and when faced with a specific situation as embodied in the Humbert affair. The study was a cross-sectional survey investigating two different samples of medical doctors: (1) those specialised in palliative care and affiliated to the French Society for Patient Accompaniment and Palliative Care; (2) medical interns (medical doctors in training course) in a French medical university (Marseille). A questionnaire was sent (email) to each voluntary participant including sociodemographics, professional status, mention of believing in God, and opinion about euthanasia (the question was designed to assess the general opinion about euthanasia and the opinion about a specific case, the Vincent Humbert' case (a man who was rendered quadriplegic, blind, and mute after an accident and has requested euthanasia). A total of 413 physicians participated in the research (participation rate: 48.5%). Less than half of the population were favourable to euthanasia in general and almost two-thirds of the population were favourable to Vincent Humbert's request for euthanasia. Based on the multivariate analysis, individuals believing in God and being a medical intern were significant independent factors linked to having a favourable opinion about euthanasia in general and about the Vincent Humbert's request. There is still no study in France on the development of opinion about euthanasia and its impact. The issue goes beyond the strictly professional sphere and involves broader socio-political stakes. These stakes do not necessarily take into account medical practices and experiences or the desires of end-of-life patients. The professional upheaval that the future French legal framework will doubtlessly trigger will require further

28 CFR 80.8 - Attorney General opinion.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 28 Judicial Administration 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Attorney General opinion. 80.8 Section 80.8 Judicial Administration DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE (CONTINUED) FOREIGN CORRUPT PRACTICES ACT OPINION PROCEDURE § 80.8 Attorney General opinion. The Attorney General or his designee shall, within 30 days after...

Parent perspectives on privacy and governance for a pediatric repository of non-biological, research data.

Science.gov (United States)

Manhas, Kiran P; Page, Stacey; Dodd, Shawn X; Letourneau, Nicole; Ambrose, Aleta; Cui, Xinjie; Tough, Suzanne C

2015-02-01

Research data repositories (RDRs) are data storage entities where data can be submitted, stored, and subsequently accessed for purposes beyond the original intent. There is little information relating to non-biological RDRs, nor considerations regarding pediatric data storage and re-use. We examined parent perspectives on pediatric, non-biological RDRs. Qualitative, descriptive methods including both interviews and focus groups were used. Purposive sampling of adult participants in two provincial birth cohorts yielded 19 interviewees and 18 focus group participants (4 groups). Transcripts were analyzed by thematic content analysis. Parent research participants strongly supported the sharing of their own, and their child's, non-biological research data. Four themes emerged: that altruism has limits, that participants have ongoing privacy concerns, that some participants need the assurance of congruent values between themselves and researchers/research questions, and that opinions diverge for some governance issues. The establishment of RDRs is important and maximizes participants', researchers', and funders' investments. Participants as data donors have concerns relating to privacy, relationships, and governance that must be considered in RDR development. © The Author(s) 2014.

Identifying Opinion Leaders to Promote Behavior Change

Science.gov (United States)

Valente, Thomas W.; Pumpuang, Patchareeya

2007-01-01

This article reviews 10 techniques used to identify opinion leaders to promote behavior change. Opinion leaders can act as gatekeepers for interventions, help change social norms, and accelerate behavior change. Few studies document the manner in which opinion leaders are identified, recruited, and trained to promote health. The authors categorize…

[First results of a German second opinion program show high patient satisfaction and large discrepancies between initial therapy recommendations and second opinion].

Science.gov (United States)

Weyerstraß, Jan; Prediger, Barbara; Neugebauer, Edmund; Pieper, Dawid

2018-02-23

Although legally anchored, there are no empirical results from German second opinion programs. In this study, various aspects within a population of a second opinion program are examined. In this study patients were analyzed who sought a second opinion in the period from August 2011 to December 2016. Differences in patient characteristics, differentiated by agreement of first and second opinion, were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression. Patients' satisfaction and quality of life were examined one, three and six months after obtaining the second opinion. In total, 1,414 patients sought a second opinion. Most frequent medical indications were the knee (38.7 %), the back (26.8 %), the hip (11.7 %), and the shoulder (10.2 %). Except for the indication (p=0.035), no patient characteristic had influence on the conformation of the second opinion. Approximately two out of three initial recommendations were not confirmed by the specialists. 89 % of the patients were satisfied or very satisfied with the second opinion and the service offered. The second opinion offers patients the opportunity to seek an additional independent medical opinion and thus provide support for decision making. Further research is needed to examine the reasons for the high discrepancies between the first and second opinions. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier GmbH.

Frontiers in mathematical biology

CERN Document Server

1994-01-01

Volume 100, which is the final volume of the LNBM series serves to commemorate the acievements in two decades of this influential collection of books in mathematical biology. The contributions, by the leading mathematical biologists, survey the state of the art in the subject, and offer speculative, philosophical and critical analyses of the key issues confronting the field. The papers address fundamental issues in cell and molecular biology, organismal biology, evolutionary biology, population ecology, community and ecosystem ecology, and applied biology, plus the explicit and implicit mathematical challenges. Cross-cuttting issues involve the problem of variation among units in nonlinear systems, and the related problems of the interactions among phenomena across scales of space, time and organizational complexity.

The next step in biology: a periodic table?

Science.gov (United States)

Dhar, Pawan K

2007-08-01

Systems biology is an approach to explain the behaviour of a system in relation to its individual components. Synthetic biology uses key hierarchical and modular concepts of systems biology to engineer novel biological systems. In my opinion the next step in biology is to use molecule-to-phenotype data using these approaches and integrate them in the form a periodic table. A periodic table in biology would provide chassis to classify, systematize and compare diversity of component properties vis-a-vis system behaviour. Using periodic table it could be possible to compute higher- level interactions from component properties. This paper examines the concept of building a bio-periodic table using protein fold as the fundamental unit.

Gender Issues in Popular Cinema | Agba | Annals of Humanities and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Gender issue in cinema like all other media of communication is the product of stereotyping in the ego formations for both male and female folks. The image of a person or group of persons must sell or be destroyed. Discussion on gender issue is often brought into focus to equalize public opinion and treatment for both men ...

USSR Space Life Sciences Digest, issue 29

Science.gov (United States)

Stone, Lydia Razran (Editor); Teeter, Ronald (Editor); Rowe, Joseph (Editor)

1991-01-01

This is the twenty-ninth issue of NASA's Space Life Sciences Digest. It is a double issue covering two issues of the Soviet Space Biology and Aerospace Medicine Journal. Issue 29 contains abstracts of 60 journal papers or book chapters published in Russian and of three Soviet monographs. Selected abstracts are illustrated with figures and tables from the original. A review of a book on environmental hygiene and a list of papers presented at a Soviet conference on space biology and medicine are also included. The materials in this issue were identified as relevant to 28 areas of space biology and medicine. The areas are: adaptation, aviation medicine, biological rhythms, body fluids, botany, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, developmental biology, digestive system, endocrinology, equipment and instrumentation, genetics, habitability and environment effects, hematology, human performance, immunology, life support systems, mathematical modeling, metabolism, musculoskeletal system, neurophysiology, nutrition, personnel selection, psychology, radiobiology, reproductive system, space biology and medicine, and the economics of space flight.

Etiological explanation, treatability and preventability of childhood autism: a survey of Nigerian healthcare workers' opinion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Okonkwo Kevin O

2009-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Because of their peculiar sociocultural background, healthcare workers in sub-Saharan African subcultures may have various conceptions on different aspects of autism spectrum disorders (ASD, such as etiology, treatment and issues of prognosis. These various conceptions, if different from current knowledge in literature about ASD, may negatively influence help-seeking behavior of parents of children with ASD who seek advice and information from the healthcare workers. This study assessed the opinions of healthcare workers in Nigeria on aspects of etiology, treatability and preventability of childhood autism, and relates their opinions to the sociodemographic variables. Methods Healthcare workers working in four tertiary healthcare facilities located in the south-east and south-south regions of Nigeria were interviewed with a sociodemographic questionnaire, personal opinion on etiology, treatability and preventability of childhood autism (POETPCA questionnaire and knowledge about childhood autism among health workers (KCAHW questionnaire to assess their knowledge and opinions on various aspects of childhood autism. Results A total of 134 healthcare workers participated in the study. In all, 78 (58.2%, 19 (14.2% and 36 (26.9% of the healthcare workers were of the opinion that the etiology of childhood autism can be explained by natural, preternatural and supernatural causes, respectively. One (0.7% of the healthcare workers was unsure of the explanation of the etiology. Knowledge about childhood autism as measured by scores on the KCAHW questionnaire was the only factor significantly associated with the opinions of the healthcare workers on etiology of childhood autism. In all, 73 (54.5% and 43 (32.1%, of the healthcare workers subscribed to the opinion that childhood autism is treatable and preventable respectively. Previous involvement with managing children with ASD significantly influenced the opinion of the healthcare

Watching the Evolution of the American Family? Amazon's Transparent, Ecological Systems Theory, and the Changing Dynamics of Public Opinion.

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, Amy B; Todd, Maureen E

2018-01-01

Using Bronfenbrenner's (1979) ecological systems theory as an organizing framework, the research closely examines the text of the Amazon Studios hit show Transparent and, by extension, the evolution of public opinion toward transgender individuals. By examining the Pfefferman family in detail and their related microsystem and macrosystem, we are able to closely unpack the transition of Jeffrey Tambor's character from Mort to Maura and the show's connections with broader developments in the Los Angeles LGBT community and the Jewish diaspora in postwar and contemporary Los Angeles. In addition, by focusing on the influence of the chronosystem, we are able to examine how both opinions toward Maura and public opinion toward transgender issues more generally have evolved within the family system and the larger American community over time.

Applications of flow-networks to opinion-dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Tupikina, Liubov; Kurths, Jürgen

2015-04-01

Networks were successfully applied to describe complex systems, such as brain, climate, processes in society. Recently a socio-physical problem of opinion-dynamics was studied using network techniques. We present the toy-model of opinion-formation based on the physical model of advection-diffusion. We consider spreading of the opinion on the fixed subject, assuming that opinion on society is binary: if person has opinion then the state of the node in the society-network equals 1, if the person doesn't have opinion state of the node equals 0. Opinion can be spread from one person to another if they know each other, or in the network-terminology, if the nodes are connected. We include into the system governed by advection-diffusion equation the external field to model such effects as for instance influence from media. The assumptions for our model can be formulated as the following: 1.the node-states are influenced by the network structure in such a way, that opinion can be spread only between adjacent nodes (the advective term of the opinion-dynamics), 2.the network evolution can have two scenarios: -network topology is not changing with time; -additional links can appear or disappear each time-step with fixed probability which requires adaptive networks properties. Considering these assumptions for our system we obtain the system of equations describing our model-dynamics which corresponds well to other socio-physics models, for instance, the model of the social cohesion and the famous voter-model. We investigate the behavior of the suggested model studying "waiting time" of the system, time to get to the stable state, stability of the model regimes for different values of model parameters and network topology.

Fusion of biological membranes

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Pramana – Journal of Physics; Volume 64; Issue 6. Fusion of biological membranes. K Katsov M Müller M Schick. Invited Talks:- Topic 11. Biologically motivated problems (protein-folding models, dynamics at the scale of the cell; biological networks, evolution models, etc.) Volume 64 Issue 6 June 2005 pp ...

Looking at complicating non-biological issues in women with HIV

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rodrigo Chaturaka

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Introduction: The increasing number of women acquiring Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV has resulted in a ′feminization′ of the epidemic. In this article we are reviewing whether females are disadvantaged in the epidemic, due to factors independent of the biological differences in sexes. Materials and Methods: We searched MEDLINE and EMBASE for articles with key words ′Women′, ′Gender,′ and ′HIV′ in any field. The search was restricted to articles published in English within the last 10 years (1999-2009. Data were coded independently by two reviewers from 94 selected sources. The coded data were categorized under five commonly encountered concepts; violence, poverty, gender norms, prevention-/treatment-related issues, and Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Treatment (HAART. Results: The link between inter-partner violence (IPV and HIV risk for women is observed by many authors. In assessing the link between poverty and HIV, indicators such as food insufficiency and income inequality may be better indicators compared to wealth itself. Although women are disadvantaged with male-dominated gender norms, evidence suggests that the traditional norms are changing in many societies. A positive association between living in urban communities, education, and better HIV knowledge has been observed in females, although it is not always synonymous with reduced risk behavior. Conclusions: Women are still disadvantaged in many HIV-related issues such as poverty, violence, and gender norms. At least in Africa, there is evidence of a positive change in spheres of education and gender norms. However, the situation in Asia is largely unexplored.

Discrepancy and Disliking Do Not Induce Negative Opinion Shifts

Science.gov (United States)

Flache, Andreas; Mäs, Michael

2016-01-01

Both classical social psychological theories and recent formal models of opinion differentiation and bi-polarization assign a prominent role to negative social influence. Negative influence is defined as shifts away from the opinion of others and hypothesized to be induced by discrepancy with or disliking of the source of influence. There is strong empirical support for the presence of positive social influence (a shift towards the opinion of others), but evidence that large opinion differences or disliking could trigger negative shifts is mixed. We examine positive and negative influence with controlled exposure to opinions of other individuals in one experiment and with opinion exchange in another study. Results confirm that similarities induce attraction, but results do not support that discrepancy or disliking entails negative influence. Instead, our findings suggest a robust positive linear relationship between opinion distance and opinion shifts. PMID:27333160

Issues Raised in Relation to Radioactive Waste Management

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Atherton, Elizabeth

2003-01-01

Nirex has undertaken various consultations with different stakeholders to identify their issues and concerns about radioactive waste management in general and specific aspects of Nirex's work. This paper will outline what dialogue techniques Nirex has undertaken and the issues and concerns that people have raised during the events. It will outline some of the work that Nirex is undertaking to address stakeholders' issues and concerns. Nirex has used a variety of dialogue techniques co-ordinated under the Nirex Involvement Programme to engage with stakeholders about the work we undertake. We are now trying to address the issues, concerns, scenarios and questions raised in our work programme. Key lessons that we have learned in undertaking the dialogues include: The importance of appropriate facilitation and organisation of meetings; The need for a clear purpose for meetings; Being flexible to the needs of the attendees and the issues they raise; Providing feedback to those who participate and following up issues. Through engaging with the public Nirex has learned that: Radioactive waste is not an everyday concern for people; The public can, will and want to engage with the issue of radioactive waste management. This includes engaging with the ethical debate. To facilitate this Nirex and others need to: Provide information in a neutral form outlining the pros and cons and including various people's opinions; Use proactive techniques to allow access and space for people to discuss the issues; Demonstrate how people's opinions have been taken into account. People understand the issues very differently to the way institutions understand them. There is a need for institutions to learn to understand public concerns and the ways in which the public understand issues, as well as for the public to understand the institutional positions better. We are using these insights to develop our future work in this area

Opinion on the new financial products issued by financial institutions - structured products

OpenAIRE

Baranga Laurentiu Paul

2017-01-01

Structured products are financial instruments issued by a financial institution where the amount claimed by the investor from the issuer depends on the variation of the price of the underlying instrument based on which the certificate is issued, namely: individual shares, share costs, stock indexes, currencies, commodities or combinations of these according to the prospectus. These products appeared with the development and diversification of financial services during the recent years, as wel...

Public Opinion and frames: crisis of the dugout canoes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dra. Raquel Rodríguez Díaz

2008-01-01

Full Text Available According to public opinion the increasing number of foreign population has became one of the most problematic issues in the last decade. Since 2005 immigration is the second biggest concern for Spaniards after unemployment and followed by terrorism. It is has became a state issue and a central government worry of utmost importance. The media coverage given to immigration is very important, specifically the way in which it is approached and presented to the readers. This paper shows the different perspectives or frames used by two key nationwide Spanish newspapers, El País y El Mundo, to cover one of the migration crises that took place in the Canary Islands in spring 2006. Following Framing theory, media content has been analyzed using variables to show the different ways in which these media depict the phenomenon of migration and the approach which each newspaper follows.

Public opinion about condoms for HIV and STD prevention: a Midwestern state telephone survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Yarber, William L; Milhausen, Robin R; Crosby, Richard A; Torabi, Mohammad R

2005-09-01

Public opinion is important in determining condom and condom education policies in public high schools. A random telephone survey of 517 Indiana residents was conducted from July through October 2003 to assess public opinion about education on correct condom use for HIV and STD prevention; condom availability in Indiana public high schools; and issues related to condom use, effectiveness and promotion. Data were analyzed using bivariate and linear regression techniques. A majority of respondents strongly or somewhat agreed that instruction on correct condom use for HIV and STD prevention should be provided in public high schools (77%), classroom instruction should include condoms (71%), only medically accurate information about condoms should being given (94%) and the federal government should promote condoms (70%). Fewer than half (48%) strongly or somewhat agreed that condoms should be made available to teenagers in public high schools without parental permission. Nearly all (92%) considered condoms at least somewhat effective in preventing HIV and other STDs. Non-Republican party affiliation, younger age and condom use within the previous five years were each significantly associated with having positive opinions on many of the condom-related statements. Public opinion appears to support the provision of correct condom use information in Indiana public schools. Schools should consider providing only medically accurate information about condoms and including condoms in instruction so students can see and touch them.

Discrete Opinion Dynamics on Online Social Networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu Yan-Li; Bai Liang; Zhang Wei-Ming

2013-01-01

This paper focuses on the dynamics of binary opinions {+1, −1} on online social networks consisting of heterogeneous actors. In our model, actors update their opinions under the interplay of social influence and self- affirmation, which leads to rich dynamical behaviors on online social networks. We find that the opinion leading to the consensus features an advantage of the initially weighted fraction based on actors' strength over the other, instead of the population. For the role of specific actors, the consensus converges towards the opinion that a small fraction of high-strength actors hold, and individual diversity of self-affirmation slows down the ordering process of consensus. These indicate that high-strength actors play an essential role in opinion formation with strong social influence as well as high persistence. Further investigations show that the initial fraction of high-strength actors to dominate the evolution depends on the heterogeneity of the strength distribution, and less high-strength actors are needed in the case of a smaller exponent of power-law distribution of actors' strength. Our study provides deep insights into the role of social influence and self-affirmation on opinion formation on online social networks. (general)

Discrete Opinion Dynamics on Online Social Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Hu, Yan-Li; Bai, Liang; Zhang, Wei-Ming

2013-01-01

This paper focuses on the dynamics of binary opinions {+1, -1} on online social networks consisting of heterogeneous actors. In our model, actors update their opinions under the interplay of social influence and self- affirmation, which leads to rich dynamical behaviors on online social networks. We find that the opinion leading to the consensus features an advantage of the initially weighted fraction based on actors' strength over the other, instead of the population. For the role of specific actors, the consensus converges towards the opinion that a small fraction of high-strength actors hold, and individual diversity of self-affirmation slows down the ordering process of consensus. These indicate that high-strength actors play an essential role in opinion formation with strong social influence as well as high persistence. Further investigations show that the initial fraction of high-strength actors to dominate the evolution depends on the heterogeneity of the strength distribution, and less high-strength actors are needed in the case of a smaller exponent of power-law distribution of actors' strength. Our study provides deep insights into the role of social influence and self-affirmation on opinion formation on online social networks.

Word selection affects perceptions of synthetic biology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tonidandel Scott

2011-07-01

Full Text Available Abstract Members of the synthetic biology community have discussed the significance of word selection when describing synthetic biology to the general public. In particular, many leaders proposed the word "create" was laden with negative connotations. We found that word choice and framing does affect public perception of synthetic biology. In a controlled experiment, participants perceived synthetic biology more negatively when "create" was used to describe the field compared to "construct" (p = 0.008. Contrary to popular opinion among synthetic biologists, however, low religiosity individuals were more influenced negatively by the framing manipulation than high religiosity people. Our results suggest that synthetic biologists directly influence public perception of their field through avoidance of the word "create".

Resolving regional conflicts and public opinion: The Nigerian experience in Liberian crisis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Salami, B.O.

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Nigeria played an important role which led to the resolution of the Liberian crisis between 1990 and 1997. But between 1990 and 1993 towards the end of General Ibrahim Babangida’s regime (1985-1993, Nigeria’s role in the Liberian peace process became a major issue which preoccupied Nigeria’s external relations within the West African Sub-region. This paper examines in how public opinion influences government attitude and posture towards the Liberian situation.

Getting a Second Opinion Before Surgery

Science.gov (United States)

... for a second opinion before surgery. When your doctor says you have a health problem that needs surgery, you have the right to: • Know and understand your treatment choices • Have another doctor look at those choices with you (second opinion) • ...

Social opinion dynamics is not chaotic

Science.gov (United States)

Lim, Chjan; Zhang, Weituo

2016-08-01

Motivated by the research on social opinion dynamics over large and dense networks, a general framework for verifying the monotonicity property of multi-agent dynamics is introduced. This allows a derivation of sociologically meaningful sufficient conditions for monotonicity that are tailor-made for social opinion dynamics, which typically have high nonlinearity. A direct consequence of monotonicity is that social opinion dynamics is nonchaotic. A key part of this framework is the definition of a partial order relation that is suitable for a large class of social opinion dynamics such as the generalized naming games. Comparisons are made to previous techniques to verify monotonicity. Using the results obtained, we extend many of the consequences of monotonicity to this class of social dynamics, including several corollaries on their asymptotic behavior, such as global convergence to consensus and tipping points of a minority fraction of zealots or leaders.

Biological Diversity. Global Issues Education Packet.

Science.gov (United States)

Holm, Amy E.

Biological diversity, also commonly called genetic diversity, refers to the variety of organisms on Earth. Scientists are concerned that many species will become extinct because of extensive development in the tropical regions. This packet is designed to increase student's awareness about direct and indirect causes of extinction, endangered…

Speech language pathologists' opinions of constraint-induced language therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Page, Stephen J; Wallace, Sarah E

2014-01-01

Constraint-induced language therapy (CILT) has received recent attention as a possible intervention to improve expressive language in people with nonfluent aphasia. Difficulties have been reported with the practical implementation of constraint-induced movement therapy due to its intensive treatment parameters. It remains unknown whether similar challenges may exist with CILT. To determine the opinions of speech-language pathologists (SLPs) about CILT for people with nonfluent aphasia. One hundred sixty-seven SLPs completed an electronic survey assessing their opinions of various aspects of CILT. Over 60% of participants felt that people with aphasia would be very unlikely or somewhat unlikely to adhere to CILT. The majority felt that people with aphasia would hold high or moderate concerns with the number of hours spent in therapy (high, 41.8%; moderate, 31.4%), the number of days spent in therapy (high, 44.4%; moderate, 24.8%), likelihood for managed care reimbursement (high, 74.8%; moderate, 15.2%), and other logistical issues (high, 39.2%; moderate, 30.7%). With respect to providing CILT, participants cited the number of hours of therapy (high, 37.3%; moderate, 21.6%) and the number of consecutive days of therapy (high, 29.4%; moderate, 20.3%) as concerns. There were 70.6% who indicated that their facilities lacked resources to provide CILT, and 90.9% felt that most facilitates do not have the resources to provide CILT. Some SLPs hold significant concerns with the administration of CILT, particularly related to its dosing and reimbursement parameters. Additional work is needed to investigate the issues that were identified in this survey using qualitative methods with SLPs and people with aphasia and to examine modified CILT protocols.

Monte Carlo simulations of a model for opinion formation

Science.gov (United States)

Bordogna, C. M.; Albano, E. V.

2007-04-01

A model for opinion formation based on the Theory of Social Impact is presented and studied by means of numerical simulations. Individuals with two states of opinion are impacted due to social interactions with: i) members of the society, ii) a strong leader with a well-defined opinion and iii) the mass media that could either support or compete with the leader. Due to that competition, the average opinion of the social group exhibits phase-transition like behaviour between different states of opinion.

Survey of United States Army Physician Opinion: The Issue of Written ’Do Not Resuscitate’ Orders

Science.gov (United States)

1984-08-01

Westminister Press, 1975), p. 176-7. 71Cushing, p. 29. 72Alexander, p. 26. 73Kevin M. McIntyre, "Mediolegal Aspects of Decision Making in Resuscitation and Life...34Physicians Opinions Toward Legislation Defining Death and Withholding Life Support," Southern Medical Journal 74 (February 1981): 215-18. 82Norman K...Louis S. Let the Patient Decide. Philadelphia: The Westminister Press, 1978. Browning, Mary H. and Lewis, Edith P. comps. The Dying Patient: A Nursing

To drill or not to drill? An econometric analysis of US public opinion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mukherjee, Deep; Rahman, Mohammad Arshad

2016-01-01

Offshore drilling in the United States (US) has been the subject of public and political discourse due to multiple reasons which include economic impact, energy security, and environmental hazard. Consequently, several polls have been conducted over time to gauge public attitude towards offshore drilling. Nevertheless, the economic literature on this issue is sparse. This paper contributes to the literature and analyzes support for offshore drilling based on demographic, economic, social, belief, and shock (e.g. spill) factors. The data is taken from ten nationwide surveys conducted before, during and after the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill and analyzed within the framework of discrete choice model. The results from an ordinal probit model demonstrate that age, annual household income, affiliation to Republican Party, and residence in oil-rich states positively affect the probability of strong support and reduce the probability of strong opposition for offshore drilling. In contrast, the female gender, higher education, association to Democratic Party, and environmental concern affect opinion in opposite direction. Marginal effects show that belief about environmental consequences of drilling has the highest impact on opinion. Binary probit model also yields a similar result and suggests that BP oil disaster resulted in a transient decrease in support for offshore drilling. - Highlights: •US public opinion on offshore drilling is analyzed based on ten national polls. •Ordinal and binary probit models are utilized to identify the underlying factors that shape public opinion. •Belief about environmental cost of drilling and educational attainment have the highest negative impact on opinion. •Age, income, affiliation to Republican party and oil-rich states positively affect support for drilling. •BP oil spill resulted in a transient decrease in support for offshore drilling.

Public opinion on atomic energy after JCO accident

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Okamoto, Koichi; Miyamoto, Sosuke; Ishikawa, Masayori; Shimomura, Hideo; Hori, Hiromoto; Suzuki, Yasuko; Kamise, Yumiko

2004-04-01

JCO accident happened on September 30, 1999. This book deals with the public opinion of atomic energy after JCO accident in Japan and comparison with that of USA and France. The analysis of public opinion structure is also shown. The important chapter is the eighth chapter a n opinion survey after the accident , of which sampling areas consisted of three areas such as JCO accident area, the nuclear power plants and the general cities. The analytical results of data showed that the public opinion in Tokai-mura and Naka-machi, the JCO accident area, indicated moderate opinions. It is the interesting results were obtained that the moderate tendency of opinion was in order JCO accident area, the nuclear power plants and the general cities. People's attitude toward nuclear energy related to their social values. Abstract of JCO accident, JCO structure, the effects of accident on the environment and news stories about the accident are reported. (S.Y.)

Pediatric biobanking: a pilot qualitative survey of practices, rules and researcher opinions in ten European countries

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Salvaterra, Elena; Giorda, Roberto; Bassi, Maria Teresa

2012-01-01

Ethical, legal, and social issues related to the collection, storage, and use of biospecimens and data derived from children raise critical concerns in the international debate. So far, a number of studies have considered a variety of the individual issues crucial to pediatric biobanking such as ......Ethical, legal, and social issues related to the collection, storage, and use of biospecimens and data derived from children raise critical concerns in the international debate. So far, a number of studies have considered a variety of the individual issues crucial to pediatric biobanking...... such as decision making, privacy protection, minor recontact, and research withdrawal by focusing on theoretical or empirical perspectives. Our research attempted to analyze such issues in a comprehensive manner by exploring practices, rules, and researcher opinions regarding proxy consent, minor assent, specimens...

Managing biological diversity

Science.gov (United States)

Samson, Fred B.; Knopf, Fritz L.

