Maturity-Onset Diabetes of the Young (MODY): Making the Right Diagnosis to Optimize Treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Amed, Shazhan; Oram, Richard

2016-10-01

Maturity onset diabetes of the young (MODY) is a rare but increasingly recognized cause of diabetes in young people. It is a monogenic disorder that typically presents at MODY are caused by mutations in glucokinase and hepatic nuclear factor 1 alpha or 4 alpha genes and account for almost 80% of cases of MODY. MODY is commonly misdiagnosed as type 1 or type 2 diabetes and, as a result, patients are often inappropriately managed with insulin when they can be more effectively managed with oral sulfonylureas. Therefore, making the right diagnosis is critical for effective treatment as well as for genetic counselling and, more important, for patients' quality of life. In this review, we aim to raise awareness about MODY among diabetes clinicians by describing key clinical and laboratory features of the most common forms of MODY, outlining features that might help to differentiate MODY from type 1 and type 2 diabetes and providing information about clinical tests and tools that might assist in identifying patients who are most likely to benefit from molecular genetic testing. Copyright © 2016 Canadian Diabetes Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Making a human right to tobacco control: expert and advocacy networks, framing and the right to health.

Science.gov (United States)

Reubi, David

2012-01-01

This article addresses the proliferation of human rights in international public health over the last 20 years by examining recent attempts at framing the global smoking epidemic as a human rights problem. Rather than advocating in favour or against human rights-based approaches, the article purports to understand how and why such approaches are being articulated and disseminated. First, it argues that the representation of the global smoking epidemic as a human rights issue has been the product of a small, international network of public health experts and lawyers: the human rights and tobacco control collective or community (HTC). The article describes in particular the HTC's membership, its style of thinking and its efforts to articulate and disseminate human rights-based approaches to tobacco control. Second, the article argues that the aim of the HTC when framing tobacco control as a human rights issue was not to generate public attention for and the political will to tackle the global smoking epidemic, as the literature on framing and human rights presupposes. Instead, as the article shows, the HTC framed tobacco control as a human rights problem to tap into the powerful, judicial monitoring and enforceability mechanisms that make up international human rights.

Supported Decision-Making from Theory to Practice: Implementing the Right to Enjoy Legal Capacity

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rosie Harding

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The right to equal recognition before the law, protected by Article 12 of the United Nations (UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD, mandates the use of supported decision-making practices to enable disabled people, particularly those with intellectual and/or psychosocial disabilities, to enjoy their legal capacity. Finding ways to translate this theoretical mandate into practice poses a number of particularly challenging socio-legal issues, which this research seeks to address. The English Mental Capacity Act 2005 (MCA sets out a right to support with decision-making (s.1(3, underpinned by a presumption of capacity (s.1(2. Qualitative interviews with intellectually disabled people, their supporters, and care and support professionals were undertaken to explore how disabled people make decisions in their everyday lives, the kinds of support they need, and the strategies for supported decision-making used in practice. Analysis of these interviews suggests that a range of supported decision-making techniques have been developed in practice and are effective in supporting everyday preferences and some life choices. Paradoxically, it appears that as decisions become more complex, the support available to disabled people reduces. Specifically, much less support is available for more difficult decisions around finances, healthcare and legal matters. We argue that the reasons for this are due to a web of regulatory, social and policy issues. We conclude that implementing the right to enjoy legal capacity through supported decision-making will require a combination of regulatory reform, social change and policy amendment.

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex affects strategic decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

van 't Wout, Mascha; Kahn, René S; Sanfey, Alan G; Aleman, André

2005-11-07

Although decision-making is typically seen as a rational process, emotions play a role in tasks that include unfairness. Recently, activation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during offers experienced as unfair in the Ultimatum Game was suggested to subserve goal maintenance in this task. This is restricted to correlational evidence, however, and it remains unclear whether the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is crucial for strategic decision-making. The present study used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in order to investigate the causal role of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex in strategic decision-making in the Ultimatum Game. The results showed that repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex resulted in an altered decision-making strategy compared with sham stimulation. We conclude that the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is causally implicated in strategic decision-making in healthy human study participants.

Getting the Balance Right: Conceptual Considerations Concerning Legal Capacity and Supported Decision-Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Parker, Malcolm

2016-09-01

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities urges and requires changes to how signatories discharge their duties to people with intellectual disabilities, in the direction of their greater recognition as legal persons with expanded decision-making rights. Australian jurisdictions are currently undertaking inquiries and pilot projects that explore how these imperatives should be implemented. One of the important changes advocated is to move from guardianship models to supported or assisted models of decision-making. A driving force behind these developments is a strong allegiance to the social model of disability, in the formulation of the Convention, in inquiries and pilot projects, in implementation and in the related academic literature. Many of these instances suffer from confusing and misleading statements and conceptual misinterpretations of certain elements such as legal capacity, decision-making capacity, and support for decision-making. This paper analyses some of