1993-01-01

Biological diversity is the variety of life and accompanying ecological processes (Off. Technol. Assess. 1987, Wilcove and Samson 1987, Keystone 1991). Conservation of biological diversity is a major environmental issue (Wilson 1988, Counc. Environ. Quality 1991). The health and future of the earth's ecological systems (Lubchenco et al. 1991), global climate change (Botkin 1990), and an ever-increasing rate in loss of species, communities, and ecological systems (Myers 1990) are among issues drawing biological diversity to the mainstream of conservation worldwide (Int. Union Conserv. Nat. and Nat. Resour. [IUCN] et al. 1991). The legal mandate for conserving biological diversity is now in place (Carlson 1988, Doremus 1991). More than 19 federal laws govern the use of biological resources in the United States (Rein 1991). The proposed National Biological Diversity Conservation and Environmental Research Act (H.R. 585 and S.58) notes the need for a national biological diversity policy, would create a national center for biological diversity research, and recommends a federal interagency strategy for ecosystem conservation. There are, however, hard choices ahead for the conservation of biological diversity, and biologists are grappling with how to set priorities in research and management (Roberts 1988). We sense disillusion among field biologists and managers relative to how to operationally approach the seemingly overwhelming charge of conserving biological diversity. Biologists also need to respond to critics like Hunt (1991) who suggest a tree farm has more biological diversity than an equal area of old-growth forest. At present, science has played only a minor role in the conservation of biological diversity (Weston 1992) with no unified approach available to evaluate strategies and programs that address the quality and quantity of biological diversity (Murphy 1990, Erwin 1992). Although actions to conserve biological diversity need to be clearly defined by

The interplay of self-reflection, social interaction and random events in the dynamics of opinion flow in two-party democracies

Science.gov (United States)

Lichtenegger, Klaus; Hadzibeganovic, Tarik

2016-01-01

We propose a continuous process opinion formation model to study the dynamics of a multi-level relationship between voters, political parties, and facts in two-party democratic elections. In our model, opinions can take any real value between two extremes and an unaligned, moderate opinion state without a preference. Starting with a random opinion configuration, individual voter opinions evolve and change over time due to self-reflection, inter-personal communication, external media influence, and noise. Parties are influenced by their own ideologies, facts, and voters’ opinions. Elections are held periodically and the party that is closer in opinion to the majority of voters forms the new government. The government policy is then expected to be in proximity to the voter opinions and the policies of the currently ruling political party. We analyze the tension of opinions as a measure of how dramatically opinions can disagree within a given sample of voters and the success of the government and parties as the degree of coincidence between the policies and facts. Our model generates realistic quasi-periodic alternations between incumbents and challengers that are typical for two-party systems. Moreover, our model shows that relative to other voters’ strategies, conscious voting can lead to more successful governments of not only fact-oriented but also pragmatic and balanced political parties, irrespective of the strategies of the competing opposition parties. In addition, our simulations uncover several interesting features including less victories for strictly ideological or fact-oriented parties unless they include some aspects of populism or pragmatism. In this sense, our model can also describe situations where election outcomes are not necessarily based on votes for the current programs of competing parties and their placement on relevant issues, but instead result from voters’ dissatisfaction with the previous government and the votes against it.

OPINION GIVING SERVICES AS A SOURCE OF CONSUMER INFORMATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Joanna Wyrwisz

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The goal of the article is to determine the place and role of opinion giving services in consumer behaviours. The discussion is conducted around the thesis saying that in the information society, opinion giving services constitute an important source of information for consumers in the process of selecting and purchasing both products and services. In the article the research approach based on the theoretical and empirical examinations was presented. The discussion starts with presenting a defi nition and types of opinion giving services which constitute the base for the characteristics of activities and usefulness of web portals collecting consumers opinions. The use of opinion giving services provided in the purchase process was evaluated. An essential interest in other consumers opinions, placed in Internet, was observed together with perceiving them as credible. Positive assessment of the functionality of opinion giving services was noticed.

Emotions, Public Opinion, and U.S. Presidential Approval Rates: A 5-Year Analysis of Online Political Discussions

Science.gov (United States)

Gonzalez-Bailon, Sandra; Banchs, Rafael E.; Kaltenbrunner, Andreas

2012-01-01

This article examines how emotional reactions to political events shape public opinion. We analyze political discussions in which people voluntarily engage online to approximate the public agenda: Online discussions offer a natural approach to the salience of political issues and the means to analyze emotional reactions as political events take…

Factors Associated with Immunization Opinion Leadership among Men Who Have Sex with Men in Los Angeles, California.

Science.gov (United States)

Holloway, Ian W; Bednarczyk, Robert; Fenimore, Vincent L; Goldbeck, Cameron; Wu, Elizabeth; Himmelstein, Rebecca; Tan, Diane; Randall, Laura; Lutz, Chelsea S; Frew, Paula M

2018-05-08

We sought to identify the characteristics of men who have sex with men (MSM) who are opinion leaders on immunization issues and to identify potential opportunities to leverage their influence for vaccine promotion within MSM communities. Using venue-based sampling, we recruited and enrolled MSM living in Los Angeles ( N = 520) from December 2016 to February 2017 and evaluated characteristic differences in sociodemographic characteristics, health behaviors, and technology use among those classified as opinion leaders versus those who were not. We also asked respondents about their past receipt of meningococcal serogroups A, C, W, and Y (MenACWY) and meningococcal B (MenB) vaccines, as well as their opinions on the importance of 13 additional vaccines. Multivariable results revealed that non-Hispanic black (aOR = 2.64; 95% CI: 1.17⁻5.95) and other race/ethnicity (aOR = 2.98; 95% CI: 1.41⁻6.29) respondents, as well as those with a history of an STI other than HIV (aOR = 1.95; 95% CI: 1.10⁻3.48), were more likely to be opinion leaders. MenACWY (aOR = 1.92; 95% CI: 1.13⁻3.25) and MenB (aOR = 3.09; 95% CI: 1.77⁻5.41) vaccine uptake, and perceived importance for these and seven additional vaccines, were also associated with being an opinion leader. The results suggest that the co-promotion of vaccination and other health promotion initiatives via opinion leaders could be a useful strategy for increasing vaccination among MSM.

Formation of public opinion on the question of nuclear waste

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Asp, K.; Hedberg, P.

1988-06-01

The aim of the report is double. Firstly will bases and issues behind the media studies within the research project be presented. Secondly will the empirical investigations which are included in this part of the project be shown. Headings: - The question of nuclear waste - a controversial question. - The mass media as intermediaries of information and opinion. - The information merit of the mass media. The bias of the mass media. - The decision merit of the mass media. - Empirical investigations. * The question of nuclear waste in the news-distribution. * The question of nuclear waste in the public debate. (O.S.)

Toward an Information Integration Approach to Issue Advertising.

Science.gov (United States)

Douglas, William; And Others

Issue advertising is intended to inform an audience--most commonly with the intent of changing unfavorable opinions or reinforcing favorable ones--to affect cognition (in contrast to the behavioral emphasis of product and service advertising, intended to stimulate trail and adoption). To explore public reactions to printed and televised issues…

THE LAWYER`S OPINION IN MODERN CIVIL LAW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elena Evgenyevna Dubovaya

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Purpose to define value of freedom and fight of opinions, views and lawyer’s positions in development of science of civil law.Methodology theoretical analysis, inductive and deductive methods.Results It is established that fight of opinions, collision of various positions allows to understand more deeply the discussed problem, to come nearer to truth. So, free expression of opinions is the engine of development of civil law.Practical implications introduction in educational process on disciplines of civil jurisprudence, further research of fight of opinions in civil law.Tendencies of the present stage of development of legal system are characterized by aspiration to fix in the Russian legal system of the beginning of private law, where at the head of a corner – people as a legal entity. Opinions of lawyers on various legal problems, and the attitudes towards these opinions are subject to considerable dynamics. The centuries-old history of development of the right showed that fight of opinions, collision of various positions allows to understand more deeply the discussed problem, to come nearer to truth. The modern civil law widely uses a method of comparative jurisprudence, studying experience of the civilized countries which promoted in development of the civil legislation.

Continuous Opinion Dynamics Under Bounded Confidence:. a Survey

Science.gov (United States)

Lorenz, Jan

Models of continuous opinion dynamics under bounded confidence have been presented independently by Krause and Hegselmann and by Deffuant et al. in 2000. They have raised a fair amount of attention in the communities of social simulation, sociophysics and complexity science. The researchers working on it come from disciplines such as physics, mathematics, computer science, social psychology and philosophy. In these models agents hold continuous opinions which they can gradually adjust if they hear the opinions of others. The idea of bounded confidence is that agents only interact if they are close in opinion to each other. Usually, the models are analyzed with agent-based simulations in a Monte Carlo style, but they can also be reformulated on the agent's density in the opinion space in a master equation style. The contribution of this survey is fourfold. First, it will present the agent-based and density-based modeling frameworks including the cases of multidimensional opinions and heterogeneous bounds of confidence. Second, it will give the bifurcation diagrams of cluster configuration in the homogeneous model with uniformly distributed initial opinions. Third, it will review the several extensions and the evolving phenomena which have been studied so far, and fourth it will state some open questions.

Opinion Dynamics with Heterogeneous Interactions and Information Assimilation

Science.gov (United States)

Mir Tabatabaei, Seydeh Anahita

2013-01-01

In any modern society, individuals interact to form opinions on various topics, including economic, political, and social aspects. Opinions evolve as the result of the continuous exchange of information among individuals and of the assimilation of information distributed by media. The impact of individuals' opinions on each other forms a network,…

Conciliatory and contradictory dynamics in opinion formation

OpenAIRE

Boudin , Laurent; Mercier , Aurore; Salvarani , Francesco

2012-01-01

International audience; In this article, we study, via a kinetic description, the effect of different psychologies on the evolution of the opinion with respect to a binary choice, in a closed group. We show that the interaction between individuals with different reactions regarding the exchange of opinion induces some phenomena, such as the concentration of opinions or the cyclic-in-time behaviour of the distribution function. We provide an existence and uniqueness result for the model and nu...

Analysis and application of opinion model with multiple topic interactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Xiong, Fei; Liu, Yun; Wang, Liang; Wang, Ximeng

2017-08-01

To reveal heterogeneous behaviors of opinion evolution in different scenarios, we propose an opinion model with topic interactions. Individual opinions and topic features are represented by a multidimensional vector. We measure an agent's action towards a specific topic by the product of opinion and topic feature. When pairs of agents interact for a topic, their actions are introduced to opinion updates with bounded confidence. Simulation results show that a transition from a disordered state to a consensus state occurs at a critical point of the tolerance threshold, which depends on the opinion dimension. The critical point increases as the dimension of opinions increases. Multiple topics promote opinion interactions and lead to the formation of macroscopic opinion clusters. In addition, more topics accelerate the evolutionary process and weaken the effect of network topology. We use two sets of large-scale real data to evaluate the model, and the results prove its effectiveness in characterizing a real evolutionary process. Our model achieves high performance in individual action prediction and even outperforms state-of-the-art methods. Meanwhile, our model has much smaller computational complexity. This paper provides a demonstration for possible practical applications of theoretical opinion dynamics.

Rise of an alternative majority against opinion leaders

Science.gov (United States)

Tucci, K.; González-Avella, J. C.; Cosenza, M. G.

2016-03-01

We investigate the role of opinion leaders or influentials in the collective behavior of a social system. Opinion leaders are characterized by their unidirectional influence on other agents. We employ a model based on Axelrod's dynamics for cultural interaction among social agents that allows for non-interacting states. We find three collective phases in the space of parameters of the system, given by the fraction of opinion leaders and a quantity representing the number of available states: one ordered phase having the state imposed by the leaders; another nontrivial ordered phase consisting of a majority group in a state orthogonal or alternative to that of the opinion leaders, and a disordered phase, where many small groups coexist. We show that the spontaneous rise of an alternative group in the presence of opinion leaders depends on the existence of a minimum number of long-range connections in the underlying network. This phenomenon challenges the common idea that influentials are fundamental to propagation processes in society, such as the formation of public opinion.

Effects of Groups’ Spatial Segregation on Processes of Opinion Polarization

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Feliciani, Thomas; Flache, Andreas

2015-01-01

We contribute to the literature about processes of opinion formation, investigating theoretically how the spatial segregation of two groups affects opinion polarization as a possible outcome of opinion formation. We focus on two processes of opinion polarization (negative influence and persuasive

Evolution of approaches to viral safety issues for biological products.

Science.gov (United States)

Lubiniecki, Anthony S

2011-01-01

CONFERENCE PROCEEDING Proceedings of the PDA/FDA Adventitious Viruses in Biologics: Detection and Mitigation Strategies Workshop in Bethesda, MD, USA; December 1-3, 2010 Guest Editors: Arifa Khan (Bethesda, MD), Patricia Hughes (Bethesda, MD) and Michael Wiebe (San Francisco, CA) Approaches to viral safety issues for biological products have evolved during the past 50+ years. The first cell culture products (viral vaccines) relied largely on the use of in vitro and in vivo virus screening assays that were based upon infectivity of adventitious viral agents. The use of Cohn fractionation and pasteurization by manufacturers of plasma derivatives introduced the concepts that purification and treatment with physical and chemical agents could greatly reduce the risk of viral contamination of human albumin and immunoglobulin products. But the limitations of such approaches became clear for thermolabile products that were removed early in fractionation such as antihemophilic factors, which transmitted hepatitis viruses and HIV-1 to some product recipients. These successes and limitations were taken into account by the early developers of recombinant DNA (rDNA)-derived cell culture products and by regulatory agencies, leading to the utilization of cloning technology to reduce/eliminate contamination due to human viruses and purification technologies to physically remove and inactivate adventitious and endogenous viruses, along with cell banking and cell bank characterization for adventitious and endogenous viruses, viral screening of biological raw materials, and testing of cell culture harvests, to ensure virus safety. Later development and incorporation of nanofiltration technology in the manufacturing process provided additional assurance of viral clearance for safety of biotechnology products. These measures have proven very effective at preventing iatrogenic infection of recipients of biotechnology products; however, viral contamination of production cell cultures has

COMPENDIUM: SURVEYS EVALUATING KNOWLEDGE AND OPINIONS CONCERNING HYDROGEN AND FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGIES

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Truett, Lorena Faith [ORNL; Cooper, Christy [U.S. Department of Energy; Schmoyer, Richard L [ORNL

2008-10-01

This compendium updates a 2003 literature review of surveys of knowledge and opinions of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. Its purpose is to ensure that results of comparable surveys are considered in surveys conducted by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). Over twice as many studies related to the DOE survey have been published since 2003 than prior to that date. The fact that there have been significantly more studies implies that there have been further demonstration projects and/or increased interest in hydrogen and fuel cell technologies. The primary findings of these 15 new surveys, all of which were conducted in Europe (E) or North America (NA), to the DOE surveys are as follows: 1.Respondents who are more educated are more accepting of hydrogen technologies (NA). 2.Respondents who are more knowledgeable about hydrogen and/or fuel cells are more accepting of hydrogen technologies (E, NA). 3.When asked about issues of trust, respondents generally expressed distrust of the government or political parties but trusted scientists and environmental protection organizations (E). 4.Technical knowledge about hydrogen and fuel cell technologies is low (E, NA). 5.Respondents may express opinions about a technology even when they are lacking in knowledge of that technology (E). 6.Women and men have different priorities when deciding on an automobile purchase (E). 7.Public acceptance to hydrogen is vulnerable to perceptions of decreased safety (E, NA). 8.Public acceptance to hydrogen is vulnerable to perceptions of increased cost (E, NA). The DOE surveys are similar to surveys that examine technical knowledge of hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, although the technical questions are certainly different. The DOE surveys are also similar to the opinion surveys in that they address many of the same issues, such as safety, sources of energy information, or trust. There are many differences between the surveys reviewed in this compendium and the DOE surveys. The

Social media effects on opinion polarization and political participation during the 2015 European immigration movements

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ohme, Jakob

The selective exposure to likeminded political viewpoints on algorithmic social media platforms is seen as a potential source for opinion polarization. But so far, little is known about how realistic this proposed mechanism is. It is furthermore an open question, what effects a potential opinion...... polarization invoked by social media use has on citizens’ democratic behavior, especially in a non-electoral context. Focusing on the issue of immigration during the refugee influx to Europe in autumn 2015, this study investigates the effects of social media usage on attitude polarization and connects...... it to political participation in refugee-related activities. A panel study conducted among Danish citizens (n=847) reveals that frequent social media usage contributes to a reinforcement of existing attitudes and at the same time mobilizes political participation. However, citizens who become more extreme...

Text mining for biology--the way forward

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Altman, Russ B; Bergman, Casey M; Blake, Judith

2008-01-01

This article collects opinions from leading scientists about how text mining can provide better access to the biological literature, how the scientific community can help with this process, what the next steps are, and what role future BioCreative evaluations can play. The responses identify...... several broad themes, including the possibility of fusing literature and biological databases through text mining; the need for user interfaces tailored to different classes of users and supporting community-based annotation; the importance of scaling text mining technology and inserting it into larger...

Opinion of women about elective abortion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bülent Çakmak

2014-09-01

Full Text Available Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the opinions of women who presented to the hospital for elective abortion. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was designed and conducted at our university hospital between March 2013-April 2013 by the method of face-to-face interviews with 500 women who presented to the hospital as patient or relatives of patients. Poll consisted of 6 questions about demographic characteristics and 14 questions evaluating the opinions and attitudes about abortion. Results: The age of the women who participated in the study was ranging between 18 and 75 years with the mean age of 31.5±11.9 years. Twenty-six women (5.2% were illiterate, while 109 (21.8% were university graduates. 70.8% of women stated that they were against elective abortion. Among the reasons against abortion on request were: “forbidden by the religion”-53.1% of women, “against human rights”-35.3%, and “unhealthy for the mother”-7.1% of women. About the prohibition of abortion, 82.4% of women said that “it may be performed under necessary conditions”, 9.6% “it should be completely forbidden”, and 8% stated that “it should never be forbidden”. Conclusion: A large number of respondents reported that they have negative attitude towards elective abortion, however, in case of medical necessity, abortion should be performed. During the legal arrangements done about situations that may affect the public health, such as abortion regulations, we believe it would be useful to assess the perspective of the society on this issue.

On the opinion formation of mobile agents with memory

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Yunhong; Liu, Qipeng; Wang, Zhenling; Zhang, Siying

2018-02-01

This paper studies the opinion formation problem in a group of mobile agents using a multi-agent modeling method. Suppose that all agents move in a two-dimensional space following a certain rule. The interaction range of each agent is determined by its physical location and its opinion similarity with other agents. Moreover, agents have memory of the opinions of their previous interactive neighbors. We investigate the influence of three factors on the formation of group opinion: moving probability, interactive radius, and population density. Using simulations, we find that an opinion consensus can be achieved easily under a small moving probability and a small interactive radius, which is a relatively counterintuitive phenomenon. We also find that a large interactive radius or the model with memory can facilitate the convergence of opinions in a group to either consensus or clusters.

Topological evolution of the internet public opinion

Science.gov (United States)

Lian, Ying; Dong, Xuefan; Liu, Yijun

2017-11-01

The Internet forms a platform featured with high liquidity, accessibility and concealment for the public to express their respective views on certain events, thus leading to a large network graph. Due to such environmental features, the public opinions formed on the Internet are different from those on traditional media. Studies focusing on the former area are relatively fewer. In addition, the majority of existing methods proposed for constructing the Internet public opinion topological structure are based on the classic BA model, thus resulting in drawbacks in the range of simplicity and a lack of strict deduction. Therefore, based on the complex networks theory, a model applied to describe the topology of the Internet public opinion is deduced with rigorous derivation in the present paper. Results show that the proposed expression could well reflect the degree distribution of Internet public opinion which follows an analogous power law distribution, and that the peak value and the degree distribution are not correlative to each other. Moreover, it has been also proved that compared to the classic BA model, the proposed model has better accuracy performance in the description of the degree distribution of the Internet public opinion, which contributes to future studies focusing on this area. Thus, an attempt has been made to give the first theoretical description of the Internet public opinion topology in the present paper. In addition, it is also the first paper focusing on the solution of networks degree distribution with an exponential growth form.

Analysis of South Carolina hydrogen and fuel cell workers views and opinion leadership behavior: A waiting opportunity?

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Besley, John C. [School of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29205 (United States); Baxter-Clemmons, Shannon [South Carolina Hydrogen Fuel Cell Alliance, P.O. Box 12302, Columbia, SC 29201 (United States)

2010-08-15

The current study uses quantitative survey results to explore what a near census of hydrogen and fuel cell (HFC) workers in South Carolina (n = 70) say about their HFC experiences and the degree to which these workers can be expected to act as opinion leaders for the field. In general, these workers say they are positive about the environmental, national security, and economic potential of HFC technologies. They further see HFC technologies as having small and manageable levels of risk. A number of these workers exhibit characteristics associated with both issue-specific and general opinion leadership. Issue-specific leadership and positive views about HFC technology were associated with higher levels of self-reported technology-related interpersonal discussion. The study concludes that the existence of workers with positive HFC experiences and a demonstrated interest in telling others about their experiences may represent an opportunity for those charged with promoting HFC development and adoption. Future efforts should explore how HFC workers could be effectively integrated into such efforts as a means of reaching difficult to reach audiences. (author)

[Ethical issues in transfusion medicine].

Science.gov (United States)

Tissot, J-D; Danic, B; Cabaud, J-J; Garraud, O

2016-09-01

Ethics is on the cross road of off values that are present along the ways of transfusion medicine. This is an important tool to afford opinions as well as debates that always emerge when discussing transfusion medicine. The wording is particularly important; this was one among several others that characterized the soul of Jean-Jacques Lefrère when he opened the doors of the ethical issues of transfusion medicine. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Environmental trends and issues at the research horizon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Schwartz, J.H.; Warshaw, C.J.; Stoner, B.; Coerr, S.; O'Neal, J.

1992-01-01

This report provides a forecast of environmental trends and issues likely to emerge in the next 5 to 15 years. The report identifies and describes eleven significant emerging tends (i.e., general shifts in environmental policy-making, technology, regulation and public opinion) and - specific environmental issues (i.e., real or perceived environmental problems). The report further describes various debates or key questions that will determine over the next 5 to 15 years the potential government response to these environmental issues. This information is intended to assist the Gas research Institute as a research organization in planning and initiating research projects that will be relevant to important debates in the future

Objectification of injuries and consequences in expert medical opinions

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Miran Vrabl

2007-04-01

Full Text Available Background: Only unequivocal evidence confirming the total extent of injury. Biomechanical analysis, objectifications of permanent consequences after injury and objectification, whether such injuries influence life activities of an injured person, should be the basics for preparation of expert medical opinion. To make a necessary distinction from the previous injuries or illnesses that might have influence on current health state of a patient and its treatment, analysis of all medical records of a certain injured person is needed. Therefore this are inevitable steps in preparation of an expert medical opinion. In cases when medical opinion should explain disability of a patient as a consequence of a certain contractual relationship, the contract should be taken into consideration when such opinions is prepared.Methods: 500 opinions have been retrospectively analysed, selected at random out of 3452 opinions, submitted in claims for damages at Zavarovalnica Maribor, d. d., in the period from January 2001 until January 2006. Thirteen typical data have been analysed and evaluated on the basis of objective evidences.Results: On the basis of analyses it has been established that there is a great difference between principles of objectification and the data in analysed opinions. It has been noticed the most obvious deviation in biomechanical analysis (95 %, in records of decreased life activities (90 %, in all medical records of an injured person (65 % and in objectification of permanent consequences after injuries (55 %.Conclusions: As results of analysis demonstrate, there are significant differences in preparations of expert and medical opinions in Slovenia, particularly when basic principles are analysed that need to be considered when writing such opinions. Irrational avoidance of basic principle of objectification, nomination of experts without licence in certain fields of medicine, avoidance of objectification of subjective statements of injured

Democracy, public opinion, and nuclear weapons

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Russett, B.

1989-01-01

To the degree that people's fears of nuclear war are deep and pervasive, they become subject to manipulation by cynical or politically utopian promises, whether those promises be to abolish nuclear weapons from the earth or to create a leakproof peace shield (SDI). But the basic yearning for protection could also be mobilized to support serious arms reduction and arms control agreements. Nuclear weapons provide the basis for a vivid form of symbolic politics, perhaps equivalent in foreign policy considerations to the Korean and Vietnam wars during their durations, and in similar ways (although not necessarily as severe) as unemployment does among domestic policy issues. This paper presents survey research directed specifically at the role of public opinion on nuclear imagery (difference between expectation of nuclear war versus any kind of weapon war; willingness to spend on nuclear weapons versus conventional ones or general defense spending) can help in understanding these phenomena

Perception of risks by opinion leaders 2011

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-01-01

The authors report a survey made just after the Fukushima accident on a panel of opinion leaders (belonging to political, economical or media sector) in order to compare their perception of risks with that of the public. The questions addressed the perception of risks, the role of scientific experts, the usefulness and breaks on the diffusion of expertise results, the perception of pluralist bodies, and the Fukushima accident. The answers are analysed and discussed with respect to fifteen hazardous situations, to their opinion of expertise, and to their opinion on safety audit and information

cultural variations regarding the nature and determinants of opinion ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

p2333147

Keywords: Opinion leaders, cultural influence, diffusion and determinants of opinion leadership. ABSTRACT. This paper compares the findings from different countries regarding the nature and determinants of opinion leadership. ..... agricultural production among male and female farmers of the Kusenge. Parish in the ...

Social influence and the collective dynamics of opinion formation.

Science.gov (United States)

Moussaïd, Mehdi; Kämmer, Juliane E; Analytis, Pantelis P; Neth, Hansjörg

2013-01-01

Social influence is the process by which individuals adapt their opinion, revise their beliefs, or change their behavior as a result of social interactions with other people. In our strongly interconnected society, social influence plays a prominent role in many self-organized phenomena such as herding in cultural markets, the spread of ideas and innovations, and the amplification of fears during epidemics. Yet, the mechanisms of opinion formation remain poorly understood, and existing physics-based models lack systematic empirical validation. Here, we report two controlled experiments showing how participants answering factual questions revise their initial judgments after being exposed to the opinion and confidence level of others. Based on the observation of 59 experimental subjects exposed to peer-opinion for 15 different items, we draw an influence map that describes the strength of peer influence during interactions. A simple process model derived from our observations demonstrates how opinions in a group of interacting people can converge or split over repeated interactions. In particular, we identify two major attractors of opinion: (i) the expert effect, induced by the presence of a highly confident individual in the group, and (ii) the majority effect, caused by the presence of a critical mass of laypeople sharing similar opinions. Additional simulations reveal the existence of a tipping point at which one attractor will dominate over the other, driving collective opinion in a given direction. These findings have implications for understanding the mechanisms of public opinion formation and managing conflicting situations in which self-confident and better informed minorities challenge the views of a large uninformed majority.

Parents' knowledge of and opinions about healthcare laws and technology in primary care.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Lindsay A; Black, Erik W; Saliba, Heidi; Schentrup, Anzeela M

2012-01-01

Historically, parents have demonstrated poor understanding of adolescent healthcare laws. This study assessed US parents' current knowledge and opinions about technology facilitated physician-adolescent communication and applicable laws to enhance transition to adult health care. A brief survey in two low-income academic paediatric clinics asked parents about their knowledge of health care and laws, and their opinions about technology facilitated contact between physicians and adolescents. Almost all parents (96.7%) have internet access at home, work or via a mobile device. Only 44.1% approved of having a physician directly contact their child about annual examinations, immunisations or to discuss issues of sexuality. Half (55.4%) were aware that adolescents could receive confidential sexuality information and treatment without parents' permission. Only one-third (32.2%) approved of a specific technology for direct communication. Parents are divided about direct physician-adolescent contact. Future plans to engage adolescents to understand their health will require parental education and involvement on the value of physician-adolescent communication.

Public opinion on water reuse options

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bruvold, W.H.

1988-01-01

Public policy on waste water reuse options must be informed by public opinion because it is the public who must pay the cost of developing the option and who will be served by the option in the future. For public policy on reuse, guidance for innovative reuse is not as simple as first believed. It seems that public opinion regarding actual community reuse options is affected by the linkage of several factors, including water conservation, health protection, treatment and distribution costs, and environmental enhancement. Probability sampling was used in 7 studies to select respondents who were queried regarding their opinions on various reclaimed water uses such as ranging from cooling tower water to full domestic use. These 7 are briefly reviewed

Conformity, Anticonformity and Polarization of Opinions: Insights from a Mathematical Model of Opinion Dynamics

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tyll Krueger

2017-07-01

Full Text Available Understanding and quantifying polarization in social systems is important because of many reasons. It could for instance help to avoid segregation and conflicts in the society or to control polarized debates and predict their outcomes. In this paper, we present a version of the q-voter model of opinion dynamics with two types of responses to social influence: conformity (like in the original q-voter model and anticonformity. We put the model on a social network with the double-clique topology in order to check how the interplay between those responses impacts the opinion dynamics in a population divided into two antagonistic segments. The model is analyzed analytically, numerically and by means of Monte Carlo simulations. Our results show that the system undergoes two bifurcations as the number of cross-links between cliques changes. Below the first critical point, consensus in the entire system is possible. Thus, two antagonistic cliques may share the same opinion only if they are loosely connected. Above that point, the system ends up in a polarized state.

Public opinion, risk to reputation: The essentials of societal corporate governance?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Catherine Malecki

2012-12-01

Full Text Available Research Question/Issue: This paper will examine the role of reputation regarding corporate governance in terms of performance, risk control and the possible role of legislature or behaviors in this field (in particular with regards to the recent Green Paper “Companies in the EU: a management of governance”, COM (2011 164 final, of the 5th April 2011, of the European Commission. Research Findings/Insights: Image, reputation, positive or negative opinion, notoriety of the companies and their managers are regarded as an element of their performance. It is accepted that public opinion, inherently linked to the reputation risk is an essential element of corporate governance. Regarding the need of a long term matter, particularly after the financial crisis, a short period of time is enough to transform a positive public opinion into a negative one. In addition, the assessment of public opinion is complex. Everyone can freely form an “opinion”. The opinion may be private and public. Public opinion refers to society, to citizens and to the people. Its classic means of expression are freedom of the press and freedom of speech. This question is particularly crucial regarding the role of the companies to the “society” as recently defined by the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the committee of the Regions, A renewed EU strategy 2011-14 for Corporate Social Responsibility, the European Commission and the European Parliament (Brussels, 25.10.2011 COM (2011 681 final. Theoretical/Academic Implications: How to manage good corporate governance reputation ?As from 1979, the Anglo-Saxon doctrine has acutely highlighted the role of reputation risk regarding corporate governance but what is the situation within the EU? Has legislature, in Europe (and for example, in France, sufficiently acknowledged the concept of reputation risk control? – A long term period

Drivers of going concern audit opinions: empirical evidence from Indonesia

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Suroto Lina Rahmawati

2017-08-01

Full Text Available The study of the going concern audit opinions is an important component within the enhancement of firms’ responsibility and stewardship. A going concern audit opinions implies that the independent auditor doubt the future of the firm. This study aimed to examine the drivers of the likelihood of the going-concern audit opinions. Previous studies revealed that there were inconsistent drivers influencing the going-concern audit opinion. This study shows similar results to prior works. The result indicates that firms’ financial condition and profitability significantly affect the likelihood of the going-concern audit opinion, while firms’ size and leverage are not the determinants of the intensity of the going concern audit opinion.

EMOTION BASED ANALYSIS OF TURKISH CUSTOMER OPINIONS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

E. Kahya-Ozyirmidokuz

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Firms should manage their customer feedback so they can adapt to rapid changes in the environment. They have to interact with their customers to understand them and to turn their opinions into useful knowledge. Understanding customers' feelings about a product gives firmS competitive advantage through continuous market monitoring. They can thus generate improving strategies about the system to change perceptions that drive the behaviours of the customers. Firms can view their customers' happiness as a key tool for decision-making. This study calculates online product happiness by using the average emotional valence values of customer opinions. We analyse Turkish opinions about a product over a period of 3 months. We find the averages of the online emotional valence values of the product per month. We also determined the increase in happiness over time. According to the opinion valence values, we found the relations between the documents.

Correlation between information diffusion and opinion evolution on social media

Science.gov (United States)

Xiong, Fei; Liu, Yun; Zhang, Zhenjiang

2014-12-01

Information diffusion and opinion evolution are often treated as two independent processes. Opinion models assume the topic reaches each agent and agents initially have their own ideas. In fact, the processes of information diffusion and opinion evolution often intertwine with each other. Whether the influence between these two processes plays a role in the system state is unclear. In this paper, we collected more than one million real data from a well-known social platform, and analysed large-scale user diffusion behaviour and opinion formation. We found that user inter-event time follows a two-scaling power-law distribution with two different power exponents. Public opinion stabilizes quickly and evolves toward the direction of convergence, but the consensus state is prevented by a few opponents. We propose a three-state opinion model accompanied by information diffusion. Agents form and exchange their opinions during information diffusion. Conversely, agents' opinions also influence their diffusion actions. Simulations show that the model with a correlation of the two processes produces similar statistical characteristics as empirical results. A fast epidemic process drives individual opinions to converge more obviously. Unlike previous epidemic models, the number of infected agents does not always increase with the update rate, but has a peak with an intermediate value of the rate.

Correlation between information diffusion and opinion evolution on social media

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Xiong, Fei; Liu, Yun; Zhang, Zhenjiang

2014-01-01

Information diffusion and opinion evolution are often treated as two independent processes. Opinion models assume the topic reaches each agent and agents initially have their own ideas. In fact, the processes of information diffusion and opinion evolution often intertwine with each other. Whether the influence between these two processes plays a role in the system state is unclear. In this paper, we collected more than one million real data from a well-known social platform, and analysed large-scale user diffusion behaviour and opinion formation. We found that user inter-event time follows a two-scaling power-law distribution with two different power exponents. Public opinion stabilizes quickly and evolves toward the direction of convergence, but the consensus state is prevented by a few opponents. We propose a three-state opinion model accompanied by information diffusion. Agents form and exchange their opinions during information diffusion. Conversely, agents' opinions also influence their diffusion actions. Simulations show that the model with a correlation of the two processes produces similar statistical characteristics as empirical results. A fast epidemic process drives individual opinions to converge more obviously. Unlike previous epidemic models, the number of infected agents does not always increase with the update rate, but has a peak with an intermediate value of the rate. (paper)

Public opinion factors regarding nuclear power

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Benson, B.

1991-12-31

This paper is an effort to identify, as comprehensively as possible, public concerns about nuclear power, and to assess, where possible, the relative importance of these concerns as they relate to government regulation of and policy towards nuclear power. It is based on some two dozen in-depth interviews with key communicators representing the nuclear power industry, the environmental community, and government, as well as on the parallel efforts in our research project: (1) review of federal court case law, (2) a selective examination of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) administrative process, and (3) the preceding George Mason University research project in this series. The paper synthesizes our findings about public attitudes towards nuclear power as expressed through federal court case law, NRC administrative law, public opinion surveys, and direct personal interviews. In so doing, we describe the public opinion environment in which the nuclear regulatory process must operate. Our premise is that public opinion ultimately underlies the approaches government agencies take towards regulating nuclear power, and that, to the degree that the nuclear power industry`s practices are aligned with public opinion, a more favorable regulatory climate is possible.

Public opinion factors regarding nuclear power

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Benson, B.

1991-01-01

This paper is an effort to identify, as comprehensively as possible, public concerns about nuclear power, and to assess, where possible, the relative importance of these concerns as they relate to government regulation of and policy towards nuclear power. It is based on some two dozen in-depth interviews with key communicators representing the nuclear power industry, the environmental community, and government, as well as on the parallel efforts in our research project: (1) review of federal court case law, (2) a selective examination of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) administrative process, and (3) the preceding George Mason University research project in this series. The paper synthesizes our findings about public attitudes towards nuclear power as expressed through federal court case law, NRC administrative law, public opinion surveys, and direct personal interviews. In so doing, we describe the public opinion environment in which the nuclear regulatory process must operate. Our premise is that public opinion ultimately underlies the approaches government agencies take towards regulating nuclear power, and that, to the degree that the nuclear power industry's practices are aligned with public opinion, a more favorable regulatory climate is possible.

Public opinion factors regarding nuclear power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benson, B.

1991-01-01

This paper is an effort to identify, as comprehensively as possible, public concerns about nuclear power, and to assess, where possible, the relative importance of these concerns as they relate to government regulation of and policy towards nuclear power. It is based on some two dozen in-depth interviews with key communicators representing the nuclear power industry, the environmental community, and government, as well as on the parallel efforts in our research project: (1) review of federal court case law, (2) a selective examination of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) administrative process, and (3) the preceding George Mason University research project in this series. The paper synthesizes our findings about public attitudes towards nuclear power as expressed through federal court case law, NRC administrative law, public opinion surveys, and direct personal interviews. In so doing, we describe the public opinion environment in which the nuclear regulatory process must operate. Our premise is that public opinion ultimately underlies the approaches government agencies take towards regulating nuclear power, and that, to the degree that the nuclear power industry's practices are aligned with public opinion, a more favorable regulatory climate is possible

the nature and determinants of opinion leadership in lesotho

African Journals Online (AJOL)

p2333147

opinion leadership, 39 percent have been nominated and thus qualify ... It obviously cannot be ruled out that with increased consultations more fields of ... 30. 40. 50. 60. 70. 80. 90. 100. %. >3. 3. 2. 1. Opinion leadership (No. of nominations) .... Frequency distribution per gender. Male. Female. Total. Opinion leadership.

Original Research doi:10.4102/http://www.indieskriflig.org.za ids.v48i2.722 An exploration of synthetic biology: A preliminary Christian ethical assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of synthetic biology

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Riaan A.L. Rheeder

2014-10-01

Full Text Available On 20 May 2010, the Venter Institute in America announced that they have fully synthesised the genome of the organism Mycoplasma mycoides whilst in vitro by using a computer connected to a machine that synthesises genes. Thereafter, the genome was placed back into the casing of another organism (Mycoplasma capricolum and it was reported that the synthesised organism and the genome functioned normally. This synthesised organism was reconstructed to function as a minute little factory with the aim of producing and secreting fuel and medicine − something that is not the natural function of this organism. There are certain potential dangers inherent in this kind of technology. Scientists fear that this technology may contaminate or infect humans, animals or the environment, and that it can as such be extremely harmful, or even lead to the destruction of humans. Other scientists are concerned that terrorists can use this technology to kill innocent citizens. Some ethicists are of the opinion that the consequences of synthetic biology is currently unpredictable and that it is therefore risky. In opposition to the potential dangers, one has to mention that synthetic biology indeed can result in far-reaching positive outcomes such as the manufacturing of biofuel and medication. Most scientists and ethicists are of the opinion that the potential dangers involved in synthetic biology should be evaluated in light of the fact that genetic manipulation has not caused any biological devastation over the last 30 years. From a Christian point of departure, the opinion is currently that synthetic biology is not an irresponsible science and technology.

Discrete opinion dynamics on networks based on social influence

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hu Haibo; Wang Xiaofan

2009-01-01

A model of opinion dynamics based on social influence on networks was studied. The opinion of each agent can have integer values i = 1, 2, ..., I and opinion exchanges are restricted to connected agents. It was found that for any I ≥ 2 and self-confidence parameter 0 ≤ u i ) of the population that hold a given opinion i is a martingale, and the fraction q i of opinion i will gradually converge to (q i ). The tendency can slow down with the increase of degree assortativity of networks. When u is degree dependent, (q i ) does not possess the martingale property, however q i still converges to it. In both cases for a finite network the states of all agents will finally reach consensus. Further if there exist stubborn persons in the population whose opinions do not change over time, it was found that for degree-independent constant u, both q i and (q i ) will converge to fixed proportions which only depend on the distribution of initial obstinate persons, and naturally the final equilibrium state will be the coexistence of diverse opinions held by the stubborn people. The analytical results were verified by numerical simulations on Barabasi-Albert (BA) networks. The model highlights the influence of high-degree agents on the final consensus or coexistence state and captures some realistic features of the diffusion of opinions in social networks

SOME ISSUES OF DIAGNOSTICS IN IMMUNE PATHOLOGY

OpenAIRE

I. A. Tousankina

2010-01-01

Present lecture contains an author's opinion concerning diagnostic issues in immunopathology, including primary and secondary immune deficiencies, immune-dependent states that are based on immunopathological syndromes. Original formulations are suggested for some key categories of clinical immunology, physical, instrumental and laboratory diagnostics of immune deficiencies and immune-dependent diseases. The results of original long-term observations, as well as data on Sverdlovsk Regional Reg...

Sentiment Analysis and Opinion Mining

CERN Document Server

Liu, Bing

2012-01-01

Sentiment analysis and opinion mining is the field of study that analyzes people's opinions, sentiments, evaluations, attitudes, and emotions from written language. It is one of the most active research areas in natural language processing and is also widely studied in data mining, Web mining, and text mining. In fact, this research has spread outside of computer science to the management sciences and social sciences due to its importance to business and society as a whole. The growing importance of sentiment analysis coincides with the growth of social media such as reviews, forum discussions

Energy policy decision making and public opinion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gerstein, L.

1989-09-01

By the example of nuclear the author demonstrates the interactions of short-term fluctuations on the world energy market, energy forecasts, specific events and discussions on energy policy both within political parties and in the general public, and draws conclusions which are valid beyond the Federal Republic of Germany: An analysis of the general public's attitude towards nuclear energy shows two initial phases, i.e. euphoria and scepticism/ideology/agitation. The early eighties, then, led to a third phase - realism. Up to 1983 a consensus prevailed between the leading political parties in Germany regarding the basic energy-policy objective of minimizing the supply risk by providing for a well-balanced use of all available energy sources. The resulting attitude had a positive bearing on the public opinion: more than two thirds of the population were in favour of nuclear. In the mid-eighties, the development of nuclear was by and large completed in the Federal Republic of Germany as well as in the United States and other western industrialized countries and the capacity of nuclear power plants is considered sufficient for the years to come. In addition, abundant long-term reserves of domestic lignite and hardcoal are available: this also should have furnished a good reason to envisage calmly the issues of power supply. Instead, we are again facing emotional discussions on the acceptance of nuclear. Public opinion in the Federal Republic of Germany has changed since the Social Democrats followed the example of the Ecologists and advocated a rapid withdrawal from nuclear. In a recent poll four-fifths of the persons asked did not rule out the possibility of a major accident in a German power station. The wish to ignore today's energy supply problems by escaping into a supposedly safe but yet distant and vague future is part of every public debate. Technical and scientific issues are examined no longer in this global context. Predictions of experts and counter

Tropospheric ozone. Formation, properties, effects. Expert opinion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Elstner, E.F.

1996-01-01

The formation and dispersion of tropospheric ozone are discussed only marginally in this expert opinion; the key interest is in the effects of ground level ozone on plants, animals, and humans. The expert opinion is based on an analysis of the available scientific publications. (orig./MG) [de

Management of infections in rheumatic patients receiving biological therapies. The Portuguese Society of Rheumatology recommendations.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Teixeira L

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Introduction: Infections are a major cause of morbi dity and mortality in systemic inflammatory rheumatic di - seases and the management of infectious complications in patients under biological therapies deserves parti - cular attention. Objective: Develop evidence-based recommendations for the management of infections in rheumatic patients receiving biological therapies. Methods: A search in PubMed (until 10 November 2014 and EMBASE (until 20 December 2014 databases was performed. Patients with systemic inflammatory rheumatic diseases treated with approved biologics in whom infections occurred were included. Search results were submitted to title and abstract selection, followed by detailed review of suitable studies. Information regarding presentation of the infectious complication, its diagnosis, treatment, and outcome, as well as maintenance or discontinuation of the biological agent was extracted and subsequently pooled according to the type of infection considered. Results of literature review were presented and critically reviewed in a dedi - cated meeting by a multidisciplinary panel. Recommendations were then formulated using the Delphi method. Finally, the level of agreement among rheumatologists was voted using an online survey. Results: Fifteen recommendations were issued. Nine general recommendations concerned the assessment of infectious risk before and while on biologics, the procedures in case of suspected infection and the mana - gement of biologics during infectious complications. Six specific recommendations were developed for respiratory, urinary, gastrointestinal, skin, osteoarticular and disseminated infections. Conclusion: These fifteen recommendations are intended to help rheumatologists in the management of infections in patients on biological therapy. They integrate an extensive literature review, expert opinion and inputs from Portuguese rheumatologists.

Public opinion, public information and public implication in radioactive waste management in the European Union; La opinion publica, informacion publica e implicacion publica en la gestion de residuos radiactivos en la Union Europea

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Taylor, D.; Webster, S.

2004-07-01

The nuclear industry in European must address the issue of the lack of Public acceptance. In particular, the public are very concerned about radioactive waste. It is clear that there is a need to better inform the public about radioactive waste and to consult them as part of the decision-making process concerning the management of these wastes. Existing and proposed new European legislation not only encourage this provision of information and involvement in the decision-making process, but actually require it. The paper examines Public opinion and European legislation in this area and reports on the latest research on societal issues in radioactive waste management carried out under the Community's Euratom Framework Programme. (Author)

Biological indicators of exposure to radon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Beno, M.

1998-01-01

A review is given of recent investigations into mutagenesis and carcinogenesis due to alpha irradiation by the radon progeny. Studies of the occurrence of chromosomal aberrations after alpha irradiation are given particular attention. In the author's opinion, up to now no useful biological indicator of response to high and low doses of alpha particles has been found, including those of radon on the molecular and cellular level. (A.K.)

Decontamination issues for chemical and biological warfare agents: how clean is clean enough?

Science.gov (United States)

Raber, E; Jin, A; Noonan, K; McGuire, R; Kirvel, R D

2001-06-01

The objective of this assessment is to determine what level of cleanup will be required to meet regulatory and stakeholder needs in the case of a chemical and/or biological incident at a civilian facility. A literature review for selected, potential chemical and biological warfare agents shows that dose information is often lacking or controversial. Environmental regulatory limits or other industrial health guidelines that could be used to help establish cleanup concentration levels for such agents are generally unavailable or not applicable for a public setting. Although dose information, cleanup criteria, and decontamination protocols all present challenges to effective planning, several decontamination approaches are available. Such approaches should be combined with risk-informed decision making to establish reasonable cleanup goals for protecting health, property, and resources. Key issues during a risk assessment are to determine exactly what constitutes a safety hazard and whether decontamination is necessary or not for a particular scenario. An important conclusion is that cleanup criteria are site dependent and stakeholder specific. The results of a modeling exercise for two outdoor scenarios are presented to reinforce this conclusion. Public perception of risk to health, public acceptance of recommendations based on scientific criteria, political support, time constraints, and economic concerns must all be addressed in the context of a specific scenario to yield effective and acceptable decontamination.

Special Issue: International Congress of Cell Biology 2016, Prague

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Stick, R.; Dráber, Pavel

2017-01-01

Roč. 254, č. 3 (2017), s. 1141-1142 ISSN 0033-183X R&D Projects: GA ČR GA16-25159S Institutional support: RVO:68378050 Keywords : cellular structures and functions, ,, , * tubulin isotypes * actin * transcription regulation * signaling pathways Subject RIV: EB - Genetics ; Molecular Biology OBOR OECD: Cell biology Impact factor: 2.870, year: 2016

Using expert opinion surveys to rank threats to endangered species: a case study with sea turtles.

Science.gov (United States)

Donlan, C Josh; Wingfield, Dana K; Crowder, Larry B; Wilcox, Chris

2010-12-01

Little is known about how specific anthropogenic hazards affect the biology of organisms. Quantifying the effect of regional hazards is particularly challenging for species such as sea turtles because they are migratory, difficult to study, long lived, and face multiple anthropogenic threats. Expert elicitation, a technique used to synthesize opinions of experts while assessing uncertainty around those views, has been in use for several decades in the social science and risk assessment sectors. We conducted an internet-based survey to quantify expert opinion on the relative magnitude of anthropogenic hazards to sea turtle populations at the regional level. Fisheries bycatch and coastal development were most often ranked as the top hazards to sea turtle species in a geographic region. Nest predation and direct take followed as the second and third greatest threats, respectively. Survey results suggest most experts believe sea turtles are threatened by multiple factors, including substantial at-sea threats such as fisheries bycatch. Resources invested by the sea turtle community, however, appear biased toward terrestrial-based impacts. Results from the survey are useful for conservation planning because they provide estimates of relative impacts of hazards on sea turtles and a measure of consensus on the magnitude of those impacts among researchers and practitioners. Our survey results also revealed patterns of expert bias, which we controlled for in our analysis. Respondents with no experience with respect to a sea turtle species tended to rank hazards affecting that sea turtle species higher than respondents with experience. A more-striking pattern was with hazard-based expertise: the more experience a respondent had with a specific hazard, the higher the respondent scored the impact of that hazard on sea turtle populations. Bias-controlled expert opinion surveys focused on threatened species and their hazards can help guide and expedite species recovery plans. �

Discrete opinion dynamics on networks based on social influence

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Hu Haibo; Wang Xiaofan [Complex Networks and Control Lab, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240 (China)

2009-06-05

A model of opinion dynamics based on social influence on networks was studied. The opinion of each agent can have integer values i = 1, 2, ..., I and opinion exchanges are restricted to connected agents. It was found that for any I {>=} 2 and self-confidence parameter 0 {<=} u < 1, when u is a degree-independent constant, the weighted proportion (q{sub i}) of the population that hold a given opinion i is a martingale, and the fraction q{sub i} of opinion i will gradually converge to (q{sub i}). The tendency can slow down with the increase of degree assortativity of networks. When u is degree dependent, (q{sub i}) does not possess the martingale property, however q{sub i} still converges to it. In both cases for a finite network the states of all agents will finally reach consensus. Further if there exist stubborn persons in the population whose opinions do not change over time, it was found that for degree-independent constant u, both q{sub i} and (q{sub i}) will converge to fixed proportions which only depend on the distribution of initial obstinate persons, and naturally the final equilibrium state will be the coexistence of diverse opinions held by the stubborn people. The analytical results were verified by numerical simulations on Barabasi-Albert (BA) networks. The model highlights the influence of high-degree agents on the final consensus or coexistence state and captures some realistic features of the diffusion of opinions in social networks.

Swedish Opinion on Nuclear Power 1986 - 2011

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Holmberg, Soeren

2012-11-01

This report contains the Swedish opinion on Nuclear Power and European Attitudes on Nuclear Power. It also includes European Attitudes Towards the Future of Three Energy Sources; Nuclear Energy, Wind Power and Solar Power - with a focus on the Swedish opinion. Results from measurements done by the SOM Inst. are presented.

French and european opinions about energy questions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1992-03-01

This paper presents a statistical study of french and european opinions in 1989 about energy questions. The main subjects studied are: qualities of different energy sources (coal, petroleum, natural gas, nuclear energy, renewable energies); perception in public opinion of nuclear industry; energy and environmental effects. 6 figs., 1 tab., 4 appendices

Internet Censorship in Turkey: University Students' Opinions

Science.gov (United States)

Ozkan, Hasan; Arikan, Arda

2009-01-01

The aim of this paper is to study university students' opinions toward online censorship with references to their socio-political and economic variables. Considering the upwards trend and the increasing number of online restrictions in Turkey, the opinions of university students (n=138) are thought to give significant findings. The questionnaire…

Information Filtering Based on Users' Negative Opinions

Science.gov (United States)

Guo, Qiang; Li, Yang; Liu, Jian-Guo

2013-05-01

The process of heat conduction (HC) has recently found application in the information filtering [Zhang et al., Phys. Rev. Lett.99, 154301 (2007)], which is of high diversity but low accuracy. The classical HC model predicts users' potential interested objects based on their interesting objects regardless to the negative opinions. In terms of the users' rating scores, we present an improved user-based HC (UHC) information model by taking into account users' positive and negative opinions. Firstly, the objects rated by users are divided into positive and negative categories, then the predicted interesting and dislike object lists are generated by the UHC model. Finally, the recommendation lists are constructed by filtering out the dislike objects from the interesting lists. By implementing the new model based on nine similarity measures, the experimental results for MovieLens and Netflix datasets show that the new model considering negative opinions could greatly enhance the accuracy, measured by the average ranking score, from 0.049 to 0.036 for Netflix and from 0.1025 to 0.0570 for Movielens dataset, reduced by 26.53% and 44.39%, respectively. Since users prefer to give positive ratings rather than negative ones, the negative opinions contain much more information than the positive ones, the negative opinions, therefore, are very important for understanding users' online collective behaviors and improving the performance of HC model.

A Survey of Key Technology of Network Public Opinion Analysis

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Li Su Ying

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The internet has become an important base for internet users to make comments because of its interactivity and fast dissemination. The outbreak of internet public opinion has become a major risk for network information security. Domestic and foreign researchers had carried out extensive and in-depth study on public opinion. Fruitful results have achieved in the basic theory research and emergency handling and other aspects of public opinion. But research on the public opinion in China is still in the initial stage, the key technology of the public opinion analysis is still as a starting point for in-depth study and discussion.

Multi-lingual Opinion Mining on YouTube

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Severyn, Aliaksei; Moschitti, Alessandro; Uryupina, Olga; Plank, Barbara; Filippova, Katja

In order to successfully apply opinion mining (OM) to the large amounts of user-generated content produced every day, we need robust models that can handle the noisy input well yet can easily be adapted to a new domain or language. We here focus on opinion mining for YouTube by (i) modeling

Same-sex marriage and other moral taboos : cultural acceptances, change in American public opinion and the evidence from the opinion polls

OpenAIRE

MORINI, Marco

2017-01-01

Published online: 25 January 2017 Creative Commons Licence This article analyzes the evolution of gay and lesbian rights and same-sex marriage in American public opinion. It describes how Obergefell v. Hodges, state-level decisions and the public opinion trends can be considered as the outcome of a grassroots coordinated campaign which began more than a decade ago and was able to conquer the majority of Americans. It also focuses on the American public opinion trends related to moral is...

20 CFR 416.927 - Evaluating opinion evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... the record as a whole, the more weight we will give to that opinion. (5) Specialization. We generally... “disabled” or “unable to work” does not mean that we will determine that you are disabled. (2) Other... opinions from treating sources, nontreating sources, and other nonexamining sources who do not work for us...

Modeling and Simulation of Polarization in Internet Group Opinions Based on Cellular Automata

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yaofeng Zhang

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Hot events on Internet always attract many people who usually form one or several opinion camps through discussion. For the problem of polarization in Internet group opinions, we propose a new model based on Cellular Automata by considering neighbors, opinion leaders, and external influences. Simulation results show the following: (1 It is easy to form the polarization for both continuous opinions and discrete opinions when we only consider neighbors influence, and continuous opinions are more effective in speeding the polarization of group. (2 Coevolution mechanism takes more time to make the system stable, and the global coupling mechanism leads the system to consensus. (3 Opinion leaders play an important role in the development of consensus in Internet group opinions. However, both taking the opinion leaders as zealots and taking some randomly selected individuals as zealots are not conductive to the consensus. (4 Double opinion leaders with consistent opinions will accelerate the formation of group consensus, but the opposite opinions will lead to group polarization. (5 Only small external influences can change the evolutionary direction of Internet group opinions.

The brazilian nuclear policy with respect to the public opinion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Freitas Brandao Bittencourt, C.

1988-01-01

Four decades of the Brazilian nuclear history have been analysed with special emphasis placed on government policy and its repercussion on public opinion. The implications of the new constitutional regulations which rule the issue are discussed. it is also studied the change in the nuclear program structure, enforced in August 1988. At different times, the government decisions on nuclear energy could be classified as miser, extravagant, dissimulated and frank, successively. Their aftermaths, which show little consistency with the expectations laid on them, have led to discredit by part of the society, which is controlled by a scientific - intellectual elite. However, recent successes are likely to reverse this trend, if the government explores them properly. (author) [pt

Public opinion survey 'Nuclear energy - the present and the future'

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matani, R.; Lebegner, J.; Jurkovi, I.-A.; Prah, M.

2000-01-01

As a part of Croatian Nuclear Society Young Generation Network efforts in improving relations with the general public, a survey on nuclear energy issues among a student population (18-22 years old) has been planned. The survey, although somewhat modified, is based on a similar one that has been conducted at high schools as a part of organized educational program by the Museum of Technical Sciences and Hrvatska Elektroprivreda. Preliminary results show a positive altitude among the student population when it comes to nuclear power plants. As it can be seen from the obtained data (preliminary analysis), this opinion is mostly built on student awareness of nuclear power plants as a clean energy source. (authors)

IRSN 2011 opinion survey. The perception of risks and safety by French people. Global results

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2011-01-01

Like every year, this report presents and comments the results of an opinion survey on risks, and more particularly on nuclear and radiological risks. The first part addresses the current concerns of French people (the main concerns in the present society and with respect to the environment, how science is considered). The second part addresses the opinion on expertise (who should control a hazardous installation, the role and image of experts, the access to expertise files, the perception of pluralist bodies). The third part examines the reaction of people in front of 33 different hazardous situations (risks to which people feel being exposed, confidence in authorities, confidence in information on hazards, hierarchy of 33 situations and relationship with installation acceptability). The fourth part addresses the nuclear issue (nuclear risk, ability and credibility of nuclear actors, the Chernobyl accident, radioactive wastes, demand of information on the nuclear risk).

Analyse des opinions dans les portails d’informations pour personnaliser les systèmes de recommandation.

OpenAIRE

Meguebli , Youssef

2015-01-01

Online news websites are becoming one of the most popular and influential social media platforms allowing people to easily access information about daily life topics, share their opinions on different issues, and give feedback on published content. The tremendous increase of published news requires effective recommendation techniques that help users to find interesting news articles that match with their interests. Thus, users are continuously encouraged to participate to online news websites...

PageRank model of opinion formation on Ulam networks

Science.gov (United States)

Chakhmakhchyan, L.; Shepelyansky, D.

2013-12-01

We consider a PageRank model of opinion formation on Ulam networks, generated by the intermittency map and the typical Chirikov map. The Ulam networks generated by these maps have certain similarities with such scale-free networks as the World Wide Web (WWW), showing an algebraic decay of the PageRank probability. We find that the opinion formation process on Ulam networks has certain similarities but also distinct features comparing to the WWW. We attribute these distinctions to internal differences in network structure of the Ulam and WWW networks. We also analyze the process of opinion formation in the frame of generalized Sznajd model which protects opinion of small communities.

Cross-correlation patterns in social opinion formation with sequential data

Science.gov (United States)

Chakrabarti, Anindya S.

2016-11-01

Recent research on large-scale internet data suggests existence of patterns in the collective behavior of billions of people even though each of them may pursue own activities. In this paper, we interpret online rating activity as a process of forming social opinion about individual items, where people sequentially choose a rating based on the current information set comprising all previous ratings and own preferences. We construct an opinion index from the sequence of ratings and we show that (1) movie-specific opinion converges much slower than an independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) sequence of ratings, (2) rating sequence for individual movies shows lesser variation compared to an i.i.d. sequence of ratings, (3) the probability density function of the asymptotic opinions has more spread than that defined over opinion arising from i.i.d. sequence of ratings, (4) opinion sequences across movies are correlated with significantly higher and lower correlation compared to opinion constructed from i.i.d. sequence of ratings, creating a bimodal cross-correlation structure. By decomposing the temporal correlation structures from panel data of movie ratings, we show that the social effects are very prominent whereas group effects cannot be differentiated from those of surrogate data and individual effects are quite small. The former explains a large part of extreme positive or negative correlations between sequences of opinions. In general, this method can be applied to any rating data to extract social or group-specific effects in correlation structures. We conclude that in this particular case, social effects are important in opinion formation process.

Opinion of women about elective abortion

OpenAIRE

?akmak, B?lent; Metin, Fulya Zeynep; ?zsoy, Asker Zeki; ??t?l, R?za; ?nder, Yal??n; Y?lmaz Do?ru, Hatice

2014-01-01

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the opinions of women who presented to the hospital for elective abortion. Materials and Methods: This descriptive study was designed and conducted at our university hospital between March 2013-April 2013 by the method of face-to-face interviews with 500 women who presented to the hospital as patient or relatives of patients. Poll consisted of 6 questions about demographic characteristics and 14 questions evaluating the opinions and attitude...

Modeling opinion dynamics: Theoretical analysis and continuous approximation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pinasco, Juan Pablo; Semeshenko, Viktoriya; Balenzuela, Pablo

2017-01-01

Highlights: • We study a simple model of persuasion dynamics with long range pairwise interactions. • The continuous limit of the master equation is a nonlinear, nonlocal, first order partial differential equation. • We compute the analytical solutions to this equation, and compare them with the simulations of the dynamics. - Abstract: Frequently we revise our first opinions after talking over with other individuals because we get convinced. Argumentation is a verbal and social process aimed at convincing. It includes conversation and persuasion and the agreement is reached because the new arguments are incorporated. Given the wide range of opinion formation mathematical approaches, there are however no models of opinion dynamics with nonlocal pair interactions analytically solvable. In this paper we present a novel analytical framework developed to solve the master equations with non-local kernels. For this we used a simple model of opinion formation where individuals tend to get more similar after each interactions, no matter their opinion differences, giving rise to nonlinear differential master equation with non-local terms. Simulation results show an excellent agreement with results obtained by the theoretical estimation.

Can journalistic "false balance" distort public perception of consensus in expert opinion?

Science.gov (United States)

Koehler, Derek J

2016-03-01

Media critics have expressed concern that journalistic "false balance" can distort the public's perceptions of what ought to be noncontroversial subjects (e.g., climate change). I report several experiments testing the influence of presenting conflicting comments from 2 experts who disagree on an issue (balance condition) in addition to a complete count of the number of experts on a panel who favor either side. Compared with a control condition, who received only the complete count, participants in the balance condition gave ratings of the perceived agreement among the experts that did not discriminate as clearly between issues with and without strong expert consensus. Participants in the balance condition also perceived less agreement among the experts in general, and were less likely to think that there was enough agreement among experts on the high-consensus issues to guide government policy. Evidently, "false balance" can distort perceptions of expert opinion even when participants would seem to have all the information needed to correct for its influence. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

20 CFR 404.1527 - Evaluating opinion evidence.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... weight we will give to that opinion. (5) Specialization. We generally give more weight to the opinion of... statement that you are disabled. A statement by a medical source that you are “disabled” or “unable to work... other nonexamining sources who do not work for us. (iii) Administrative law judges may also ask for and...

Public opinion, public information and public implication in radioactive waste management in the European Union

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Taylor, D.; Webster, S.

2004-01-01

The nuclear industry in European must address the issue of the lack of Public acceptance. In particular, the public are very concerned about radioactive waste. It is clear that there is a need to better inform the public about radioactive waste and to consult them as part of the decision-making process concerning the management of these wastes. Existing and proposed new European legislation not only encourage this provision of information and involvement in the decision-making process, but actually require it. The paper examines Public opinion and European legislation in this area and reports on the latest research on societal issues in radioactive waste management carried out under the Community's Euratom Framework Programme. (Author)

The nucleic acid revolution continues - will forensic biology become forensic molecular biology?

Science.gov (United States)

Gunn, Peter; Walsh, Simon; Roux, Claude

2014-01-01

Molecular biology has evolved far beyond that which could have been predicted at the time DNA identity testing was established. Indeed we should now perhaps be referring to "forensic molecular biology." Aside from DNA's established role in identifying the "who" in crime investigations, other developments in medical and developmental molecular biology are now ripe for application to forensic challenges. The impact of DNA methylation and other post-fertilization DNA modifications, plus the emerging role of small RNAs in the control of gene expression, is re-writing our understanding of human biology. It is apparent that these emerging technologies will expand forensic molecular biology to allow for inferences about "when" a crime took place and "what" took place. However, just as the introduction of DNA identity testing engendered many challenges, so the expansion of molecular biology into these domains will raise again the issues of scientific validity, interpretation, probative value, and infringement of personal liberties. This Commentary ponders some of these emerging issues, and presents some ideas on how they will affect the conduct of forensic molecular biology in the foreseeable future.

French public opinion and nuclear energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Le Ngoc, B.

2016-01-01

Since the beginning of the year French media have dealt with a lot of negative information concerning nuclear industry: the dire financial situation of AREVA, the questioning about the state of the pressure vessel of the Flamanville EPR or the EDF and Chinese investments in the british Hinkley point project. All these issues have impacted the opinion of the French people about nuclear energy: more people are against nuclear energy but nuclear accident appears to be only the tenth source of concern after unemployment (first) and terrorism. The debate about the energetic transition that will lead to the decrease of the nuclear share in the production of electricity marks the end of a political consensus in favour of the atom. Solar energy is the favorite energy source, more than 55% of the population wish solar energy to achieve a bigger share in the 15 next years while only 32% wish the same thing for wind energy. For most people nuclear energy appears to be necessary to complement renewable energies for at least the next 15-30 years. (A.C.)

Understanding public opinion regarding transit in southeast Michigan.

Science.gov (United States)

2015-04-01

This report presents findings from a study on public opinion regarding transit in Southeast Michigan. The overall goals of this : study were to assess the nature of public opinion regarding regional transit and to understand its relation to socio-dem...

An evidential opinion dynamics model based on heterogeneous social influential power

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu, Xi; Mo, Hongming; Deng, Yong

2015-01-01

Highlights: •We use Dempster–Shafer evidence theory to handle the uncertainty of the communication. •An ice-breaking uncertainty elimination process in opinion evolution is demonstrated. •The influential power of individuals and the feedback mechanism are considered. •The power-law characteristic of the final influential power distribution is depicted. -- Abstract: This paper introduces an evidential opinion dynamics model combing Dempster–Shafer evidence theory to explore the opinion evolution. Our model is an improvement of the Continuous Opinions and Discrete Actions (CODA) model. The process of people updating their opinions is regarded as a decision making process. The unavoidable uncertainty of the opinion evolution is handled by Dempster–Shafer evidence theory. Thereby, a new opinion group, i.e.the neutrals, is introduced into the system. Simulations show the neutral group plays a significant part in the opinion evolution. An opinion ice-breaking process at the early stage of the opinion evolution is observed. It is found that the consensus is not always reached then clusters emerge instead, which depends on the proportions of supporters, neutrals and opponents. The individual’s influential power is taken into account. With the positive feedback mechanism of people’s influential power, the obtained results are in accordance with people’s daily cognition such as the Authority Effect and the Matthew Effect. The final influential power distribution of all individuals in our model presents power-law characteristic

Do gender and personality traits (BFI-10) influence self-perceived opinion leadership?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sudzina, Frantisek

2016-01-01

. This approach would require to identify opinion leaders. This paper investigates whether gender and personality traits can predict opinion leadership. Methodology/methods: The paper can be perceived as a replication in a loose sense of the term, since it replicates only a part of a previously published model...... and in one's own opinion (two variables). Generalized linear models (GLM) and Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient are used to analyze data. Scientific aim: The aim of the paper is to estimate impact of gender and personality traits on opinion leadership. Findings: Extraversion is the personality...... trait closest related to opinion leadership regardless whether it is self-perceived in the eyes of others or in one's own opinion. Opinion leadership in one's own opinion can be predicted even using neuroticism, and conscientiousness. The three traits are consistent with previous findings. Unlike...

Formal reporting of second-opinion CT interpretation: experience and reimbursement in the emergency department setting.

Science.gov (United States)

Jeffers, Adam B; Saghir, Amina; Camacho, Marc

2012-06-01

exams (61%), although only 18 were formal, signed radiology reports from the referring facility. Discrepancies between available outside reports and second-opinion interpretations were noted for 17 out of 112 exams. Need for reimaging was substantially curtailed, with only ten exams repeated within 24 h. A formal process for issuing second-opinion interpretations of cross-sectional exams performed at outside institutions is feasible in the emergency department setting. In the majority of cases, reimbursement for full professional fees can be obtained.

Teacher's opinions about learning continuum based on the student's level of competence and specific pedagogical materials on anatomical aspects

Science.gov (United States)

Astuti, Laili Dwi; Subali, Bambang

2017-08-01

This research deals with designing learning continuum for developing a curriculum. The objective of this study is to gather the opinion of public junior and high school teachers about Learning Continuum based on Student's Level of Competence and Specific Pedagogical Material on Anatomical Aspects. This is a survey research. The population of the research is natural science teachers at junior high school and biology teacher at senior high school in Yogyakarta Special Region. Data were collected using a questionnaire. Data were analyzed using a descriptive analysis technique. Based on the results of the survey, the teachers opinion are in accordance with the level of the students they teach. Junior high school teachers argued that anatomical aspects were taught in grade VII,VIII, IX and X on the level of C2 (understanding), the high school teacher argued that anatomical aspects were taught in grade VIII, X and XI on the level of C2 (understanding) and C3 (apply). While according to the opinions of primary school teachers about aspects of anatomy resulted from the research of Subali (2016), anatomy is mostly not taught at the elementary school level, only some of the materials that are taught in this school level. Therefore, the results of the survey can be inferred that the opinions of teachers is still based on the existing curriculum.

Trends in Public Opinion on Nuclear Energy in Slovenia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jencic, I.

2008-01-01

Slovenia is considering building a second nuclear power plant in the next 10-15 years, 'if no other, better option to generate electricity becomes feasible in this period.' It is quite obvious that this cautious wording is used in the official government plan because of sensitivity of public towards nuclear energy and potential political feedback. The Nuclear Training Centre was established in 1989 as an organizational unit of Jozef Stefan Institute. Its main mission was - and still is - the initial, theoretical training of NPP operators. Over the years, this mission was complemented by an increasingly intensive activity in public information. The core of this activity is the Information centre which was set up in the basement of the Training Centre in 1993 and which received the 100.000th visitor in May 2007. Public information of the Nuclear Training Centre is based of live lectures, visit of the permanent exhibition, demonstration laboratory, printed materials and web page. A selected group of visitors is also polled each year on the topic of nuclear energy. The poll is performed before the visit in order to receive unbiased opinion. We are aware that the results of these polls are not representative for general public in Slovenia, but to some extent they do reflect public opinion and, even more important, they can be used to monitor changes over the years and also to serve as a guide to information activities. This year we have also started to follow the reports on nuclear energy in the media: what are the topics that media report most, how do they report and in which types of media these reports appear. The paper will describe the results of public opinion polls in the last year and their comparison with the results of polls in the previous years, as well as their comparison with a recent Eurobarometer poll on nuclear safety. Furthermore, analysis of media coverage will be presented. All these data are considered in estimating the strong and the weak points of

42 CFR 411.382 - CMS's right to rescind advisory opinions.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 42 Public Health 2 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false CMS's right to rescind advisory opinions. 411.382... Relationships Between Physicians and Entities Furnishing Designated Health Services § 411.382 CMS's right to rescind advisory opinions. Any advice CMS gives in an opinion does not prejudice its right to reconsider...

Does the weather influence public opinion about climate change?

Science.gov (United States)

Donner, S. D.; McDaniel, J.

2010-12-01

Public opinion in North America about the science of anthropogenic climate change and the motivation for policy action has been variable over the past twenty years. The trends in public opinion over time have been attributed the general lack of pressing public concern about climate change to a range of political, economic and psychological factors. One driving force behind the variability in polling data from year to year may be the weather itself. The difference between what we “expect” - the climate - and what we “get” - the weather - can be a major source of confusion and obfuscation in the public discourse about climate change. For example, reaction to moderate global temperatures in 2007 and 2008 may have helped prompt the spread of a “global cooling” meme in the public and the news media. At the same time, a decrease in the belief in the science of climate change and the need for action has been noted in opinion polls. This study analyzes the relationship between public opinion about climate change and the weather in the U.S. since the mid-1980s using historical polling data from several major organizations (e.g. Gallup, Pew, Harris Interactive, ABC News), historical monthly air temperature (NCDC) and a survey of opinion articles from major U.S. newspapers (Washington Post, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Houston Chronicle, USA Today). Seasonal and annual monthly temperature anomalies for the northeastern U.S and the continental U.S are compared with available national opinion data for three general categories of questions: i) Is the climate warming?, ii) Is the observed warming due to human activity?, and iii) Are you concerned about climate change? The variability in temperature and public opinion over time is also compared with the variability in the fraction of opinion articles in the newspapers (n ~ 7000) which express general agreement or disagreement with IPCC Summary for Policymakers consensus statements on climate change (“most of

Peer-to-peer and mass communication effect on opinion shifts

Science.gov (United States)

Kindler, A.; Solomon, S.; Stauffer, D.

2013-02-01

Opinion dynamics is studied through a minimal Ising model with three main influences (fields): personal conservatism (power-law distributed), inter-personal and group pressure, and a global field incorporating peer-to-peer and mass communications, which is generated bottom-up from the faction supporting the new opinion. A rich phase diagram appears separating possible terminal stages of the opinion diffusion, characterizing failure phases by the features of the individuals who had changed their opinion. An exhaustive solution of the model is produced, allowing predictions to be made on the opinion’s assimilation in the society.

Opinion formation driven by PageRank node influence on directed networks

Science.gov (United States)

Eom, Young-Ho; Shepelyansky, Dima L.

2015-10-01

We study a two states opinion formation model driven by PageRank node influence and report an extensive numerical study on how PageRank affects collective opinion formations in large-scale empirical directed networks. In our model the opinion of a node can be updated by the sum of its neighbor nodes' opinions weighted by the node influence of the neighbor nodes at each step. We consider PageRank probability and its sublinear power as node influence measures and investigate evolution of opinion under various conditions. First, we observe that all networks reach steady state opinion after a certain relaxation time. This time scale is decreasing with the heterogeneity of node influence in the networks. Second, we find that our model shows consensus and non-consensus behavior in steady state depending on types of networks: Web graph, citation network of physics articles, and LiveJournal social network show non-consensus behavior while Wikipedia article network shows consensus behavior. Third, we find that a more heterogeneous influence distribution leads to a more uniform opinion state in the cases of Web graph, Wikipedia, and Livejournal. However, the opposite behavior is observed in the citation network. Finally we identify that a small number of influential nodes can impose their own opinion on significant fraction of other nodes in all considered networks. Our study shows that the effects of heterogeneity of node influence on opinion formation can be significant and suggests further investigations on the interplay between node influence and collective opinion in networks.

Public opinion and nuclear power decision-making

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Benson, B.

1991-01-01

This document discusses public opinion regarding nuclear power which is particularly difficult to tie down because of five important paradoxes that characterize it: it can be based on sound reason, but also on intense emotion; it is both national and local in perspective; at varying times it has seen nuclear power as both ''clean'' and ''dirty''; it believes nuclear power is both economic, and uneconomic; and nuclear power is perceived as having a fairly safe record, but being potentially unsafe. Equally as complex as the process by which public opinion is formed is the process by which it is converted into public policy. The American political system has numerous checks and balances designed to moderate the power of public opinion. A complex series of legislative, judicial, and executive branch hurdles must be cleared before any idea, however popular, can become day-to-day operating reality in government. As a result, major changes in policy or programs are difficult, and we may expect that nuclear power will be no different; radical change in one direction or the other is unlikely. Nevertheless, carefully focused programs could achieve modest progress, and carefully designed public opinion surveys could support such programs

Abbott Opinions #1-5.

Science.gov (United States)

Education Law Center, Inc., Newark, NJ.

This document contains the following "Abbott Opinions": (1) "Early Childhood Education"; (2) "Adequate School Facilities"; (3) "Supplemental Programs and Whole School Reform in Elementary Schools"; (4) "Supplemental Programs in Middle and High Schools"; and (5) "Planning Programs and Budgets…

The Fukushima Accident and the Public Opinion in Slovenia

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Jencic, I.

2012-01-01

Nuclear Training Center (ICJT) at the Jozef Stefan Institute is actively involved also in public information of nuclear issues in Slovenia. After the accident in Fukushima ICJT was one of the main sources of technical information and explanation for the journalists. Organized groups, mainly schoolchildren, traditionally come to ICJT, where they listen to a live lecture and visit the permanent exhibition on nuclear energy. Each year in spring, around 1000 of visitors are polled regarding their knowledge and attitude towards nuclear energy. As the visitors of ICJT are not a representative sample of general population, the results of the poll can not be taken absolutely, but they are valuable when compared to previous years' results - to monitor trends in the (younger) public. In the year 2011, the poll was conducted one month after the accident in Fukushima. ICJT is also analysing media reports by following articles in all types of media: TV, radio, press and web. The first two months after the Fukushima accident the frequency of reports increased drastically and then slowly faded away to reach pre-accident level in about 6 months. Naturally there were a lot of concerned reports, some of them also very negative, but given the circumstances and compared with some other countries, e.g. Austria or Germany, the reporting was relatively objective. The paper will analyze the trends in public opinion in Slovenia based on direct contacts with journalists, opinion polls and media analyses.(author).

Opinion formation on multiplex scale-free networks

Science.gov (United States)

Nguyen, Vu Xuan; Xiao, Gaoxi; Xu, Xin-Jian; Li, Guoqi; Wang, Zhen

2018-01-01

Most individuals, if not all, live in various social networks. The formation of opinion systems is an outcome of social interactions and information propagation occurring in such networks. We study the opinion formation with a new rule of pairwise interactions in the novel version of the well-known Deffuant model on multiplex networks composed of two layers, each of which is a scale-free network. It is found that in a duplex network composed of two identical layers, the presence of the multiplexity helps either diminish or enhance opinion diversity depending on the relative magnitudes of tolerance ranges characterizing the degree of openness/tolerance on both layers: there is a steady separation between different regions of tolerance range values on two network layers where multiplexity plays two different roles, respectively. Additionally, the two critical tolerance ranges follow a one-sum rule; that is, each of the layers reaches a complete consensus only if the sum of the tolerance ranges on the two layers is greater than a constant approximately equaling 1, the double of the critical bound on a corresponding isolated network. A further investigation of the coupling between constituent layers quantified by a link overlap parameter reveals that as the layers are loosely coupled, the two opinion systems co-evolve independently, but when the inter-layer coupling is sufficiently strong, a monotonic behavior is observed: an increase in the tolerance range of a layer causes a decline in the opinion diversity on the other layer regardless of the magnitudes of tolerance ranges associated with the layers in question.

Bridging Water Issue Knowledge Gaps between the General Public and Opinion Leaders

Science.gov (United States)

Lamm, Kevan W.; Lamm, Alexa J.; Carter, Hannah S.

2015-01-01

Global conflicts have rapidly made water the most contentious issue in the world today. Considering water drives health, industry, recreation, and the agricultural food system it is no surprise that it has become such a hot topic. As a result, the general public has an increased interest in water-focused policy; policy that can have a large impact…

A study on effects of cash flow patterns and auditors’ opinions in predicting financial distress

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fatemeh Namvar

2013-07-01

Full Text Available Bankruptcy has been one of the most important issues among investors in stock market and there are literally different techniques for predicting bankruptcy. In this paper, we study on effects of cash flow patterns and auditors’ opinions in predicting financial distress on some 80 selected firms traded on Tehran Stock Exchange over the period 2005-2011. In this study, the combination of cash flow patterns represent firm’s resource allocations and operational capabilities interacted with their strategy choices. In additions, predictions about each individual cash flow components, operational, investment, financial, are derived from economic theory, which forms a basis for the life proxy. We use cash flow patterns in the decline stage and compare the results with auditors’ opinions. The results indicate that cash flow patterns could predict financial distress companies in Iran. In addition, the effective cash flow patterns in predicting financial distress is more than auditors’ feedbacks.

EFSA Panel on Biological Hazards (BIOHAZ); Scientific Opinion on public health risks represented by certain composite products containing food of animal origin

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hald, Tine

products requires information on their composition, processing and further handling, which can largely differ for foods belonging to the same category. Further conditions may influence the risk and should be verified, i.e. hygienic conditions during preparation of the composite products......This Opinion reviews the factors that affect microbial survival and growth in composite products, and in foods in general. It concludes that the main factors to be considered are: water activity, pH, temperature and duration of storage, processing, and intensity and duration of other non......-thermal physical processes applied. Prevalence and concentration of the pathogens in food are important to determine the risk for consumers. The opinion presents a review of the quantitative microbiology models and databases that can be used to provide quantitative estimations of the impact of the above factors...

Newspaper coverage of water issues in Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

Hurlimann, Anna; Dolnicar, Sara

2012-12-01

The media has been found to have an impact on public debate, public opinion, and public policy agendas. Public debate, and public opinion about water conservation and water supply management projects matter because they can influence specific outcomes. For example, public opinion can potentially lead to positive behaviour, like increased water conservation, or potentially negative behaviours such as public opposition to developments such as dams or water recycling plants, which may be necessary under changing climatic conditions. It is therefore critical to understand how the media reports on water-related topics. Results from a content analysis of 1253 newspaper articles published in Australia in 2008 indicate that water-related reports are characterised by lack of inclusion of views held by various stakeholders, a low level of support of statements with scientific evidence, a low level of impartiality in the sense of reporting on opposing views and a relatively high level of hedging, meaning that the author signals that there is some uncertainly about the reported information. In sum these tendencies could theoretically culminate to work against public engagement in water issues and undermine the public's understanding of and confidence in water management measures. Proactive measures of media management are recommended. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Effect of users' opinion evolution on information diffusion in online social networks

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Hengmin; Kong, Yuehan; Wei, Jing; Ma, Jing

2018-02-01

The process of topic propagation always interweaves information diffusion and opinion evolution, but most previous works studied the models of information diffusion and opinion evolution separately, and seldom focused on their interaction of each other. To shed light on the effect of users' opinion evolution on information diffusion in online social networks, we proposed a model which incorporates opinion evolution into the process of topic propagation. Several real topics propagating on Sina Microblog were collected to analyze individuals' propagation intentions, and different propagation intentions were considered in the model. The topic propagation was simulated to explore the impact of different opinion distributions and intervention with opposite opinion on information diffusion. Results show that the topic with one-sided opinions can spread faster and more widely, and intervention with opposite opinion is an effective measure to guide the topic propagation. The earlier to intervene, the more effectively the topic propagation would be guided.

Opiniones y Actitudes de Hombres (Extranjeros frente a la Violencia de Género ((Foreign Men’s Opinions and Attitudes about Gender-based Violence

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bakea Alonso Fernández de Avilés

2015-06-01

Full Text Available This article presents the results of a research carried out by Cepaim Foundation in the context of the “Speak Out” project (Daphne III. This article explores the discourses of male migrants about equality between women and men and in particular the special issue of gendered violence. The aim is to elaborate a typology of discurses and to compare them with other researches. The hypothesis is that men’s opinions and attitudes on equality and gendered violence are perpetuating gender inequality. Some reflections are provided on why men express themselves in the way they do. Presentación de resultados de la investigación llevada a cabo en el marco del Proyecto Speak Out (Daphne III por la Fundación Cepaim. Se pretende indagar en los discursos de hombres extranjeros con relación a la igualdad entre mujeres y hombres en general, y a la violencia de género en particular realizándose una tipología de los mismos a la luz de clasificaciones de otras investigaciones recientes. La hipótesis de partida es que persisten opiniones y actitudes en el sexo masculino que estarían perpetuando la desigualdad de género. Se aportan reflexiones para tratar de explicar por qué los hombres entrevistados se expresan en la dirección en la que lo hacen. DOWNLOAD THIS PAPER FROM SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2610884

The Distribution of Climate Change Public Opinion in Canada.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Matto Mildenberger

Full Text Available While climate scientists have developed high resolution data sets on the distribution of climate risks, we still lack comparable data on the local distribution of public climate change opinions. This paper provides the first effort to estimate local climate and energy opinion variability outside the United States. Using a multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP approach, we estimate opinion in federal electoral districts and provinces. We demonstrate that a majority of the Canadian public consistently believes that climate change is happening. Belief in climate change's causes varies geographically, with more people attributing it to human activity in urban as opposed to rural areas. Most prominently, we find majority support for carbon cap and trade policy in every province and district. By contrast, support for carbon taxation is more heterogeneous. Compared to the distribution of US climate opinions, Canadians believe climate change is happening at higher levels. This new opinion data set will support climate policy analysis and climate policy decision making at national, provincial and local levels.

The Distribution of Climate Change Public Opinion in Canada.

Science.gov (United States)

Mildenberger, Matto; Howe, Peter; Lachapelle, Erick; Stokes, Leah; Marlon, Jennifer; Gravelle, Timothy

2016-01-01

While climate scientists have developed high resolution data sets on the distribution of climate risks, we still lack comparable data on the local distribution of public climate change opinions. This paper provides the first effort to estimate local climate and energy opinion variability outside the United States. Using a multi-level regression and post-stratification (MRP) approach, we estimate opinion in federal electoral districts and provinces. We demonstrate that a majority of the Canadian public consistently believes that climate change is happening. Belief in climate change's causes varies geographically, with more people attributing it to human activity in urban as opposed to rural areas. Most prominently, we find majority support for carbon cap and trade policy in every province and district. By contrast, support for carbon taxation is more heterogeneous. Compared to the distribution of US climate opinions, Canadians believe climate change is happening at higher levels. This new opinion data set will support climate policy analysis and climate policy decision making at national, provincial and local levels.

Forming of political opinion and decision

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Urban, K.

1980-01-01

Taking the SNR-300 reactor in Kalkar as an example, the process of forming of political opinion and decision is reconstructed in order to get a picture of typical consensus- and conflict patterns in the discussion of safety problems. On this basis, it should be possible to derive a freedom of action for the political and administrative managing of safety matters by means of feed back with social groups. As a crucial point the aspects concerning the steps of the forming of political opinion and decision are examined. (DG) [de

Biosimilars--global issues, national solutions.

Science.gov (United States)

Knezevic, Ivana; Griffiths, Elwyn

2011-09-01

Biotechnology derived medicinal products are presently the best characterized biologicals with considerable production and clinical experience, and have revolutionized the treatment of some of the most difficult-to-treat diseases, prolonging and improving the quality of life and patient care. They are also currently one of the fastest growing segments of the pharmaceutical industry market. The critical challenge that the biopharmaceutical industry is facing is the expiry of patents for the first generation of biopharmaceuticals, mainly recombinant DNA derived products, such as interferons, growth hormone and erythropoetin. The question that immediately arose was how should such copies of the originator products be licensed, bearing in mind that they are highly complex biological molecules produced by equally complex biological production processes with their inherent problem of biological variability. Copying biologicals is much more complex than copying small molecules and the critical issue was how to handle the licensing of products if relying in part on data from an innovator product. Since 2004 there has been considerable international consultation on how to deal with biosimilars and biological copy products. This has led to a better understanding of the challenges in the regulatory evaluation of the quality, safety and efficacy of "biosimilars", to the exchange of information between regulators, as well as to the identification of key issues. The aim of this article is to provide a brief overview of the scientific and regulatory challenges faced in developing and evaluating similar biotherapeutic products for global use. It is intended as an introduction to the series of articles in this special issue of Biologicals devoted to similar biotherapeutic products. Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Do Others’ Opinion Matter?

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Liu, Fei; Xiao, Bo Sophia; Lim, Eric T. K.

2016-01-01

when experiencing dissonance in e-WOM, male consumers value opinionated review over numerical rating and vice versa for their female counterparts. The results of our field survey on a custom developed website with 115 college students empirically validated our hypothesized relationships and also...

MindDigger: Feature Identification and Opinion Association for Chinese Movie Reviews

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Lili; Li, Chunping

In this paper, we present a prototype system called MindDigger, which can be used to analyze the opinions in Chinese movie reviews. Different from previous research that employed techniques on product reviews, we focus on Chinese movie reviews, in which opinions are expressed in subtle and varied ways. The system designed in this work aims to extract the opinion expressions and assign them to the corresponding features. The core tasks include feature and opinion extraction, and feature-opinion association. To deal with Chinese effectively, several novel approaches based on syntactic analysis are proposed in this paper. Running results show the performance is satisfactory.

Opinion Spreading with Mobility on Scale-Free Networks

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Qiang, Guo; Xing-Wen, Chen; Jian-Guo, Liu; Bing-Hong, Wang; Tao, Zhou; Yu-Hua, Yao

2008-01-01

A continuum opinion dynamic model is presented based on two rules. The first one considers the mobilities of the individuals, the second one supposes that the individuals update their opinions independently. The results of the model indicate that the bounded confidence in c , separating consensus and incoherent states, of a scale-free network is much smaller than the one of a lattice. If the system can reach the consensus state, the sum of all individuals' opinion change O c (t) quickly decreases in an exponential form, while if it reaches the incoherent state finally O c (t) decreases slowly and has the punctuated equilibrium characteristic

Zealotry effects on opinion dynamics in the adaptive voter model

Science.gov (United States)

Klamser, Pascal P.; Wiedermann, Marc; Donges, Jonathan F.; Donner, Reik V.

2017-11-01

The adaptive voter model has been widely studied as a conceptual model for opinion formation processes on time-evolving social networks. Past studies on the effect of zealots, i.e., nodes aiming to spread their fixed opinion throughout the system, only considered the voter model on a static network. Here we extend the study of zealotry to the case of an adaptive network topology co-evolving with the state of the nodes and investigate opinion spreading induced by zealots depending on their initial density and connectedness. Numerical simulations reveal that below the fragmentation threshold a low density of zealots is sufficient to spread their opinion to the whole network. Beyond the transition point, zealots must exhibit an increased degree as compared to ordinary nodes for an efficient spreading of their opinion. We verify the numerical findings using a mean-field approximation of the model yielding a low-dimensional set of coupled ordinary differential equations. Our results imply that the spreading of the zealots' opinion in the adaptive voter model is strongly dependent on the link rewiring probability and the average degree of normal nodes in comparison with that of the zealots. In order to avoid a complete dominance of the zealots' opinion, there are two possible strategies for the remaining nodes: adjusting the probability of rewiring and/or the number of connections with other nodes, respectively.

Diversity Issues in the Army as Perceived by Army Students at the United States Army War College

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Webster, Cecil

1997-01-01

.... This flag issue, as well as other class discussions on social and domestic programs, highlighted significant differences of opinion between Blacks and Whites on equal opportunity, affirmative action...

From crucial issue to additional question. A study of the political debate about nuclear waste in Sweden 1976-2009

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Nord, Lars; Stur, Elisabeth

2010-11-01

The overall purpose of this paper is to investigate how the premises for the political decision processes in the issue of final disposal of the Swedish nuclear waste are affected by changes in the public opinion climate and global events. The paper therefore focuses on questions concerning how the national political debate leading up to decisions interacts with the media debate, and the public opinion dynamic that arises when the two debates relate to each other. Particular interest is devoted to the arguments and standpoints that occur in politics and media and how they refer to the prevailing public opinion situation and to conditions in the surrounding world of a political, legal, economic, ecological and technological nature. An analysis of the arenas and actors involved in the debates ought to provide valuable knowledge regarding how the political agenda has been formed at different points in time. The following questions are of central interest to the study: - What characterizes the parliamentary and the party political debate in the nuclear waste issue, and in what way have actors, standpoints and arguments changed over time? - What characterizes opinion formation and news reporting in the media in the nuclear waste issue and in what way have actors, standpoints and arguments changed over time? The course of the debate at four different times and in connection with four parliamentary elections during the period 1976-2009 is analyzed in the study. The subject of the analysis includes the four parliamentary parties the Centre Party, the Liberal Party, the Moderates and the Social Democrats. These four parties have been chosen because they have been represented in the Swedish Parliament during the entire period studied and are therefore reasonable to compare. The study has mainly been conducted as a qualitative textual analysis of public print, party documents and media content. The qualitative text analysis is complemented to some extent by other existing

Biology as an Integrating Natural Science Domain

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 13; Issue 3. Biology as an Integrating Natural Science Domain: A Proposal for BSc (Hons) in Integrated Biology. Kambadur Muralidhar. Classroom Volume 13 Issue 3 March 2008 pp 272-276 ...

USSR Space Life Sciences Digest, issue 16

Science.gov (United States)

Hooke, Lydia Razran (Editor); Teeter, Ronald (Editor); Siegel, Bette (Editor); Donaldson, P. Lynn (Editor); Leveton, Lauren B. (Editor); Rowe, Joseph (Editor)

1988-01-01

This is the sixteenth issue of NASA's USSR Life Sciences Digest. It contains abstracts of 57 papers published in Russian language periodicals or presented at conferences and of 2 new Soviet monographs. Selected abstracts are illustrated with figures and tables from the original. An additional feature is the review of a book concerned with metabolic response to the stress of space flight. The abstracts included in this issue are relevant to 33 areas of space biology and medicine. These areas are: adaptation, biological rhythms, bionics, biospherics, body fluids, botany, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, developmental biology, endocrinology, enzymology, exobiology, gastrointestinal system, genetics, gravitational biology, habitability and environmental effects, hematology, human performance, immunology, life support systems, man-machine systems, mathematical modeling, metabolism, microbiology, musculoskeletal system, neurophysiology, nutrition, operational medicine, perception, personnel selection, psychology, radiobiology, reproductive biology, and space biology.

USSR Space Life Sciences Digest, Issue 18

Science.gov (United States)

Hooke, Lydia Razran (Editor); Donaldson, P. Lynn (Editor); Teeter, Ronald (Editor); Garshnek, Victoria (Editor); Rowe, Joseph (Editor)

1988-01-01

This is the 18th issue of NASA's USSR Life Sciences Digest. It contains abstracts of 50 papers published in Russian language periodicals or presented at conferences and of 8 new Soviet monographs. Selected abstracts are illustrated with figures and tables from the original. A review of a recent Aviation Medicine Handbook is also included. The abstracts in this issue have been identified as relevant to 37 areas of space biology and medicine. These areas are: adaptation, aviation medicine, biological rhythms, biospherics, body fluids, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, cytology, developmental biology, endocrinology, enzymology, equipment and instrumentation, exobiology, gastrointestinal system, genetics, gravitational biology, group dynamics, habitability and environmental effects, hematology, human performance, immunology, life support systems, man-machine systems, mathematical modeling, metabolism, microbiology, musculoskeletal system, neurophysiology, nutrition, operational medicine, perception, personnel selection, psychology, radiobiology, reproductive biology, space biology and medicine, and space industrialization.

SOME ISSUES OF DIAGNOSTICS IN IMMUNE PATHOLOGY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

I. A. Tousankina

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Present lecture contains an author's opinion concerning diagnostic issues in immunopathology, including primary and secondary immune deficiencies, immune-dependent states that are based on immunopathological syndromes. Original formulations are suggested for some key categories of clinical immunology, physical, instrumental and laboratory diagnostics of immune deficiencies and immune-dependent diseases. The results of original long-term observations, as well as data on Sverdlovsk Regional Register of primary immune deficiencies are presented in the work.

Impact of gender and personality traits (BFI-10) on opinion leadership

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sudzina, Frantisek; Pavlicek, Antonin

2017-01-01

The paper studies the influence of gender and personality traits on opinion leadership. It tries to partially replicate the study about effect of Big Five Inventory (BFI) personality traits on domain-specific opinion leadership mediated through objective knowledge and generalized opinion leadership...

Situation Concerning Public Information about and Involvement in the Decision-Making Processes in the Nuclear Sector. Public Opinion Review

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Prades, A.; Sala, R.; Lopez, M.

2006-01-01

This report summarizes the CIEMAT's contribution to the study S ituation concerning Public Information about and Involvement in the Decision-Making Processes in the Nuclear Sector , contract number TREN/ 04/NUC/ S07.39556 between the European Commission and Mutadis Consultants. The research was composed by Mutadis Consultants and CEPN (Nuclear Protection Evaluation Centre) (France), University of Aberdeen (UK) and CIEMAT (Spain). The objective of the project was to build a detailed overview of the EU situation regarding information and participation practices in the nuclear domain, provide an elaborated assessment, and to produce reporting and recommendations in the field. CIEMAT contribution' focused on the review of public opinion polis. Thus, Eurobarometers Standard Surveys (EBs) were analysed to report about the European citizens' public opinion regarding public Information and participation in the nuclear field. Additionally, the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), and some additional national polis were analysed. In terms of the EU public opinion, the follow up of the public information and participation domains receiving as much attention as necessary. Extremely few questions dealing with the subject were identified in the Eurobarometers, the national polis and the ISSP (International Social Survey Program) surveys reviewed in this study. An unambiguous illustration of this lack of attention is the fact that no questions dealing with public participation issues emerged in the n uclear EBs u ntil 1998. Even though, Eurobarometers (EBs) still provide an invaluable source of information on the topics we are interested on at the EU allowing longitudinal descriptions (trend analysis) of some key issues in our area of interest. (Author) 11 refs

42 CFR 1008.31 - OIG fees for the cost of advisory opinions.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 42 Public Health 5 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false OIG fees for the cost of advisory opinions. 1008.31... SERVICES OIG AUTHORITIES ADVISORY OPINIONS BY THE OIG Advisory Opinion Fees § 1008.31 OIG fees for the cost of advisory opinions. (a) Responsibility for fees. The requestor is responsible for paying a fee...

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND OPINION SURVEY UPON DICTATORSHIP AS A PEDAGOGICAL STRATEGY OF THE TEACHING OF HISTORY.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Vitória A. da Fonseca

2016-07-01

Full Text Available This paper presents a practice of teaching, whose purpose was to make students of high school capable of understanding the issues upon the dictatorship as a theme in the teaching of history. Considering the importance of practice as a tool which makes up a learning path, the activity has involved debate, survey and statistical analysis. It is worth highlighting the engagement of students in this activity and mapping of their opinions about the dictatorship.

PENGARUH MODIFIED AUDIT OPINION TERHADAP BORROWING CASH FLOW DAN INVESTMENT CASH FLOW

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Puspita Hardina Cahyaningrum

2013-06-01

Full Text Available This study examines and analyzes the economic consequences of modified audit opinion on borrowing cash flow and investment cash flow. Panel data model was used to observe the research. The sample of this study was 247 companies listed in Indonesia Stock Exchange for the years 2008-2010. The results show that modified audit opinion, except unqualified opinion with explanatory paragraph about going concern, did not affect borrowing cash flow because audit opinion was not the only consideration for granting credit by creditors. Companies receiving modified audit opinion were proven using more operating cash flow for investing shown in investment cash flow, especially companies receiving unqualified opinion with explanatory paragraph about going concern.

Financial "risk-sharing" or refund programs in assisted reproduction: an Ethics Committee opinion.

Science.gov (United States)

2016-10-01

Financial "risk-sharing" fee structures in assisted reproduction programs charge patients a higher initial fee but provide reduced fees for subsequent cycles and often a partial or complete refund if treatment fails. This opinion of the ASRM Ethics Committee analyzes the ethical issues raised by these fee structures, including patient selection criteria, conflicts of interest, success rate transparency, and patient informed consent. This document replaces the document of the same name, last published in 2013 (Fertil Steril 2013;100:334-6). Copyright © 2016 American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Tropical Freshwater Biology

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Tropical Freshwater Biology promotes the publication of scientific contributions in the field of freshwater biology in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. One issue is published annually but this number may be increased. Original research papers and short communications on any aspect of tropical freshwater ...

PROBLEMS OF RISK COMMUNICATION: NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS AND THEIR ROLE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PUBLIC OPINION ON ISSUES OF POPULATION’S RADIATION PROTECTION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. M. Biblin

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Events connected with the development and improvement of the nuclear industry are usually ambiguously perceived by the public. Mass-media and Internet play a leading role in the development of the public opinion on the most relevant public life issues, ecology and radiation safety in particular. Non-governmental organizations can impact the adequate perception of the issues of the radiation safety in the region by the public. Materials and methods: this study is focused on the primary evaluation of the data on the results of the sociological survey of three regions of the North-West of the Russian Federation: St-Petersburg, Leningrad and Murmansk regions; and the assessment of the websites of the non-governmental organizations, activities of the non-governmental organizations in the Internet and social networks. Results: the study indicated that non-governmental organizations actively use Internet and social networks in their practice. All the relevant non-governmental organizations have websites and social network accounts. Based on the number of the subscribers in social networks, it was possible to mark two non-governmental organizations: Greenpeace and World Wildlife Fund (WWF with more than 400000 subscribers each. VKontakte social network was assessed as the most effective mean of communicating with the public; a total number of subscribers on the groups of major non-governmental organizations exceeds 500000 persons. These two organizations are the most popular and trusted by the public. Greenpeace is known to 26% of respondents; WWF – to 11%. The population of the Murmansk region is more informed about the actions of the non-governmental organizations. 48% of the respondents in the Murmansk region named at least one non-governmental organization answering the question “What non-governmental organizations active in the field of radiation protection do you know?” with the corresponding 18% and 29% in St-Petersburg and Leningrad region

An opinion formation based binary optimization approach for feature selection

Science.gov (United States)

Hamedmoghadam, Homayoun; Jalili, Mahdi; Yu, Xinghuo

2018-02-01

This paper proposed a novel optimization method based on opinion formation in complex network systems. The proposed optimization technique mimics human-human interaction mechanism based on a mathematical model derived from social sciences. Our method encodes a subset of selected features to the opinion of an artificial agent and simulates the opinion formation process among a population of agents to solve the feature selection problem. The agents interact using an underlying interaction network structure and get into consensus in their opinions, while finding better solutions to the problem. A number of mechanisms are employed to avoid getting trapped in local minima. We compare the performance of the proposed method with a number of classical population-based optimization methods and a state-of-the-art opinion formation based method. Our experiments on a number of high dimensional datasets reveal outperformance of the proposed algorithm over others.

The effects of information and social conformity on opinion change.

Science.gov (United States)

Mallinson, Daniel J; Hatemi, Peter K

2018-01-01

Extant research shows that social pressures influence acts of political participation, such as turning out to vote. However, we know less about how conformity pressures affect one's deeply held political values and opinions. Using a discussion-based experiment, we untangle the unique and combined effects of information and social pressure on a political opinion that is highly salient, politically charged, and part of one's identity. We find that while information plays a role in changing a person's opinion, the social delivery of that information has the greatest effect. Thirty three percent of individuals in our treatment condition change their opinion due to the social delivery of information, while ten percent respond only to social pressure and ten percent respond only to information. Participants that change their opinion due to social pressure in our experiment are more conservative politically, conscientious, and neurotic than those that did not.

The effects of information and social conformity on opinion change

Science.gov (United States)

Hatemi, Peter K.

2018-01-01

Extant research shows that social pressures influence acts of political participation, such as turning out to vote. However, we know less about how conformity pressures affect one’s deeply held political values and opinions. Using a discussion-based experiment, we untangle the unique and combined effects of information and social pressure on a political opinion that is highly salient, politically charged, and part of one’s identity. We find that while information plays a role in changing a person’s opinion, the social delivery of that information has the greatest effect. Thirty three percent of individuals in our treatment condition change their opinion due to the social delivery of information, while ten percent respond only to social pressure and ten percent respond only to information. Participants that change their opinion due to social pressure in our experiment are more conservative politically, conscientious, and neurotic than those that did not. PMID:29718958

Some Issues of Biological Shape Modelling with Applications

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Larsen, Rasmus; Hilger, Klaus Baggesen; Skoglund, Karl

2003-01-01

This paper illustrates current research at Informatics and Mathematical Modelling at the Technical University of Denmark within biological shape modelling. We illustrate a series of generalizations to, modifications to, and applications of the elements of constructing models of shape or appearance...

Digest of Russian Space Life Sciences, issue 33

Science.gov (United States)

Stone, Lydia Razran (Editor); Teeter, Ronald (Editor); Rowe, Joseph (Editor)

1993-01-01

This is the thirty-third issue of NASA's USSR Space Life Sciences Digest. It contains abstracts of 55 papers published in Russian journals. The abstracts in this issue have been identified as relevant to the following areas of space biology and medicine: biological rhythms, body fluids, botany, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, developmental biology, endocrinology, equipment and instrumentation, gastrointestinal system, genetics, hematology, human performance, metabolism, microbiology, musculoskeletal system, neurophysiology, nutrition, operational medicine, psychology, radiobiology, and reproductive system.

Characteristics associated with requests by pathologists for second opinions on breast biopsies.

Science.gov (United States)

Geller, Berta M; Nelson, Heidi D; Weaver, Donald L; Frederick, Paul D; Allison, Kimberly H; Onega, Tracy; Carney, Patricia A; Tosteson, Anna N A; Elmore, Joann G

2017-11-01

Second opinions in pathology improve patient safety by reducing diagnostic errors, leading to more appropriate clinical treatment decisions. Little objective data are available regarding the factors triggering a request for second opinion despite second opinion consultations being part of the diagnostic system of pathology. Therefore we sought to assess breast biopsy cases and interpreting pathologists characteristics associated with second opinion requests. Collected pathologist surveys and their interpretations of 60 test set cases were used to explore the relationships between case characteristics, pathologist characteristics and case perceptions, and requests for second opinions. Data were evaluated by logistic regression and generalised estimating equations. 115 pathologists provided 6900 assessments; pathologists requested second opinions on 70% (4827/6900) of their assessments 36% (1731/4827) of these would not have been required by policy. All associations between case characteristics and requesting second opinions were statistically significant, including diagnostic category, breast density, biopsy type, and number of diagnoses noted per case. Exclusive of institutional policies, pathologists wanted second opinions most frequently for atypia (66%) and least frequently for invasive cancer (20%). Second opinion rates were higher when the pathologist had lower assessment confidence, in cases with higher perceived difficulty, and cases with borderline diagnoses. Pathologists request second opinions for challenging cases, particularly those with atypia, high breast density, core needle biopsies, or many co-existing diagnoses. Further studies should evaluate whether the case characteristics identified in this study could be used as clinical criteria to prompt system-level strategies for mandating second opinions. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

THE PRACTICE OF ECT IN INDIA : ISSUES RELATING YO THE ADMINISTRATION OF ECT

OpenAIRE

Agarwal, A.K.; Andrade, Chittaranjan; Reddy, M. Venkataswamy

1992-01-01

A questionnaire on ECT, tapping altitudes, opinions and usage, was mailed to all medical members of the Indian Psychiatric Society whose addresses were known; 263 (28.8%) responded. This paper, the first in a series that presents the results of the survey, provides demographic data on the respondents and covers issues relating to the administration of ECT. Specific issues discussed include the ECT personnel, location of the ECT facility, certain ECT prescription patterns, psychiatrist-patient...

Differing professional views or opinions: 1994 Special Review Panel

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1996-09-01

In July 1994, the Executive Director for Operations of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) appointed a Special Review Panel to assess the Differing Professional View or Opinion (DPV/DPO) process, including its effectiveness, how well it is understood by employees, and the organizational climate for having such views aired and properly decided. An additional area within this review was to address the effectiveness of the DPO procedures as they pertain to public access and confidentiality. Further, the Panel was charged with the review of the submittals completed since the last review to identify employees who made significant contributions to the agency or to the public health and safety but had not been adequately recognized for this contribution. The report presents the Special Review Panel's evaluation of the NRC's current process for dealing with Differing Professional Views or Opinions. Provided in this report are the results of an employee opinion survey on the process; highlights and suggestions from interviews with individuals who had submitted a Differing Professional View or Opinion, as well as with agency managers directly involved with the Differing Professional Views or Opinions process; and the Special Review Panel's recommendations for improving the DPV/DPO process

USSR Space Life Sciences Digest, issue 25

Science.gov (United States)

Hooke, Lydia Razran (Editor); Teeter, Ronald (Editor); Garshnek, Victoria (Editor); Rowe, Joseph (Editor)

1990-01-01

This is the twenty-fifth issue of NASA's Space Life Sciences Digest. It contains abstracts of 42 journal papers or book chapters published in Russian and of 3 Soviet monographs. Selected abstracts are illustrated with figures and tables from the original. The abstracts in this issue have been identified as relevant to 26 areas of space biology and medicine. These areas include: adaptation, body fluids, botany, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, developmental biology, endocrinology, enzymology, equipment and instrumentation, exobiology, gravitational biology, habitability and environmental effects, human performance, immunology, life support systems, man-machine systems, mathematical modeling, metabolism, microbiology, musculoskeletal system, neurophysiology, nutrition, operational medicine, psychology, radiobiology, reproductive system, and space biology and medicine.

OGC Precedent Opinion 2-2010

Data.gov (United States)

Department of Veterans Affairs — Osborn v. Nicholson 21 Vet. App. 223 (2007) - Effect on Existing General Counsel Opinions, Application to other Benefit Programs, and Applicability to Series HH U.S....

Lower Snake River Little Goose and Lower Granite Locks and Dams: Adult Fishway Systems Emergency Auxiliary Water Supply

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Wielick, Rolf

2000-01-01

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), Endangered Species Act, Biological Opinion issued March 2, 1995, require the US Army Corps of Engineers to develop an emergency auxiliary water supply (EAWS...

Nuclear power engineering: Public understanding and public opinion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kryshev, A.I.; Sazykina, T.G.

1998-01-01

Subjective and objective reasons for the formation of public opinion about nuclear power engineering of Russia were analyzed. Some methodological errors in work with the Russian public on the problems of nuclear energy and possible methods of their correction were discussed. The social groups of the general public, which are of greatest importance in forming the attitude towards nuclear power engineering were indicated. The conclusion was reached that opinion of the ordinary population is often indicative of real drawbacks in the work of specialists in the nuclear fuel cycle. Consequently, careful surveys of public opinion about the problems of the nuclear industry should be very useful in organizing research work properly and improving the radiation safety. (author)

European dental students' opinions on their local anaesthesia education

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Brand, H.S.; Tan, L.L.S.; van der Spek, S.J.; Baart, J.A.

2011-01-01

Objective: To investigate students’ opinion about theoretical and clinical training in local anaesthesia at different European dental schools. Materials and Methods: A questionnaire was designed to collect information about local anaesthesia teaching. Students’ opinion was quantified with five-point

The importance of opinion leaders in agricultural production among ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

The importance of opinion leaders in agricultural production among male and ... farmers do not have adequate access to extension services due to, amongst others, the ... In view of these problems, the role of opinion leaders is important and ...

Track leading to decision of 'framework for nuclear energy policy'. Reading the public attitude with public opinions (the first). Contents of a new plan (as of June 2005)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shimooka, Hiroshi

2006-01-01

The Government decides to respect the 'Framework for Nuclear Energy Policy', which was decided by the Atomic Energy Commission on October 11th, 2005, as a basic principle for the nuclear energy policy and promote research, development and utilization of nuclear science and engineering. The Planning Council asked public opinion and received 758 opinions from 393 citizens. The Council continued the deliberation taking these opinions and compiled a preliminary draft of the 'Framework for Nuclear Energy Policy'. Reading the public attitude with public opinions had been conducted by the author, which showed the necessity for the nation to communicate crucial issues such as the nation's role of nuclear program's implementation, reasons for further promotion of nuclear program and its impacts on environments as well as more preferable introduction of new energy or energy conservation in stead of nuclear power, more to the public. (T. Tanaka)

Key figures on the environment - Issue 2013

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2013-10-01

This publication proposes data, graphs, maps and tables illustrating through various parameters and indicators the status and the evolution of different aspects of the environment. It first addresses natural media and biodiversity: climate, greenhouse effect, air, waters, soils and biodiversity. The second part addresses the management and use of natural resources: space consumption, material consumption, water consumption, energy consumption, biological resource consumption, and wastes. The third part addresses the economy of the environment and the evolution of behaviours: public opinion, risks, economy, transports, and agriculture. It also proposes a comparative view between European countries

Comparison between the public opinion and the image of public opinion on nuclear power generation. From the viewpoint of risk communication

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsuda, Toshihiro

2003-01-01

One objective for risk communication is to improve the understanding of public values and concerns. This paper examined the perceptions of nuclear power plant engineers of an electric power company, about public values and concerns regarding nuclear power generation (image of public opinion), and compared them with actual public opinion. The image of public opinion was surveyed by questionnaire method. In the questionnaire, the subjects were asked to estimate the most preferred answer given to questions posed to the Japanese public. For some questions, subjects were asked to estimate the percentage of Japanese who selected a certain answer for a question or the distribution of the answers. The results showed: (1) Nuclear power plant engineers correctly recognized the existence of high anxiety in the public's mind concerning nuclear power generation. (2) Engineers were apt to underestimate the percentage of Japanese who think nuclear power generation is useful in our society. (3) The majority of Japanese assume that when nuclear power plant accidents occur radioactive leakage is so severe that it affects the health of inhabitants. However, the engineers were apt to estimate that the majority of Japanese think radioactive leakage is not so severe. (4) Engineers correctly recognized that the majority of Japanese think it is a realistic option to use the nuclear power generation. However, they incorrectly estimated that only 40% of Japanese think it is a realistic option to use the nuclear power generation when in fact 67% think so. These gaps between public opinion and the image of public opinion by the engineers were classified into two groups, one that stems from the cognitive bias when people estimate public opinion and one that is inherent in the engineers of nuclear power plants. (author)

Assessing the impact of Melendez-Diaz on the investigation and prosecution of biological weapons incidents.

Science.gov (United States)

Bahr, Elizabeth L; Katz, Rebecca

2009-12-01

In June 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court asserted in Melendez-Diaz v Massachusetts that the admission of a laboratory analyst's certificate to validate forensic evidence against a defendant violated the defendant's Sixth Amendment Confrontation Clause rights. The Court stated that if a prosecution wished to use forensic science evidence against a defendant, the plaintiff must ensure that an actual lab analyst could testify live before the court as to the nature of the laboratory certificate being presented against the defendant, in order to uphold a defendant's constitutional right to confront the adverse witnesses against him or her. The opinion itself, as well as dicta in both the majority and the dissenting opinions, has potential implications for the success of any future prosecutions of alleged biological weapons use involving microbial forensics. Not only does the Melendez-Diaz opinion create an added burden on laboratory investigators, but the case called into question the reliability of the use of forensic science in the courtroom. Analysts and policymakers should be aware of this ruling and any potential impact the Court may have on the ability to successfully prosecute a biological weapons use event.

On the empirical relevance of the transient in opinion models

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Banisch, Sven; Araujo, Tanya

2010-01-01

While the number and variety of models to explain opinion exchange dynamics is huge, attempts to justify the model results using empirical data are relatively rare. As linking to real data is essential for establishing model credibility, this Letter develops an empirical confirmation experiment by which an opinion model is related to real election data. The model is based on a representation of opinions as a vector of k bits. Individuals interact according to the principle that similarity leads to interaction and interaction leads to still more similarity. In the comparison to real data we concentrate on the transient opinion profiles that form during the dynamic process. An artificial election procedure is introduced which allows to relate transient opinion configurations to the electoral performance of candidates for which data are available. The election procedure based on the well-established principle of proximity voting is repeatedly performed during the transient period and remarkable statistical agreement with the empirical data is observed.

On the empirical relevance of the transient in opinion models

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Banisch, Sven, E-mail: sven.banisch@universecity.d [Mathematical Physics, Physics Department, Bielefeld University, 33501 Bielefeld (Germany); Institute for Complexity Science (ICC), 1249-078 Lisbon (Portugal); Araujo, Tanya, E-mail: tanya@iseg.utl.p [Research Unit on Complexity in Economics (UECE), ISEG, TULisbon, 1249-078 Lisbon (Portugal); Institute for Complexity Science (ICC), 1249-078 Lisbon (Portugal)

2010-07-12

While the number and variety of models to explain opinion exchange dynamics is huge, attempts to justify the model results using empirical data are relatively rare. As linking to real data is essential for establishing model credibility, this Letter develops an empirical confirmation experiment by which an opinion model is related to real election data. The model is based on a representation of opinions as a vector of k bits. Individuals interact according to the principle that similarity leads to interaction and interaction leads to still more similarity. In the comparison to real data we concentrate on the transient opinion profiles that form during the dynamic process. An artificial election procedure is introduced which allows to relate transient opinion configurations to the electoral performance of candidates for which data are available. The election procedure based on the well-established principle of proximity voting is repeatedly performed during the transient period and remarkable statistical agreement with the empirical data is observed.

Chaotic Modes in Scale Free Opinion Networks

Science.gov (United States)

Kusmartsev, Feo V.; Kürten, Karl E.

2010-12-01

In this paper, we investigate processes associated with formation of public opinion in varies directed random, scale free and small-world social networks. The important factor of the opinion formation is the existence of contrarians which were discovered by Granovetter in various social psychology experiments1,2,3 long ago and later introduced in sociophysics by Galam.4 When the density of contrarians increases the system behavior drastically changes at some critical value. At high density of contrarians the system can never arrive to a consensus state and periodically oscillates with different periods depending on specific structure of the network. At small density of the contrarians the behavior is manifold. It depends primary on the initial state of the system. If initially the majority of the population agrees with each other a state of stable majority may be easily reached. However when originally the population is divided in nearly equal parts consensus can never be reached. We model the emergence of collective decision making by considering N interacting agents, whose opinions are described by two state Ising spin variable associated with YES and NO. We show that the dynamical behaviors are very sensitive not only to the density of the contrarians but also to the network topology. We find that a phase of social chaos may arise in various dynamical processes of opinion formation in many realistic models. We compare the prediction of the theory with data describing the dynamics of the average opinion of the USA population collected on a day-by-day basis by varies media sources during the last six month before the final Obama-McCain election. The qualitative ouctome is in reasonable agreement with the prediction of our theory. In fact, the analyses of these data made within the paradigm of our theory indicates that even in this campaign there were chaotic elements where the public opinion migrated in an unpredictable chaotic way. The existence of such a phase

The relevance of security analyst opinions for investment decisions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gerritsen, D.F.

2014-01-01

Security analysts analyze information regarding publicly traded companies after which they publish their opinion regarding these companies’ stocks. In this dissertation the published opinions of two different types of analysts are analyzed. Technical analysts derive a recommendation to buy, hold, or

Women and the nuclear issue

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Locke, David

1989-01-01

From the opinion surveys it was concluded that women do have different attitudes towards nuclear power compared to men. Women are more likely to be suspicious of nuclear power, mention the problem areas and less likely to mention benefits. The reasons for this are not difficult to understand, with, for example, the media highlighting the dangers of nuclear power, in particular the hazards of radiation as it affects people, especially children. The majority of women associate nuclear power with weapons and radiation, though specific fears about cancer including leukaemia are not as strong as might be expected. The major issue is still the disposal of waste, though for a time after Chernobyl the major nuclear accident superseded this. Women tend to be more confused by the wide range of issues presented to them and the contradictory attitudes. In our experience about twice as many women as men admit to being a d on't know . Women are more concerned with people and the environment than men. Men are more inclined to be brought up from an early age to be machine minded and they tend as a result to be more sympathetic towards the use of technology in society. It is not necessarily true that women are more 'anti-nuclear' although this does come out in many opinion polls. I think that women react to the leading question as to whether they are 'in favour' or 'not' of nuclear power by responding negatively because of their confusion. We have asked similar questions in our own opinion surveys but have given the opportunity for the respondent to declare a positive attitude towards nuclear power 'with reservations'. If they are allowed to express their reservations they often come to the conclusion in an intuitive way that nuclear power will be needed in the next century to provide energy for their children when the oil and gas run out and the coal is used to substitute for the hydrocarbons. A 'necessary evil' as one person put it. In the main our recommendation is that although

Women and the nuclear issue

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Locke, David [UKAEA (United Kingdom)

1989-07-01

From the opinion surveys it was concluded that women do have different attitudes towards nuclear power compared to men. Women are more likely to be suspicious of nuclear power, mention the problem areas and less likely to mention benefits. The reasons for this are not difficult to understand, with, for example, the media highlighting the dangers of nuclear power, in particular the hazards of radiation as it affects people, especially children. The majority of women associate nuclear power with weapons and radiation, though specific fears about cancer including leukaemia are not as strong as might be expected. The major issue is still the disposal of waste, though for a time after Chernobyl the major nuclear accident superseded this. Women tend to be more confused by the wide range of issues presented to them and the contradictory attitudes. In our experience about twice as many women as men admit to being a ''don't know''. Women are more concerned with people and the environment than men. Men are more inclined to be brought up from an early age to be machine minded and they tend as a result to be more sympathetic towards the use of technology in society. It is not necessarily true that women are more 'anti-nuclear' although this does come out in many opinion polls. I think that women react to the leading question as to whether they are 'in favour' or 'not' of nuclear power by responding negatively because of their confusion. We have asked similar questions in our own opinion surveys but have given the opportunity for the respondent to declare a positive attitude towards nuclear power 'with reservations'. If they are allowed to express their reservations they often come to the conclusion in an intuitive way that nuclear power will be needed in the next century to provide energy for their children when the oil and gas run out and the coal is used to substitute for the hydrocarbons. A 'necessary evil' as one person put it. In the main our recommendation is that

Precepting the medical assistant practicum: expectations and rewards: an evaluation of preceptors' opinions.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Adam B; Fegan, Frank; Romence, Blase; Uhe, Kendra; Dionne, Barbara

2011-01-01

This study investigated the opinions of preceptors on select topics relevant to the benefits and rewards of precepting medical assisting (MA) students. A 35-item questionnaire was distributed to volunteer MA preceptors over the course of 1 year. Survey items prompted participants for information concerning background and previous experiences with MA students, as well as gathered opinions on the benefits, issues, and rewards of preceptorships. Of the preceptors who gave evidence of their credentials, 98.43% were either practicing certified medical assistants (CMA-AAMA) or nurses. Respectively, 80.85% of CMAs and 80.00% of nurses felt that students provided the office with extra help and placed no financial burden on the practice. Approximately 44% ranked free continuing medical education (CME) credits as the most important reward. Written responses identified thank-you notes as an important demonstration of service, acknowledgment, and appreciation. MA preceptors consider students a beneficial aspect of their practice because they lighten strenuous workloads and stimulate preceptors to remain current in their professional fields. Noncompensated MA preceptors value both extrinsic (e.g., free CME credits) and intrinsic rewards (e.g., feedback and thank-you cards) and suggested that intrinsic rewards were of greater value.

Breast Imaging Second Opinions Impact Surgical Management.

Science.gov (United States)

Spivey, Tara Lynn; Carlson, Kjirsten Ayn; Janssen, Imke; Witt, Thomas R; Jokich, Peter; Madrigrano, Andrea

2015-07-01

Breast surgeons often see women for second opinions for abnormalities found on breast imaging. For second opinions, these images are submitted for review and interpretation by dedicated breast imagers. This study evaluated the conformity of results among interpretation of imaging submitted from outside hospitals both from tertiary care centers, as well as community programs, in an attempt to evaluate the utility of this practice for the sake of clinical management and resource utilization. A retrospective chart review was conducted on all breast patients that submitted outside imaging films for the years 2011 to 2013 at Rush University Medical Center (RUMC). The radiologic diagnosis and each patient's proposed management plan was collected and evaluated for concordance between the outside institutions and RUMC. A total of 380 patients who presented for second opinions with an interpretation of outside exams were evaluated. In 47.4 % [95 % confidence interval (CI) 42.4-52.4] of cases there was distinct variance in radiologic impression. For 53.5 % (95 % CI 48.4-58.5) of patients, there was a change in recommended management plan, which included recommendations for either additional imaging or need for additional biopsy. In total, this changed the overall surgical management in 27.1 % (95 % CI 22.8-31.9) of cases. In six patients, the reinterpretation of outside imaging detected new malignancies not previously identified. Overall, 83.7 % (95 % CI 79.7-87.1) of patients who submitted imaging from outside institutions chose to complete the remainder of their treatment at RUMC. The practice of second opinion review changed overall definitive management at our specialty center in more than one in four cases. In addition, the review identified six previously unrecognized malignancies. Given this data, the practice of second opinions and interpretation of outside exams should continue despite the additional resources required.

Public opinion on age-related degradation in nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Matsuda, Toshihiro

2005-01-01

The first objective of this study is to shed light on the public opinion on age-related degradation at nuclear power plants, namely, on how the general public recognizes or views age-related degradation, which is a safety-related issue and one of the factors contributing to accidents and failures which occur at nuclear power plants. The second objective is to look into the impacts of the accident at Mihama Unit 3, which was caused by a failure to check on the piping wall thickness, on the public opinion on age-related degradation. The first survey was conducted in August 2003, followed by the second survey in October 2004, two months after the accident. The surveys found that the age-related degradation is being perceived by people as one of the risk factors that affect the safety of nuclear power plants. The characteristics of the citizens' perceptions toward age-related degradation in the form of piping cracks are that: (a) many respondents feel uneasy but a relatively few people consider that nuclear operators are technologically capable of coping with this problem; (b) many people believe that radioactivity may be released; and (c) numerous respondents consider that signs of cracks must be thoroughly detected through inspections, while on the other hand, a large percentage of the respondents attribute the accident to improper inspections/maintenance. Based on these results, the government and nuclear operators are expected to give most illuminating explanation on the current situation of and remedial measures against age-related degradation at nuclear power plants. As for the effects of the Mihama-3 accident on the public opinion on age-related degradation, it was revealed that the accident has not so significantly affected the general view for the safety of nuclear power plants, but has newly or strongly aroused people's consciousness of two of the risk factors - improper inspections/maintenance and the age-related degradation of piping. (author)

Standards, Data Exchange and Intellectual Property Rights in Systems Biology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

van Zimmeren, Esther; Rutz, Berthold; Minssen, Timo

2016-01-01

” of scientists. In 2015, Biotechnology Journal published a report from an expert meeting on “Synthetic Biology & Intellectual Property Rights” organized by the Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation sponsored by the European Research Area Network (ERA-Net) in Synthetic Biology (ERASynBio), in which...... we provided a number of recommendations for a variety of stakeholders. The current article offers some deeper reflections about the interface between IPRs, standards and data exchange in Systems Biology resulting from an Expert Meeting funded by another ERA-Net, ERASysAPP. The meeting brought...... together experts and stakeholders (e.g. scientists, company representatives, officials from public funding organizations) in systems biology (SysBio) from different countries.  Despite the different profiles of the stakeholders at the meeting and the variety of interests, many concerns and opinions were...

Financial and Non Financial Factors on Going-Concern Opinion

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Junaidi Junaidi

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Company's ability to survive is a fundamental uncertainty faced in the preparation and auditing financial statements. Provision of going-concern opinion on these financial statements the company is still being debated. Public Accountant Professional Standards in section 341 states that the auditor is responsible for evaluating whether there is a major doubt on the ability of entities in the continued survival of the appropriate period of time, not more than one year from the date of the financial statements being audited. This research analyzed the financial and non financial factors that affected the provision of going-concern opinion. This research used samples of 63 companies with 315 observations, taken from years 2005-2009. The logistic regression analysis showed that the company's financial condition variables, mitigating evidence, and disclosure significantly influence the acceptance of going-concern opinion. Enterprise risk was not significant at propensity of going-concern opinion.

Dynamics of bounded confidence opinion in heterogeneous social networks: Concord against partial antagonism

Science.gov (United States)

Kurmyshev, Evguenii; Juárez, Héctor A.; González-Silva, Ricardo A.

2011-08-01

Bounded confidence models of opinion dynamics in social networks have been actively studied in recent years, in particular, opinion formation and extremism propagation along with other aspects of social dynamics. In this work, after an analysis of limitations of the Deffuant-Weisbuch (DW) bounded confidence, relative agreement model, we propose the mixed model that takes into account two psychological types of individuals. Concord agents (C-agents) are friendly people; they interact in a way that their opinions always get closer. Agents of the other psychological type show partial antagonism in their interaction (PA-agents). Opinion dynamics in heterogeneous social groups, consisting of agents of the two types, was studied on different social networks: Erdös-Rényi random graphs, small-world networks and complete graphs. Limit cases of the mixed model, pure C- and PA-societies, were also studied. We found that group opinion formation is, qualitatively, almost independent of the topology of networks used in this work. Opinion fragmentation, polarization and consensus are observed in the mixed model at different proportions of PA- and C-agents, depending on the value of initial opinion tolerance of agents. As for the opinion formation and arising of “dissidents”, the opinion dynamics of the C-agents society was found to be similar to that of the DW model, except for the rate of opinion convergence. Nevertheless, mixed societies showed dynamics and bifurcation patterns notably different to those of the DW model. The influence of biased initial conditions over opinion formation in heterogeneous social groups was also studied versus the initial value of opinion uncertainty, varying the proportion of the PA- to C-agents. Bifurcation diagrams showed an impressive evolution of collective opinion, in particular, radical changes of left to right consensus or vice versa at an opinion uncertainty value equal to 0.7 in the model with the PA/C mixture of population near 50/50.

USSR Space Life Sciences Digest, issue 14

Science.gov (United States)

Hooke, Lydia Razran; Teeter, Ronald; Radtke, Mike; Rowe, Joseph

1988-01-01

This is the fourteenth issue of NASA's USSR Space Life Sciences Digest. It contains abstracts of 32 papers recently published in Russian language periodicals and bound collections and of three new Soviet monographs. Selected abstracts are illustrated with figures and tables from the original. Also included is a review of a recent Soviet conference on Space Biology and Aerospace Medicine. Current Soviet life sciences titles available in English are cited. The materials included in this issue have been identified as relevant to the following areas of aerospace medicine and space biology: adaptation, biological rhythms, body fluids, botany, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, developmental biology, endocrinology, enzymology, equipment and instrumentation, gastrointestinal systems, habitability and environment effects, human performance, immunology, life support systems, mathematical modeling, metabolism, musculoskeletal system, neurophysiology, nutrition, operational medicine, perception, personnel selection, psychology, radiobiology, and space biology and medicine.

Illicit drug policy in Spain: the opinion of health and legal professionals.

Science.gov (United States)

Rossi, Paola; Blay, Ester; Costela, Víctor; Torrens, Marta

2018-01-01

The high frequency of criminal behaviour and related legal problems associated with substance addiction generates a field of interaction between legal and healthcare systems. This study was developed as a multicentre project to investigate the opinions of professionals from legal and healthcare systems about policies on illegal drugs and their implementation in practice. A multiple choice questionnaire designed ad hoc was administered to a sample of 230 professionals from legal and healthcare fields working in the cities of Barcelona, Granada and Bilbao. The questionnaire included sociodemographic and work-related data, and assessed interviewees' information about the response to drug-related crime and opinion on drug policy issues. This article presents the results from Spain. The main results showed that both groups of professionals value alternative measures to imprisonment (AMI) as useful tools to prevent offenses related to drug use and claim a broader application of AMI. They also evaluated positively the regulations on cannabis use in effect. Though the attitude of healthcare professionals towards the application of AMI is more permissive, both groups favour restricting these sanctions in cases of recidivism. Both groups show mild satisfaction with the current addiction healthcare system and express dissatisfaction with actual drug policies in Spain.

The Asilomar Survey: Stakeholders' Opinions on Ethical Issues Related to Brain-Computer Interfacing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijboer, Femke; Clausen, Jens; Allison, Brendan Z.; Haselager, Pim

2013-01-01

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) research and (future) applications raise important ethical issues that need to be addressed to promote societal acceptance and adequate policies. Here we report on a survey we conducted among 145 BCI researchers at the 4th International BCI conference, which took place

The Asilomar Survey: Stakeholders’ Opinions on Ethical Issues Related to Brain-Computer Interfacing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Nijboer, F.; Clausen, J.; Allison, B.Z.; Haselager, W.F.G.

2013-01-01

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) research and (future) applications raise important ethical issues that need to be addressed to promote societal acceptance and adequate policies. Here we report on a survey we conducted among 145 BCI researchers at the 4th International BCI conference, which took place

Discrepancy and Disliking Do Not Induce Negative Opinion Shifts

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Takács, Károly; Flache, Andreas; Maes, Michael

2016-01-01

Both classical social psychological theories and recent formal models of opinion differentiation and bi-polarization assign a prominent role to negative social influence. Negative influence is defined as shifts away from the opinion of others and hypothesized to be induced by discrepancy with or

22 CFR 126.9 - Advisory opinions and related authorizations.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

.... 126.9 Section 126.9 Foreign Relations DEPARTMENT OF STATE INTERNATIONAL TRAFFIC IN ARMS REGULATIONS GENERAL POLICIES AND PROVISIONS § 126.9 Advisory opinions and related authorizations. (a) Advisory opinion. Any person desiring information as to whether the Directorate of Defense Trade Controls would be...

49 CFR 604.21 - Special considerations for advisory opinions.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... Desist Orders § 604.21 Special considerations for advisory opinions. Based on new facts involving significant financial considerations, the Chief Counsel may take appropriate enforcement action contrary to an... 49 Transportation 7 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Special considerations for advisory opinions. 604...

Interplay between media and social influence in the collective behavior of opinion dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Colaiori, Francesca; Castellano, Claudio

2015-10-01

Messages conveyed by media act as a major drive in shaping attitudes and inducing opinion shift. On the other hand, individuals are strongly affected by peer pressure while forming their own judgment. We solve a general model of opinion dynamics where individuals either hold one of two alternative opinions or are undecided and interact pairwise while exposed to an external influence. As media pressure increases, the system moves from pluralism to global consensus; four distinct classes of collective behavior emerge, crucially depending on the outcome of direct interactions among individuals holding opposite opinions. Observed nontrivial behaviors include hysteretic phenomena and resilience of minority opinions. Notably, consensus could be unachievable even when media and microscopic interactions are biased in favor of the same opinion: The unfavored opinion might even gain the support of the majority.

USING EXPERT OPINION IN HEALTH TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT: A GUIDELINE REVIEW.

Science.gov (United States)

Hunger, Theresa; Schnell-Inderst, Petra; Sahakyan, Narine; Siebert, Uwe

2016-01-01

External experts can be consulted at different stages of an HTA. When using vague information sources, it is particularly important to plan, analyze, and report the information processing in a standardized and transparent way. Our objective was to search and analyze recommendations regarding where and how to include expert data in HTA. We performed a systematic database search and screened the Internet pages of seventy-seven HTA organizations for guidelines, recommendations, and methods papers that address the inclusion of experts in HTA. Relevant documents were downloaded, and information was extracted in a standard form. Results were merged in tables and narrative evidence synthesis. From twenty-two HTA organizations, we included forty-two documents that consider the use of expert opinion in HTA. Nearly all documents mention experts in the step of preparation of the evidence report. Six documents address their role for priority setting of topics, fifteen for scoping, twelve for the appraisal of evidence and results, another twelve documents mention experts when considering the dissemination of HTA results. During the assessment step, experts are most often asked to amend the literature search or to provide expertise for special data analyses. Another issue for external experts is to appraise the HTA results and refer them back to a clinical and social context. Little is reported on methods of expert elicitation when their input substitutes study data. Despite existing recommendations on the use of expert opinion in HTA, common standards for elicitation are scarce in HTA guidelines.

Fatigued and drowsy driving: a survey of attitudes, opinions and behaviors.

Science.gov (United States)

Vanlaar, Ward; Simpson, Herb; Mayhew, Dan; Robertson, Robyn

2008-01-01

There is evidence suggesting that the problem of fatigued or drowsy driving is an important contributor to road crashes. However, not much is known about public perceptions of the issue. The purpose of this study was to obtain information on attitudes, opinions, and professed practices related to fatigued or drowsy driving. The data were gathered by means of a public opinion poll among a representative sample of 750 Ontario drivers. A majority of drivers (58.6%) admitted that they occasionally drive while fatigued or drowsy. Of greater importance, 14.5% of respondents admitted that they had fallen asleep or "nodded off" while driving during the past year. Nearly 2% were involved in a fatigue or drowsy driving related crash in the past year. Respondents were also asked about measures they take to overcome fatigue or drowsiness. Results indicate that relatively ineffective measures such as opening the window or playing music are the most popular; the most effective preventive measure--taking a rest--is the least popular. The prevalence of the behavior, coupled with the ineffective prevention measures favored by the public suggest there is a need for increasing their level of awareness and knowledge about the problem. Results from this study further emphasize the importance of increasing the fatigued and drowsy driving knowledge base and the need to educate the public about it.

Remarks on the assessment, representation, aggregation and utilization of expert opinion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Fine, T.L.

1980-04-01

This report considers the relevance of recent ideas in the foundations of probability to the rational use of expert opinion in the design of a nuclear waste repository, and the assessment of its performance. The main probability concepts introduce are those of modal (probably A), comparative (A is at least as probable as B) and interval-valued (the lower probability of A is P(A) and the upper probability of A is P(anti A)) probabilities. We then outline an approach first using comparative probability to model the resuls of binary elicitation of an expert's opinions concerning repository uncertainties and then employing interval-valued probability to represent comparative probability in a computationally convenient form. We further consider the issue of aggregating or amalgamating the responses of several experts, and we emphasize the need to preserve some measure of the disagreements among the experts. The resulting aggregated interval-valued representation of the responses concerning the uncertainties surrounding the performance of a nuclear waste repository design can then be used to numerically assess this performance in a manner parallel to that of utility theory. Utility theory is the basis for statistical decision theory. Our recommendations can only be tentative, and research is recommended to gain some working experience with the results of the proposed decision-making process in the repostory design context

Some Fundamental Issues of Mathematical Simulation in Biology

Science.gov (United States)

Razzhevaikin, V. N.

2018-02-01

Some directions of simulation in biology leading to original formulations of mathematical problems are overviewed. Two of them are discussed in detail: the correct solvability of first-order linear equations with unbounded coefficients and the construction of a reaction-diffusion equation with nonlinear diffusion for a model of genetic wave propagation.

Risk-Informed SSCs Categorization: Elicitation Method of Expert's Opinion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Hwang, Mee Jeong; Yang, Joon Eon; Kim, Kil Yoo

2005-01-01

The regulations have been performing by deterministic way since nuclear power plants have been operating. However, some SSCs identified as safety-significance by deterministic way, were turned out to be low or non safety-significant and some SSCs identified as non-safety significance were turned out to be high safety-significant according to the results of PSA. Considering these risk insights, Regulatory Guide 1.174 and 10CFR50.69 were drawn up, and we can re-categorize the SSCs according to their safety significance. Therefore, a study and an interest about the risk-informed SSCs re-categorization and treatment has been continued. The objective of this regulatory initiative is to adjust the scope of equipment subject to special regulatory treatment to better focus licensee and regulatory attention and resources on equipment that has safety significance. Current most regulations define the plant equipment necessary to meet deterministic regulatory basis as 'safety-related.' This equipment is subject to special treatment regulations. Other plant equipment is categorized as 'non-safety related,' and is not subject to a select number of special treatment requirement or a subset of those requirement. However, risk information is not a magic tool making a decision but a supporting tool to categorize SSCs. This is because only small parts of a plant are modeled in PSA model. Thus, engineering and deterministic judgments are also used for risk-informed SSCs categorization, and expert opinion elicitation is very important for risk-informed SSCs categorization. Therefore, we need a rational method to elicit the expert's opinions, and in this study, we developed a systematic method for expert elicitation to categorize the nuclear power plants' SSCs. Current states for SSCs categorization of the USA and the existing methods for expert elicitation were surveyed and more systematic way eliciting the expert opinions and combining was developed. To validate the developed method

Extracting product features and opinion words using pattern knowledge in customer reviews.

Science.gov (United States)

Htay, Su Su; Lynn, Khin Thidar

2013-01-01

Due to the development of e-commerce and web technology, most of online Merchant sites are able to write comments about purchasing products for customer. Customer reviews expressed opinion about products or services which are collectively referred to as customer feedback data. Opinion extraction about products from customer reviews is becoming an interesting area of research and it is motivated to develop an automatic opinion mining application for users. Therefore, efficient method and techniques are needed to extract opinions from reviews. In this paper, we proposed a novel idea to find opinion words or phrases for each feature from customer reviews in an efficient way. Our focus in this paper is to get the patterns of opinion words/phrases about the feature of product from the review text through adjective, adverb, verb, and noun. The extracted features and opinions are useful for generating a meaningful summary that can provide significant informative resource to help the user as well as merchants to track the most suitable choice of product.

Extracting Product Features and Opinion Words Using Pattern Knowledge in Customer Reviews

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Su Su Htay

2013-01-01

Full Text Available Due to the development of e-commerce and web technology, most of online Merchant sites are able to write comments about purchasing products for customer. Customer reviews expressed opinion about products or services which are collectively referred to as customer feedback data. Opinion extraction about products from customer reviews is becoming an interesting area of research and it is motivated to develop an automatic opinion mining application for users. Therefore, efficient method and techniques are needed to extract opinions from reviews. In this paper, we proposed a novel idea to find opinion words or phrases for each feature from customer reviews in an efficient way. Our focus in this paper is to get the patterns of opinion words/phrases about the feature of product from the review text through adjective, adverb, verb, and noun. The extracted features and opinions are useful for generating a meaningful summary that can provide significant informative resource to help the user as well as merchants to track the most suitable choice of product.

Extracting Product Features and Opinion Words Using Pattern Knowledge in Customer Reviews

Science.gov (United States)

Lynn, Khin Thidar

2013-01-01

Due to the development of e-commerce and web technology, most of online Merchant sites are able to write comments about purchasing products for customer. Customer reviews expressed opinion about products or services which are collectively referred to as customer feedback data. Opinion extraction about products from customer reviews is becoming an interesting area of research and it is motivated to develop an automatic opinion mining application for users. Therefore, efficient method and techniques are needed to extract opinions from reviews. In this paper, we proposed a novel idea to find opinion words or phrases for each feature from customer reviews in an efficient way. Our focus in this paper is to get the patterns of opinion words/phrases about the feature of product from the review text through adjective, adverb, verb, and noun. The extracted features and opinions are useful for generating a meaningful summary that can provide significant informative resource to help the user as well as merchants to track the most suitable choice of product. PMID:24459430

What drives people's opinions of electricity infrastructure? Empirical evidence from Ireland

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bertsch, Valentin; Hyland, Marie; Mahony, Michael

2017-01-01

Across the EU, significant infrastructure investment is needed in both generation from renewable energy sources (RES) and the electricity grid to meet the European targets on emission reduction and RES expansion. Experiences show, however, that citizens may object to new energy infrastructure in their localities which may cause delays in achieving the targets. To avoid delays, it is crucial to understand what drives people's opinions. To explore people's opinions of different electricity generation and transmission technologies in Ireland, we conducted a nationally-representative survey. Concerning the drivers, we distinguish between socio-demographics, technology-specific perceptions, and energy policy preferences. Our results show that people generally have positive views of RES technologies. While this indicates that Irish citizens agree to move towards cleaner electricity sources, we find reluctance amongst people to have these technologies located close to their places of residence. We find that, across most technologies, the tradeoff people make between economic and environmental policy objectives drives their opinions of, and their tendencies to oppose, technology developments. The significance of most socio-demographic variables, however, is largely technology-dependent. This highlights that policy makers need to understand how people make tradeoffs between policy objectives and how these tradeoffs relate to their opinions of different technologies. - Highlights: • Conducted a survey to understand drivers of opinions of electricity infrastructure. • Considered socio-demographic, policy-related and technology-specific drivers. • Irish citizens generally have positive opinions of renewable technologies. • Positive opinions don't rule out local opposition. • Tradeoffs on policy objectives shape opinions most consistently across technologies.

Entropy based classifier for cross-domain opinion mining

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jyoti S. Deshmukh

2018-01-01

Full Text Available In recent years, the growth of social network has increased the interest of people in analyzing reviews and opinions for products before they buy them. Consequently, this has given rise to the domain adaptation as a prominent area of research in sentiment analysis. A classifier trained from one domain often gives poor results on data from another domain. Expression of sentiment is different in every domain. The labeling cost of each domain separately is very high as well as time consuming. Therefore, this study has proposed an approach that extracts and classifies opinion words from one domain called source domain and predicts opinion words of another domain called target domain using a semi-supervised approach, which combines modified maximum entropy and bipartite graph clustering. A comparison of opinion classification on reviews on four different product domains is presented. The results demonstrate that the proposed method performs relatively well in comparison to the other methods. Comparison of SentiWordNet of domain-specific and domain-independent words reveals that on an average 72.6% and 88.4% words, respectively, are correctly classified.

Quantifying the Effect of Open-Mindedness on Opinion Dynamics and Advertising Optimization

OpenAIRE

Innes, Clinton R

2014-01-01

Group opinion dynamics shape our world in innumerable ways. Societal aspects ranging from the political parties we support to the economic decisions we make in our daily lives are all directly af- fected in some way by group opinion dynamics. This makes understanding and potentially being able to predict the complex inter-relationships between individuals’ opinions and group opinion dynam- ics invaluable both scientifically and economically. We propose an aggregation model incorporating ingro...

Situation Concerning Public Information about and Involvement in the Decision-Making Processes in the Nuclear Sector. Public Opinion Review.

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Prades, A.; Sala, R.; Lopez, M.

2006-07-01

This report summarizes the CIEMAT's contribution to the study {sup S}ituation concerning Public Information about and Involvement in the Decision-Making Processes in the Nuclear Sector{sup ,} contract number TREN/ 04/NUC/ S07.39556 between the European Commission and Mutadis Consultants. The research was composed by Mutadis Consultants and CEPN (Nuclear Protection Evaluation Centre) (France), University of Aberdeen (UK) and CIEMAT (Spain). The objective of the project was to build a detailed overview of the EU situation regarding information and participation practices in the nuclear domain, provide an elaborated assessment, and to produce reporting and recommendations in the field. CIEMAT contribution' focused on the review of public opinion polis. Thus, Eurobarometers Standard Surveys (EBs) were analysed to report about the European citizens' public opinion regarding public Information and participation in the nuclear field. Additionally, the International Social Survey Program (ISSP), and some additional national polis were analysed. In terms of the EU public opinion, the follow up of the public information and participation domains receiving as much attention as necessary. Extremely few questions dealing with the subject were identified in the Eurobarometers, the national polis and the ISSP (International Social Survey Program) surveys reviewed in this study. An unambiguous illustration of this lack of attention is the fact that no questions dealing with public participation issues emerged in the {sup n}uclear EBs{sup u}ntil 1998. Even though, Eurobarometers (EBs) still provide an invaluable source of information on the topics we are interested on at the EU allowing longitudinal descriptions (trend analysis) of some key issues in our area of interest. (Author) 11 refs.

Opinions and Knowledge About Climate Change Science in High School Students

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Harker-Schuch, Inez; Henriksen, Christian Bugge

2013-01-01

in national and international schools before and after a lecture in climate change science. The results show that knowledge about climate change science significantly affects opinions about climate change. Students with a higher number of correct answers are more likely to have the opinion that humans......This study investigates the influence of knowledge on opinions about climate change in the emerging adults' age group (16-17 years). Furthermore, the effects of a lecture in climate change science on knowledge and opinions were assessed. A survey was conducted in Austria and Denmark on 188 students...... are causing climate change and that both individuals and governments are responsible for addressing climate change. The lecture in climate change science significantly improved knowledge development but did not affect opinions. Knowledge was improved by 11 % after the lecture. However, the percentage...

Adding a little reality to building ontologies for biology.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Phillip Lord

Full Text Available BACKGROUND: Many areas of biology are open to mathematical and computational modelling. The application of discrete, logical formalisms defines the field of biomedical ontologies. Ontologies have been put to many uses in bioinformatics. The most widespread is for description of entities about which data have been collected, allowing integration and analysis across multiple resources. There are now over 60 ontologies in active use, increasingly developed as large, international collaborations. There are, however, many opinions on how ontologies should be authored; that is, what is appropriate for representation. Recently, a common opinion has been the "realist" approach that places restrictions upon the style of modelling considered to be appropriate. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here, we use a number of case studies for describing the results of biological experiments. We investigate the ways in which these could be represented using both realist and non-realist approaches; we consider the limitations and advantages of each of these models. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: From our analysis, we conclude that while realist principles may enable straight-forward modelling for some topics, there are crucial aspects of science and the phenomena it studies that do not fit into this approach; realism appears to be over-simplistic which, perversely, results in overly complex ontological models. We suggest that it is impossible to avoid compromise in modelling ontology; a clearer understanding of these compromises will better enable appropriate modelling, fulfilling the many needs for discrete mathematical models within computational biology.

Opinion leadership and willingness to pay for residential photovoltaic systems

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Yamamoto, Yoshihiro

2015-01-01

According to diffusion theory, opinion leaders play an important role in the diffusion of new technologies through interpersonal communication with potential adopters. This study investigates the role and utility of opinion leadership in photovoltaic (PV) system diffusion. Specifically, the study proposes, examines, and considers the implications of the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between willingness to pay (WTP) for a PV system and opinion leadership on PV-system adoption. The investigation employed an internet-based questionnaire to assess the use of interpersonal communication in decision-making on adoption, to identify opinion leaders on adoption, and to characterize their WTP. The response pool consisted of 488 individuals who lived in a detached house, owned a residential PV system, and were responsible for making the decision to adopt the system. The results support the hypothesis. Considering that subsidization preferentially incentivizes households with greater WTP to adopt PV systems, this suggests that subsidization is more effective than purchases of PV power under feed-in tariffs in promoting the diffusion of residential PV systems through interpersonal communication. -- Highlights: •Interpersonal communication about the adoption of PV systems is analyzed. •A questionnaire survey is conducted. •Opinion leaders on PV-system adoption are identified. •A relationship is confirmed between willingness to pay and opinion leadership. •Subsidization is more essential than feed-in tariffs from this point of view

Sudden transitions in coupled opinion and epidemic dynamics with vaccination

Science.gov (United States)

Pires, Marcelo A.; Oestereich, André L.; Crokidakis, Nuno

2018-05-01

This work consists of an epidemic model with vaccination coupled with an opinion dynamics. Our objective was to study how disease risk perception can influence opinions about vaccination and therefore the spreading of the disease. Differently from previous works we have considered continuous opinions. The epidemic spreading is governed by an SIS-like model with an extra vaccinated state. In our model individuals vaccinate with a probability proportional to their opinions. The opinions change due to peer influence in pairwise interactions. The epidemic feedback to the opinion dynamics acts as an external field increasing the vaccination probability. We performed Monte Carlo simulations in fully-connected populations. Interestingly we observed the emergence of a first-order phase transition, besides the usual active-absorbing phase transition presented in the SIS model. Our simulations also show that with a certain combination of parameters, an increment in the initial fraction of the population that is pro-vaccine has a twofold effect: it can lead to smaller epidemic outbreaks in the short term, but it also contributes to the survival of the chain of infections in the long term. Our results also suggest that it is possible that more effective vaccines can decrease the long-term vaccine coverage. This is a counterintuitive outcome, but it is in line with empirical observations that vaccines can become a victim of their own success.

Opinion-enhanced collaborative filtering for recommender systems through sentiment analysis

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Wei; Wang, Hongwei

2015-10-01

The motivation of collaborative filtering (CF) comes from the idea that people often get the best recommendations from someone with similar tastes. With the growing popularity of opinion-rich resources such as online reviews, new opportunities arise as we can identify the preferences from user opinions. The main idea of our approach is to elicit user opinions from online reviews, and map such opinions into preferences that can be understood by CF-based recommender systems. We divide recommender systems into two types depending on the number of product category recommended: the multiple-category recommendation and the single-category recommendation. For the former, sentiment polarity in coarse-grained manner is identified while for the latter fine-grained sentiment analysis is conducted for each product aspect. If the evaluation frequency for an aspect by a user is greater than the average frequency by all users, it indicates that the user is more concerned with that aspect. If a user's rating for an aspect is lower than the average rating by all users, he or she is much pickier than others on that aspect. Through sentiment analysis, we then build an opinion-enhanced user preference model, where the higher the similarity between user opinions the more consistent preferences between users are. Experiment results show that the proposed CF algorithm outperforms baseline methods for product recommendation in terms of accuracy and recall.

American Institute of Biological Sciences

Science.gov (United States)

... Staff Issues AIBS Position Statements Funding for the Biological Sciences Supporting Scientific Collections Advocating for Research Policy ... Public Policy Leadership Award Graduate students in the biological sciences who have demonstrated initiative and leadership in ...

DETERMINATION OF AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY OPERATORS’ OPINIONS ABOUT THE CABIN COMFORT IN ESKİŞEHİR

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Özge ACARBAŞ BALTACI

2015-08-01

Full Text Available Comfort has a great importance in the interior design of tractor and agricultural machinery cabins. Operators are exposed to muscoskeletal system disorders since they spend long time periods during the day in these vehicles. There is a few work in the literature reporting operators’ opinions about cabin comfort of these machineries. In this study, a questionnaire was conducted in order to get information about agricultural machinery operators’ opinions about the comfort of their vehicles. Tractor cabins and combine harvester machine cabins were selected as machineries. The study was conducted in Eskişehir in Turkey. Questionnaire was composed of four groups of questions and five ordered response levels were used in the Likert's scale. Demographic questions, general questions about the machine, personal evaluation questions and open ended questions were asked to the operators. After the questionnaire completed, collected data were classified according to the machine type. Frequency tables were used to present the results. Visibility and the accessibility were the most satisfied issues for the tractor operators with 55.9% and 55.4% percentages, respectively. Seat comfort has the highest satisfaction degree with 43.7% for the combine harvester operators. Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient was used for the satisfaction questions in the applied questionnaire. The reliability of the study was high with coefficients of 0.878 and 0.940 for the tractor and combine harvester questionnaires, respectively. This study will support design and development process of new products by considering operator opinions.

Motives for seeking a second opinion in orthopaedic surgery.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Dalen, I. van; Groothoff, J.; Stewart, R.; Spreeuwenberg, P.; Groenewegen, P.; Horn, J. van

2001-01-01

The number of second opinions in orthopaedic surgery is increading rapidly, yet the grounds on which patients and their doctors decide to seek a second opinion have been little studied. The goal of the study was to identify patient and consultant factors that appeared to contribute to a second

Procurement of a Large Area Mapping FTIR Microscope for Organic-Inorganic Interfacial Analysis in Biological Materials

Science.gov (United States)

2015-12-31

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION OF: After acquiring the Infrared Imaging Microscope with large area mapping capabilities for structure -function research and...Inorganic Interfacial Analysis in Biological Materials The views, opinions and/or findings contained in this report are those of the author(s) and should...of a Large Area Mapping FTIR Microscope for Organic-Inorganic Interfacial Analysis in Biological Materials Report Title After acquiring the Infrared

Nursing opinion leadership: a preliminary model derived from philosophic theories of rational belief.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Christine A; Whall, Ann L

2013-10-01

Opinion leaders are informal leaders who have the ability to influence others' decisions about adopting new products, practices or ideas. In the healthcare setting, the importance of translating new research evidence into practice has led to interest in understanding how opinion leaders could be used to speed this process. Despite continued interest, gaps in understanding opinion leadership remain. Agent-based models are computer models that have proven to be useful for representing dynamic and contextual phenomena such as opinion leadership. The purpose of this paper is to describe the work conducted in preparation for the development of an agent-based model of nursing opinion leadership. The aim of this phase of the model development project was to clarify basic assumptions about opinions, the individual attributes of opinion leaders and characteristics of the context in which they are effective. The process used to clarify these assumptions was the construction of a preliminary nursing opinion leader model, derived from philosophical theories about belief formation. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Scientific Opinion on the evaluation of the safety in use of Yohimbe (Pausinystalia yohimbe (K. Schum.) Pierre ex Beille)

OpenAIRE

EFSA Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food (ANS)

2013-01-01

The Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources added to Food provides a scientific opinion evaluating the safety in use of yohimbe bark and its preparations originating from Yohimbe (Pausinystalia yohimbe (K. Schum.) Pierre ex Beille when used in food, e.g. in food supplements. The bark of the plant contains a number of indole alkaloids of biological relevance and preparations of yohimbe bark have been traditionally used as general tonic, performance enhancer and as an aphrodisiac. Food sup...

Expert opinion vs. empirical evidence: the precautionary principle applied to GM crops.

Science.gov (United States)

Herman, Rod A; Raybould, Alan

2014-01-01

Expert opinion is often sought by government regulatory agencies when there is insufficient empirical evidence to judge the safety implications of a course of action. However, it can be reckless to continue following expert opinion when a preponderance of evidence is amassed that conflicts with this opinion. Factual evidence should always trump opinion in prioritizing the information that is used to guide regulatory policy. Evidence-based medicine has seen a dramatic upturn in recent years spurred by examples where evidence indicated that certain treatments recommended by expert opinions increased death rates. We suggest that scientific evidence should also take priority over expert opinion in the regulation of genetically modified crops (GM). Examples of regulatory data requirements that are not justified based on the mass of evidence are described, and it is suggested that expertise in risk assessment should guide evidence-based regulation of GM crops.

USSR Space Life Sciences Digest, issue 19

Science.gov (United States)

Hooke, Lydia Razran (Editor); Donaldson, P. Lynn (Editor); Teeter, Ronald (Editor); Garshnek, Victoria (Editor); Rowe, Joseph (Editor)

1988-01-01

This is the 19th issue of NASA's USSR Space Life Sciences Digest. It contains abstracts of 47 papers published in Russian language periodicals or presented at conferences and of 5 new Soviet monographs. Selected abstracts are illustrated with figures and tables from the original. Reports on two conferences, one on adaptation to high altitudes, and one on space and ecology are presented. A book review of a recent work on high altitude physiology is also included. The abstracts in this issue have been identified as relevant to 33 areas of space biology and medicine. These areas are: adaptation, biological rhythms, biospherics, body fluids, botany, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, cytology, developmental biology, endocrinology, enzymology, biology, group dynamics, habitability and environmental effects, hematology, human performance, immunology, life support systems, man-machine systems, mathematical modeling, metabolism, microbiology, musculoskeletal system, neurophysiology, nutrition, operational medicine, perception, personnel selection, psychology, radiobiology, and space biology and medicine.

Islamic Work Ethics and Audit Opinions: Audit Professionalism and Dysfunctional

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tulus Suryanto

2016-02-01

Full Text Available This study examines the relationship between Islamic work ethics and auditors' opinion, focusing on the aspects of audit professionalism and dysfunctional behavior  as intervening  variables. The research involved in Internal Auditors working of Islamic Banking industry in Sumatra Island. A questionnaire was used for data collection. The study represents the empirical test employing census sampling. The data collected were analysed using Amos.  The results of the study confirmed the three hypotheses examined: there is a positive corelation between Islamic work ethics and auditors' opinions; auditors’ professionalism is an intervening variable of the correlation between Islamic work ethics and auditors’ opinions and dysfunctional behavior is a negative intervening variable of the correlation between Islamic Work Ethics and auditors' opinionsDOI: 10.15408/aiq.v8i1.1864

Phase Transitions in a Social Impact Model for Opinion Formation

Science.gov (United States)

Bordogna, Clelia M.; Albano, Ezequiel V.

A model for opinion formation in a social group, based on the Theory of Social Impact developed by Latané, is studied by means of numerical simulations. Interactions among the members of the group, as well as with a strong leader competing with the mass media, are considered. The model exhibits first-order transitions between two different states of opinion, which are supported by the leader and the mass media, respectively. The social inertia of the group becomes evident when the opinion of the leader changes periodically. In this case two dynamic states are identified: for long periods of time, the group follows the changes of the leader but, decreasing the period, the opinion of the group remains unchanged. This scenery is suitable for the ocurrence of dynamic phase transitions.

Democracy, the media stage and opinions evaluation. The particular case of nuclear

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ansel, Ph.; Pages, J.P.

1997-01-01

The intention is pointed at the public opinion. The public debate, linked to the political system, is described in the frame where the opinions are expressed in interaction with the media. This debate has a fundamental role in the opinions structuration. Then it is shown how it is possible to introduce it in the way of measuring the opinions. Then, we arrive to the structures of public opinion. The analysis of facts registered during twenty years on nuclear energy allows to illustrate the interest of this global approach: considered from a controversy point of view, it is also a technical object and then it can be considered as a differentiation theme among others ones. (N.C.)

Indicators of opinion leadership in customer networks : self-reports and degree centrality

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Risselada, Hans; Verhoef, Pieter; Bijmolt, Tammo

In this paper, we assess two alternative indicators of opinion leadership, self-reported opinion leadership and degree centrality, on the same dataset. We also investigate the interaction effect of these two indicators and the social network environment on opinion leadership. We use social network

The nature and determinants of opinion leadership in Lesotho ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This research investigates the nature, the occurrence and the factors influencing opinion leadership in Lesotho. The focus is on a typical rural district where 200 maize farmers were randomly selected and their opinion leaders identified by means of sociometric methods with the number of nominations as the major indicator ...

Legal and ethical issues regarding social media and pharmacy education.

Science.gov (United States)

Cain, Jeff; Fink, Joseph L

2010-12-15

Widespread use of social media applications like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter has introduced new complexities to the legal and ethical environment of higher education. Social communications have traditionally been considered private; however, now that much of this information is published online to the public, more insight is available to students' attitudes, opinions, and character. Pharmacy educators and administrators may struggle with the myriad of ethical and legal issues pertaining to social media communications and relationships with and among students. This article seeks to clarify some of these issues with a review of the legal facets and pertinent court cases related to social media. In addition, 5 core ethical issues are identified and discussed. The article concludes with recommendations for pharmacy educators with regard to preparing for and addressing potential legal issues pertaining to social media.

USSR Space Life Sciences Digest, issue 21

Science.gov (United States)

Hooke, Lydia Razran; Donaldson, P. Lynn; Garshnek, Victoria; Rowe, Joseph

1989-01-01

This is the twenty-first issue of NASA's USSR Space Life Sciences Digest. It contains abstracts of 37 papers published in Russian language periodicals or books or presented at conferences and of a Soviet monograph on animal ontogeny in weightlessness. Selected abstracts are illustrated with figures and tables from the original. A book review of a work on adaptation to stress is also included. The abstracts in this issue have been identified as relevant to 25 areas of space biology and medicine. These areas are: adaptation, biological rhythms, body fluids, botany, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, cytology, developmental biology, endocrinology, enzymology, equipment and instrumentation, exobiology, gravitational biology, habitability and environmental effects, hematology, human performance, life support systems, mathematical modeling, metabolism, microbiology, musculoskeletal system, neurophysiology, operational medicine, perception, psychology, and reproductive system.

Analysing Customer Opinions with Text Mining Algorithms

Science.gov (United States)

Consoli, Domenico

2009-08-01

Knowing what the customer thinks of a particular product/service helps top management to introduce improvements in processes and products, thus differentiating the company from their competitors and gain competitive advantages. The customers, with their preferences, determine the success or failure of a company. In order to know opinions of the customers we can use technologies available from the web 2.0 (blog, wiki, forums, chat, social networking, social commerce). From these web sites, useful information must be extracted, for strategic purposes, using techniques of sentiment analysis or opinion mining.

Students' Opinions on Facebook Supported Blended Learning Environment

Science.gov (United States)

Erdem, Mukaddes; Kibar, Pinar Nuhoglu

2014-01-01

The first purpose of this study was to determine students' opinions on blended learning and its implementation. The other purpose was to explore the students' opinions on Facebook integration into blended learning environment. The participants of this study were 40 undergraduate students in their fourth semester of the program.…

Analysis of Primary School Teachers' Opinions on Family Diversity

Science.gov (United States)

Bosch, Alvaro Capano; Massonnier, Natalie; González Tornaría, Maria del L.

2016-01-01

This article aims to do an analysis based on the opinion of primary school teachers on family models that are different from the traditional nuclear family. We worked with 60 teachers from Montevideo and the metropolitan area. They answered the Questionnaire: Teachers' Opinion on Family Diversity (CIDF for its Spanish acronym) (Morgado,…

29 CFR 18.701 - Opinion testimony by lay witnesses.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 29 Labor 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Opinion testimony by lay witnesses. 18.701 Section 18.701 Labor Office of the Secretary of Labor RULES OF PRACTICE AND PROCEDURE FOR ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS... Opinion testimony by lay witnesses. If the witness is not testifying as an expert, the witness' testimony...

Nuclear waste management: A review of issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Angino, E.E.

1985-01-01

The subject of radioactive waste management and burial is a subject that raises strong emotional and political issues and generates sharp technical differences of opinion. The overall problem can be subdivided into the three major categories of (1) credibility and emotionalism, (2) technology, and (3) nuclear waste isolation and containment. An area of concern desperately in need of attention is that of proper public education on all aspects of the high-level radioactive-waste (rad-waste) burial problem. A major problem related to the rad-waste issue is the apparent lack of an official, all-encompassing U.S. policy for nuclear waste management, burial, isolation, and regulation. It is clear from all past technical reports that disposal of rad wastes in an appropriate geologic horizon is the best ultimate solution to the waste problem. After 25 y of dealing with the high-level radioactive waste problem, the difficulty is that no proposed plan has to date been tested properly. It is this indecision and reaction that has contributed in no small way to the public perception of inability to solve the problem. One major change that has occurred in the last few years was the enactment of the Nuclear Waste Policy Act of 1982. This act mandates deadlines, guidelines, and state involvement. It is time that strong differences of opinions be reconciled. One must get on with the difficult job of selecting the best means of isolating and burying these wastes before the task becomes impossible

[Psychiatric expert opinions on asylum seekers in Germany].

Science.gov (United States)

Sieberer, Marcel; Ziegenbein, Marc; Eckhardt, Gudrun; Machleidt, Wielant; Calliess, Iris T

2011-01-01

To investigate the frequency of traumatisation, suicidality and given diagnoses in expert opinions on asylum seekers and to describe the sociodemographic characteristics of this population. The psychiatric expert opinions on asylum seekers, furnished in an 8-year-period at Hannover Medical School, were analysed retrospectively for qualitative and quantitative characteristics. 62 psychiatric expert opinions on asylum seekers were included in this study. The asylum seekers originated from 18 different countries, mainly from Turkey and former Yugoslavia. Most expert opinions were given in secondary asylum procedures, i. e. after the initial asylum request had been rejected. The asylum seekers reported on traumatisation in 82.3 %. The most frequently reported forms of traumatisation were rape in female, and torture in male persons. According to ICD-10 or DSM-IV-R criteria posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was the most frequent diagnosis (74.1 %) in this study. The second most common diagnoses were depressive disorders (ICD-10: F32.x in 33.9 % and ICD-10: F33.x in 25.9 %). Suicidal tendency was found in 56.5 % of the asylum seekers. Cultural differences, language barriers, a heavy burden by psychological symptoms, and clinical severity are difficulties in the process of psychiatric assessment of refugees in legal asylum procedures. © Georg Thieme Verlag KG Stuttgart · New York.

Your opinion on climate change might not be as common as you think

Science.gov (United States)

Leviston, Z.; Walker, I.; Morwinski, S.

2013-04-01

Political and media debate on the existence and causes of climate change has become increasingly factious in several western countries, often resting on claims and counter-claims about what most citizens really think. There are several well-established phenomena in psychology about how people perceive the prevalence of opinions, including the false consensus effect (a tendency to overestimate how common one's `own' opinion is) and pluralistic ignorance (where most people privately reject an opinion, but assume incorrectly that most others accept it). We investigated these biases in people's opinions about the existence and causes of climate change. In two surveys conducted 12 months apart in Australia (n=5,036 n=5,030), respondents were asked their own opinion about the nature of climate change, and then asked to estimate levels of opinion among the general population. We demonstrate that opinions about climate change are subject to strong false consensus effects, that people grossly overestimate the numbers of people who reject the existence of climate change in the broader community, and that people with high false consensus bias are less likely to change their opinions.

Public Opinion Survey - Energy, The Present and The Future, 2015

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Trontl, K.; Pevec, D.; Matijevic, M.; Jecmenica, R.; Duckic, P.; Lebegner, J.

2016-01-01

During the year 2015 the Department of Applied Physics of the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Zagreb conducted a public opinion survey entitled 'Energy - The Present and the Future' among student population of 1115 individuals. The tested population consisted of the University of Zagreb six faculties' students: the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, the Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, the Faculty of Chemical Engineering and Technology, the Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, the Faculty of Science, and the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. The questions in the survey covered several different energy issues, including the present and the future energy resources, the acceptability of different fuel type power plants, the environmental protection and global warming, the radioactivity, the radioactive waste issues, reliable information sources, and position of participants towards climate change issues, as well as European Union and Croatian goals set for the year 2020. The basic results of survey analysis for nuclear oriented questions, as well as the comparison of results of the current survey with the results of the similar surveys conducted in the academic years 2007/08, and 2012/2013, are reported in this paper. Participants generally express high level of formal environmental awareness. However, their choices and attitudes are in a contradiction to claimed eco-orientation, as well as to the scientific facts. The discrepancies are particularly noticeable in parts of the survey dealing with the nuclear energy and the nuclear power plants. The participants are also demonstrating lack of knowledge on nuclear issues especially regarding radioactive waste management, as well as economics and operational safety of nuclear power plants. (author).

Contradictions and Consensus--Clusters of Opinions on E-Books

Science.gov (United States)

Shrimplin, Aaron K.; Revelle, Andy; Hurst, Susan; Messner, Kevin

2011-01-01

Q methodology was used to determine attitudes and opinions about e-books among a group of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates at Miami University of Ohio. Oral interviews formed the basis for a collection of opinion statements concerning e-books versus print. These statements were then ranked by a second group of research participants.…

Opinions of the Geography Teacher Candidates toward Mind Maps

Science.gov (United States)

Seyihoglu, Aysegul

2013-01-01

The purpose of this study is to reveal the opinions of the teacher candidates about mind mapping technique used in Geography education of undergraduate program. In this study, the qualitative research techniques were used. The study group consists of 55 teacher candidates. The teacher candidates have been asked for their opinions about the process…

Opinions and knowledge about climate change science in high school students.

Science.gov (United States)

Harker-Schuch, Inez; Bugge-Henriksen, Christian

2013-10-01

This study investigates the influence of knowledge on opinions about climate change in the emerging adults' age group (16-17 years). Furthermore, the effects of a lecture in climate change science on knowledge and opinions were assessed. A survey was conducted in Austria and Denmark on 188 students in national and international schools before and after a lecture in climate change science. The results show that knowledge about climate change science significantly affects opinions about climate change. Students with a higher number of correct answers are more likely to have the opinion that humans are causing climate change and that both individuals and governments are responsible for addressing climate change. The lecture in climate change science significantly improved knowledge development but did not affect opinions. Knowledge was improved by 11 % after the lecture. However, the percentage of correct answers was still below 60 % indicating an urgent need for improving climate change science education.

Domain Adaptation for Opinion Classification: A Self-Training Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Yu, Ning

2013-03-01

Full Text Available Domain transfer is a widely recognized problem for machine learning algorithms because models built upon one data domain generally do not perform well in another data domain. This is especially a challenge for tasks such as opinion classification, which often has to deal with insufficient quantities of labeled data. This study investigates the feasibility of self-training in dealing with the domain transfer problem in opinion classification via leveraging labeled data in non-target data domain(s and unlabeled data in the target-domain. Specifically, self-training is evaluated for effectiveness in sparse data situations and feasibility for domain adaptation in opinion classification. Three types of Web content are tested: edited news articles, semi-structured movie reviews, and the informal and unstructured content of the blogosphere. Findings of this study suggest that, when there are limited labeled data, self-training is a promising approach for opinion classification, although the contributions vary across data domains. Significant improvement was demonstrated for the most challenging data domain-the blogosphere-when a domain transfer-based self-training strategy was implemented.

Dynamic behavior of a social model for opinion formation

Science.gov (United States)

Bordogna, Clelia M.; Albano, Ezequiel V.

2007-12-01

The dynamic behavior of a social group influenced by both a strong leader and the mass media, which is modeled according to the social impact theory, is studied under two situations: (i) The strong leader changes his/her state of opinion periodically while the mass media are not considered. In this case, the leader is capable of driving the group between a dynamically ordered state with a weak leader-group coupling (high-frequency regime) and a dynamically disordered state where the group follows the opinion of the leader (low-frequency regime). (ii) The mass-media change periodically their message and have to compete with a strong leader that keeps his/her state of opinion unchanged. In this case, the mass media require an amplitude threshold in order to overcome the influence of the leader and drive the system into a dynamically disordered state. The dynamic behavior characteristic of the studied social opinion model shares many features of physical systems that are relevant in the fields of statistical mechanics and condensed matter.

Brazilian abortion law: the opinion of judges and prosecutors.

Science.gov (United States)

Duarte, Graciana Alves; Osis, Maria José Duarte; Faúndes, Anibal; Sousa, Maria Helena de

2010-06-01

To analyze the opinion of judges and prosecutors concerning Brazilian abortion law and situations in which the abortion should be allowed. A cross-sectional study was performed with 1,493 judges and 2,614 prosecutors in Brazil between 2005 and 2006. Participants completed a structured questionnaire approaching sociodemographic characteristics, opinions about abortion law, and circumstances in which abortion is considered lawful. Bivariate and multivariate analyses of data were carried out through Poisson regression. The majority of participants (78%) found that the circumstances in which abortion is considered lawful should be broadened, or even that abortion should not be criminalized. The highest rates of pro-abortion opinions resulted from: risk to the life of the mother (84%), anencephaly (83%), severe congenital malformation of fetus (82%), and pregnancy resulting from rape (82%). Variables related to religion were strongly associated to the opinion of participants. There is a trend in considering the need of changing the current abortion law, in the sense of widening the circumstances in which abortion is considered lawful, or even toward decriminalizing abortion, regardless of the circumstances in which it takes place.

10 key indicators for the environment - Issue 2012

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2012-06-01

Ten indicators of the environment are briefly presented, discussed and illustrated by graphs indicating their evolution since the 1990's: air (air pollution in urban environment), biodiversity (number of common bird species), resources (consumption of materials), water (river pollution by phosphates and nitrates), land occupation (soil artificialization), wastes (urban wastes), climate (carbon dioxide emissions), economy (jobs in the environmental sector), energy (share of renewable energies), and opinion (level of concern of French people regarding the different issues related to environment degradation)

Opinion formation and distribution in a bounded-confidence model on various networks

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, X. Flora; Van Gorder, Robert A.; Porter, Mason A.

2018-02-01

In the social, behavioral, and economic sciences, it is important to predict which individual opinions eventually dominate in a large population, whether there will be a consensus, and how long it takes for a consensus to form. Such ideas have been studied heavily both in physics and in other disciplines, and the answers depend strongly both on how one models opinions and on the network structure on which opinions evolve. One model that was created to study consensus formation quantitatively is the Deffuant model, in which the opinion distribution of a population evolves via sequential random pairwise encounters. To consider heterogeneity of interactions in a population along with social influence, we study the Deffuant model on various network structures (deterministic synthetic networks, random synthetic networks, and social networks constructed from Facebook data). We numerically simulate the Deffuant model and conduct regression analyses to investigate the dependence of the time to reach steady states on various model parameters, including a confidence bound for opinion updates, the number of participating entities, and their willingness to compromise. We find that network structure and parameter values both have important effects on the convergence time and the number of steady-state opinion groups. For some network architectures, we observe that the relationship between the convergence time and model parameters undergoes a transition at a critical value of the confidence bound. For some networks, the steady-state opinion distribution also changes from consensus to multiple opinion groups at this critical value.

USSR Space Life Sciences Digest, issue 9

Science.gov (United States)

Hooke, Lydia Razran; Radtke, Mike; Teeter, Ronald; Rowe, Joseph E.

1987-01-01

This is the ninth issue of NASA's USSR Space Lifes Sciences Digest. It contains abstracts of 46 papers recently published in Russian language periodicals and bound collections and of a new Soviet monograph. Selected abstracts are illustrated with figures and tables from the original. Additional features include reviews of a Russian book on biological rhythms and a description of the papers presented at a conference on space biology and medicine. A special feature describes two paradigms frequently cited in Soviet space life sciences literature. Information about English translations of Soviet materials available to readers is provided. The abstracts included in this issue have been identified as relevant to 28 areas of aerospace medicine and space biology. These areas are: adaptation, biological rhythms, body fluids, botany, cardiovascular and respiratory systems, developmental biology, endocrinology, enzymology, equipment and instrumentation, gastrointestinal system, genetics, habitability and environment effects, hematology, human performance, immunology, life support systems, mathematical modeling, metabolism, microbiology, morphology and cytology, musculoskeletal system, nutrition, neurophysiology, operational medicine, perception, personnel selection, psychology, radiobiology, and space biology and medicine.

Endangered Species Case - Washington Toxics Coalition v. EPA

Science.gov (United States)

This Web page provides information on the Washington Toxics Coalition v. EPA case, related to protection of Pacific salmon and steelhead, and links to the biological opinions issued by the NMFS and EPA’s responses.

Influence of communication on public opinion about nuclear energy

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Carvalho, Everton de Almeida

1997-01-01

Public opinion on risks and benefits associated to nuclear energy is depending on psychological and social factors and mainly on the communication strategy used to transfer knowledge and facts about nuclear technology to the public. In this work, the individual and collective communication process and the influences on the public opinion on nuclear energy will be analyzed. (author)

Public Opinion Survey Data to Measure Sympathy and Support for Islamist Terrorism: A Look at Muslim Opinions on Al Qaeda and IS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alex P. Schmid

2017-02-01

Full Text Available This Research Paper seeks to explore what ‘sympathy’ and ‘support’ actually mean when it comes to terrorism. The text addresses some of the problems of public opinion surveys, includes a conceptual discussion and then continues with the presentation of data from public opinion surveys. It notes that opinion polls can be helpful in gauging (verbal support for terrorism but also finds that the questions asked in opinion polls are generally lacking precision while the answers are often influenced by political pressures. When translating (generally low percentages of sympathy and support for al Qaeda and so-called Islamic State in various countries into actual population figures, it emerges that there is a sizeable radical milieu in both Muslim-majority countries and in Western Muslim diasporas, held together by the world wide web of the internet. While large majorities of Muslims in most countries have no love for jihadist extremists, there are more than enough breeding grounds for terrorism. The Research Paper concludes that better instruments for measuring sympathy and support for jihadist terrorism are needed to inform counter-terrorist strategies.

Examining Characteristics of Opinion Leaders in Social Media: A Motivational Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Stephan Winter

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Social networking sites offer various opportunities to express opinions on politics and public affairs and to disseminate information to a large circle of acquaintances. The present research aims to identify the characteristics of people who consider themselves as opinion leaders on these new channels, the features they use in order to influence others, and the psychological motives they pursue. A survey ( N  = 527 among Facebook users identified political interest and personality strength as significant predictors of perceived Facebook opinion leadership, while the influence of extraversion was not significant. Those who write private messages on political debates do this in order to raise awareness of specific topics, while opinion expression in public status updates is also strongly connected to self-presentational goals (impression motivation. Moreover, the motives of presenting oneself positively and convincing others are particularly important for people with high personality strength. The present findings extend previous knowledge by redefining the concept of opinion leadership in new media environments and describing motivational links between individuals’ predispositions and their activities to influence others’ opinions. On a practical level, the pronounced role of self-presentational motives is likely to have important implications for the dynamics of public debates in social media.

Eliciting expert opinion for economic models: an applied example.

Science.gov (United States)

Leal, José; Wordsworth, Sarah; Legood, Rosa; Blair, Edward

2007-01-01

Expert opinion is considered as a legitimate source of information for decision-analytic modeling where required data are unavailable. Our objective was to develop a practical computer-based tool for eliciting expert opinion about the shape of the uncertainty distribution around individual model parameters. We first developed a prepilot survey with departmental colleagues to test a number of alternative approaches to eliciting opinions on the shape of the uncertainty distribution around individual parameters. This information was used to develop a survey instrument for an applied clinical example. This involved eliciting opinions from experts to inform a number of parameters involving Bernoulli processes in an economic model evaluating DNA testing for families with a genetic disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The experts were cardiologists, clinical geneticists, and laboratory scientists working with cardiomyopathy patient populations and DNA testing. Our initial prepilot work suggested that the more complex elicitation techniques advocated in the literature were difficult to use in practice. In contrast, our approach achieved a reasonable response rate (50%), provided logical answers, and was generally rated as easy to use by respondents. The computer software user interface permitted graphical feedback throughout the elicitation process. The distributions obtained were incorporated into the model, enabling the use of probabilistic sensitivity analysis. There is clearly a gap in the literature between theoretical elicitation techniques and tools that can be used in applied decision-analytic models. The results of this methodological study are potentially valuable for other decision analysts deriving expert opinion.

Multi-lingual Opinion Mining on YouTube

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Severyn, Aliaksei; Moschitti, Alessandro; Uryupina, Olga

2015-01-01

In order to successfully apply opinion mining (OM) to the large amounts of user-generated content produced every day, we need robust models that can handle the noisy input well yet can easily be adapted to a new domain or language. We here focus on opinion mining for YouTube by (i) modeling...... domain (up to 2.6% and 3% of absolute improvement for Italian and English, respectively); (ii) it is particularly useful when tested across domains (up to more than 4% absolute improvement for both languages), especially when little training data is available (up to 10% absolute improvement) and (iii...

Public opinion about nuclear energy - year 2003 poll

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Istenic, R.; Jencic, I.

2003-01-01

Nuclear Training Centre Milan Copic at Jozef Stefan Institute in Ljubljana is performing extensive public information activities, focused mainly on elementary and high schools in Slovenia. There are over 7000 visitors yearly. Every year in the spring we ask several hundred of visitors the same set of questions about their knowledge and opinion about nuclear energy. They are polled before they listen to the lecture or visit the exhibition. In that way we are trying to obtain their opinion based on the knowledge they obtain in everyday life. In the paper the results of this year's poll are presented and compared with the previous years. No significant changes in public opinion were observed this year. Favourable attitude towards NPP Krsko, which could be observed in the last years, is maintained. On the other hand, misconceptions about radioactive waste repositories and danger of radioactive waste remain very high. (author)

Loaded Questions: Internet Commenters' Opinions on Physician-Patient Firearm Safety Conversations.

Science.gov (United States)

Knoepke, Christopher E; Allen, Amanda; Ranney, Megan L; Wintemute, Garen J; Matlock, Daniel D; Betz, Marian E

2017-08-01

Medical and public health societies advocate that healthcare providers (HCPs) counsel at-risk patients to reduce firearm injury risk. Anonymous online media comments often contain extreme viewpoints and may therefore help in understanding challenges of firearm safety counseling. To help inform injury prevention efforts, we sought to examine commenters' stated opinions regarding firearm safety counseling HCPs. Qualitative descriptive analysis of online comments posted following news items (in May-June, 2016) about a peer-reviewed publication addressing when and how HCPs should counsel patients regarding firearms. Among 871 comments posted by 522 individuals, most (57%) were generally negative toward firearm discussions, 17% were positive, and 26% were neutral/unclear. Two major categories and multiple themes emerged. "Areas of agreement" included that discussions may be valuable (1) when addressing risk of harm to self or others, (2) in pediatric injury prevention, and (3) as general safety education (without direct questioning), and that (4) HCPs lack gun safety and cultural knowledge. "Areas of tension" included whether (1) firearms are a public health issue, (2) counseling is effective prevention practice, (3) suicide could/should be prevented, and (4) firearm safety counseling is within HCPs' purview. Among this set of commenters with likely extreme viewpoints, opinions were generally negative toward firearm safety conversations, but with some support in specific situations. Providing education, counseling, or materials without asking about firearm ownership was encouraged. Engaging firearm advocates when developing materials may enhance the acceptability of prevention activities.

29 CFR 1621.3 - Procedure for requesting an opinion letter.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 1621.3 Labor Regulations Relating to Labor (Continued) EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION PROCEDURES-THE EQUAL PAY ACT § 1621.3 Procedure for requesting an opinion letter. (a) A request for an opinion letter should be submitted in writing to the Chairman, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission...

Principals' Opinions of Organisational Justice in Elementary Schools in Turkey

Science.gov (United States)

Aydin, Inayet; Karaman-Kepenekci, Yasemin

2008-01-01

Purpose--This study aims to present the opinions of public elementary school principals in Turkey about the current organisational justice practices among teachers from the distributive, procedural, interactional, and rectificatory dimensions. Design/methodology/approach--The opinions of 11 public elementary school principals in Ankara about…

Curriculum changes and moral issues in nursing education.

Science.gov (United States)

Karseth, Berit

2004-11-01

Through history nursing education has strongly advocated the importance of educating students towards moral and ethical responsibility. In today's society however, it has become increasingly difficult to honour this concern. One peephole to capture the ongoing struggle is to look into the curriculum where different stakeholders voice different opinions. Following a social constructive perspective the curriculum texts represent specific interest among stakeholders related to nursing education in a certain historical periods. By analysing the two last versions of the curriculum we get an insight into moral and ethical issues at stake and different ways of addressing these questions. While moral and ethical issues in the curriculum of 1987 follow a disciplinary discourse emphasising the importance of learning ethical concepts and modes of arguments, the curriculum of 2000 places ethical and moral issues within an employability discourse. In this curriculum moral issues are seen as an obligation linked to students practical and technical skills. The 2000 curriculum represents a shift from emphasising the independent and reflective professional to underline the skillful and morally obliged practitioner.

Nuclear energy and public opinion - a difficult relationship

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kaase, M.

1990-01-01

Nuclear energy remains an explosive subject. Less people demand to give up nuclear energy at once but the emotional and cognitive environment of attitudes to nuclear energy makes this relative 'peaceabilty' seem a very precarious issue. The Chernobyl shock is still active. The future will depend on whether new accidents will occur in nuclear power stations and how dangerous they will be. The highly political nature and the polarization of the subject together with an assumingly still negative coverage by the mass media and a general distrust of the people in established politics will make it very difficult to influence attitudes by means of information. We should attempt to bring sober facts and objectiveness to the discussion of nuclear energy and to involve citizens more actively than in the past while ensuring that there is less auto-selectivity (bias). What we also need is the basic and credible readiness of all participants to accept the results of a democratic process of the development of opinion. (orig./HSCH) [de

Public opinion and terrorist acts

Czech Academy of Sciences Publication Activity Database

Malečková, Jitka; Stanišić, Dragana

2011-01-01

Roč. 27, Sup. 1 (2011), S107-S121 ISSN 0176-2680 R&D Projects: GA MŠk LC542 Institutional research plan: CEZ:AV0Z70850503 Keywords : support for terrorism * public opinion * international terrorism Subject RIV: AH - Economics Impact factor: 1.437, year: 2011

Opinion barometer on energy and climate in January 2009

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2009-04-01

This article reports and comments the results of a survey performed by the CREDOC on a representative sample of 2006 French people. Eight questions have been asked, dealing with two main themes: energy production (opinion about the energy production mode, about renewable energies, about nuclear energy) and consumers' attitude (in front of energy price increase, when acquiring expensive equipment like a car, a heater or any other big domestic equipment). Tables give results on the opinion on energy public policy in France, on wind turbine installation. These results are given in terms of gender, age, socio-economic categories, and town size. Graphs indicate the evolution since 1983 of the opinion on nuclear energy and on the worry of nuclear plant incident

Second opinion oral pathology referrals in New Zealand.

Science.gov (United States)

Seo, B; Hussaini, H M; Rich, A M

2017-04-01

Referral for a second opinion is an important aspect of pathology practice, which reduces the rate of diagnostic error and ensures consistency with diagnoses. The Oral Pathology Centre (OPC) is the only specialist oral diagnostic centre in New Zealand. OPC provides diagnostic services to dentists and dental specialists throughout New Zealand and acts as a referral centre for second opinions for oral pathology specimens that have been sent to anatomical pathologists. The aim of this study was to review second opinion referral cases sent to the OPC over a 15-year period and to assess the levels of concordance between the original and final diagnoses. The findings indicated that the majority of referred cases were odontogenic lesions, followed by connective tissue, epithelial and salivary lesions. The most prevalent diagnoses were ameloblastoma and keratocystic odontogenic tumour, followed by oral squamous cell carcinoma. Discordant diagnoses were recorded in 24% of cases. Diagnostic discrepancies were higher in odontogenic and salivary gland lesions, resulting in the change of diagnoses. Second opinion of oral pathology cases should be encouraged in view of the relative rarity of these lesions in general pathology laboratories and the rates of diagnostic discrepancy, particularly for odontogenic and salivary gland lesions. Copyright © 2017 Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Nuclear power and public opinion

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kazanikov, I.A.; Klykov, S.A.

2000-01-01

The public opinion on Nuclear Power is not favorable. A purposeful work with public perception is necessary. One way to create a positive image of the nuclear industry is to improve public radiological education. This challenge can be resolved in the close cooperation with state school and preschool education. The formation about nuclear power should be simple and symbolical. Our society can be divided into 4 parts which can be called as target groups: First group - People from the nuclear industry with special education working at nuclear facilities or related to the industry. Second group - People working in the fields connected with nuclear power. Third group - People not related to nuclear power or even with negative impression to the industry. This group is the largest and the work required is the most difficult. Fourth group - The number of this group's members is the least, but it has strong influence on public opinion. 'Greens' and a broad spectrum of ecological organizations can be included in this group. (Authors)

Biology of Addiction: Drugs and Alcohol Can Hijack Your Brain

Science.gov (United States)

... Special Issues Subscribe October 2015 Print this issue Biology of Addiction Drugs and Alcohol Can Hijack Your ... scientists are working to learn more about the biology of addiction. They’ve shown that addiction is ...

Gender and personality traits' (BFI-10) effect on opinion leadership

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Olexova, Cecilia; Sudzina, Frantisek

2017-01-01

Opinion leadership used to be perceived as a highly domain-specific trait but it was found to be multi-faceted, i.e. individuals are influential independent of a specific subject area. Another term is generalized opinion leadership. Impact of Big Five Inventory personality traits on domain...

Open Primary Education School Students' Opinions about Mathematics Television Programmes

Science.gov (United States)

Yenilmez, Kursat

2008-01-01

The purpose of this study was to determine open primary education school students' opinions about mathematics television programmes. This study indicated that to determine differences among open primary education school students' opinions about mathematics television programmes point of view students' characteristics like gender, age, grade,…

Discussion on radiation protection system from ethical issues

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Li, Xutong; Guo, Qiuju

2002-01-01

This paper discussed the relationship between radiation protection system and ethical principle, viz. equity and efficiency. According to the authors' opinions, the main problem that the system of radiation protection facing now is the dose-limitation principle cannot incarnate the equity principle completely. Even though the distinguishing between practice and intervention is no other than solving the problem, but the scheme is not perfect still. Ethical issues should be given more attention and be more researched when we try to modify the radiation protection system today

Effects of heterogeneous convergence rate on consensus in opinion dynamics

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Changwei; Dai, Qionglin; Han, Wenchen; Feng, Yuee; Cheng, Hongyan; Li, Haihong

2018-06-01

The Deffuant model has attracted much attention in the study of opinion dynamics. Here, we propose a modified version by introducing into the model a heterogeneous convergence rate which is dependent on the opinion difference between interacting agents and a tunable parameter κ. We study the effects of heterogeneous convergence rate on consensus by investigating the probability of complete consensus, the size of the largest opinion cluster, the number of opinion clusters, and the relaxation time. We find that the decrease of the convergence rate is favorable to decreasing the confidence threshold for the population to always reach complete consensus, and there exists optimal κ resulting in the minimal bounded confidence threshold. Moreover, we find that there exists a window before the threshold of confidence in which complete consensus may be reached with a nonzero probability when κ is not too large. We also find that, within a certain confidence range, decreasing the convergence rate will reduce the relaxation time, which is somewhat counterintuitive.

Skin Cancer: Biology, Risk Factors & Treatment

Science.gov (United States)

... turn Javascript on. Feature: Skin Cancer Skin Cancer: Biology, Risk Factors & Treatment Past Issues / Summer 2013 Table ... Articles Skin Cancer Can Strike Anyone / Skin Cancer: Biology, Risk Factors & Treatment / Timely Healthcare Checkup Catches Melanoma ...

Plant Systems Biology (editorial)

Science.gov (United States)

In June 2003, Plant Physiology published an Arabidopsis special issue devoted to plant systems biology. The intention of Natasha Raikhel and Gloria Coruzzi, the two editors of this first-of-its-kind issue, was ‘‘to help nucleate this new effort within the plant community’’ as they considered that ‘‘...

The Ethics of Synthetic Biology

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Christiansen, Andreas

The dissertation analyses and discusses a number of ethical issues that have been raised in connection with the development of synthetic biology. Synthetic biology is a set of new techniques for DNA-level design and construction of living beings with useful properties. The dissertation especially...

Ernst Mayr and Evolutionary Biology

Indian Academy of Sciences (India)

Home; Journals; Resonance – Journal of Science Education; Volume 10; Issue 7. Polemics and Synthesis: Ernst Mayr and Evolutionary Biology. Renee M Borges. General Article Volume 10 Issue 7 July 2005 pp 21-33. Fulltext. Click here to view fulltext PDF. Permanent link:

An Investigation of the Intellectual Structure of Opinion Mining Research

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Yongjun; Kim, Meen Chul; Chen, Chaomei

2017-01-01

Introduction: Opinion mining has been receiving increasing attention from a broad range of scientific communities since early 2000s. The present study aims to systematically investigate the intellectual structure of opinion mining research. Method: Using topic search, citation expansion, and patent search, we collected 5,596 bibliographic records…

factors contributing to the accessibility of opinion leaders in lesotho

African Journals Online (AJOL)

p2333147

male opinion leaders was only 33.3 percent. These findings emphasise the necessity of extension to focus knowledge support on female opinion leaders in order to promote the diffusion process among the many female farmers. 3.3.3. Friendship. Friendship epitomises accessibility and consequently it is expected that.

Symmetry breaking in the opinion dynamics of a multi-group project organization

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhu Zhen-Tao; Zhou Jing; Chen Xing-Guang; Li Ping

2012-01-01

A bounded confidence model of opinion dynamics in multi-group projects is presented in which each group's opinion evolution is driven by two types of forces: (i) the group's cohesive force which tends to restore the opinion back towards the initial status because of its company culture; and (ii) nonlinear coupling forces with other groups which attempt to bring opinions closer due to collaboration willingness. Bifurcation analysis for the case of a two-group project shows a cusp catastrophe phenomenon and three distinctive evolutionary regimes, i.e., a deadlock regime, a convergence regime, and a bifurcation regime in opinion dynamics. The critical value of initial discord between the two groups is derived to discriminate which regime the opinion evolution belongs to. In the case of a three-group project with a symmetric social network, both bifurcation analysis and simulation results demonstrate that if each pair has a high initial discord, instead of symmetrically converging to consensus with the increase of coupling scale as expected by Gabbay's result (Physica A 378 (2007) p. 125 Fig. 5), project organization (PO) may be split into two distinct clusters because of the symmetry breaking phenomenon caused by pitchfork bifurcations, which urges that apart from divergence in participants' interests, nonlinear interaction can also make conflict inevitable in the PO. The effects of two asymmetric level parameters are tested in order to explore the ways of inducing dominant opinion in the whole PO. It is found that the strong influence imposed by a leader group with firm faith on the flexible and open minded follower groups can promote the formation of a positive dominant opinion in the PO

Symmetry breaking in the opinion dynamics of a multi-group project organization

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Zhen-Tao; Zhou, Jing; Li, Ping; Chen, Xing-Guang

2012-10-01

A bounded confidence model of opinion dynamics in multi-group projects is presented in which each group's opinion evolution is driven by two types of forces: (i) the group's cohesive force which tends to restore the opinion back towards the initial status because of its company culture; and (ii) nonlinear coupling forces with other groups which attempt to bring opinions closer due to collaboration willingness. Bifurcation analysis for the case of a two-group project shows a cusp catastrophe phenomenon and three distinctive evolutionary regimes, i.e., a deadlock regime, a convergence regime, and a bifurcation regime in opinion dynamics. The critical value of initial discord between the two groups is derived to discriminate which regime the opinion evolution belongs to. In the case of a three-group project with a symmetric social network, both bifurcation analysis and simulation results demonstrate that if each pair has a high initial discord, instead of symmetrically converging to consensus with the increase of coupling scale as expected by Gabbay's result (Physica A 378 (2007) p. 125 Fig. 5), project organization (PO) may be split into two distinct clusters because of the symmetry breaking phenomenon caused by pitchfork bifurcations, which urges that apart from divergence in participants' interests, nonlinear interaction can also make conflict inevitable in the PO. The effects of two asymmetric level parameters are tested in order to explore the ways of inducing dominant opinion in the whole PO. It is found that the strong influence imposed by a leader group with firm faith on the flexible and open minded follower groups can promote the formation of a positive dominant opinion in the PO.

The role of specialist neuroradiology second opinion reporting: is there added value?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Briggs, G.M.; Flynn, P.A.; Worthington, M.; Rennie, I.; McKinstry, C.S.

2008-01-01

Aim: To assess the impact on patient management of formal neuroradiology 'second reading' of computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images initially interpreted by general radiologists. Materials and methods: Second opinion reports during the calendar year 2004 were compared with the original report and assessed for major or minor discrepancies. A major discrepancy was separated from a minor discrepancy whereby a change in opinion significantly affected patient management. Results: There were 506 second opinions during 2004 given by three consultant neuroradiologists. Incomplete data were found in 141. Forty-one percent were CT images and the remainder MRI. The majority of second opinions were requested by neurologists. Most of the remaining referrals were from neurosurgeons or the primary radiologist. There was a 13% major and a 21% minor discrepancy rate. The remaining 66% were in complete agreement. There was a mixture of overcalls, misinterpretation, and undercalls. There were similar rates of minor and major discrepancies in both CT and MRI. Conclusion: There is a significant major discrepancy rate between specialist neuroradiology second opinion and general radiologists. The benefit of a formal specialist second opinion service is clearly demonstrated; however, it is time-consuming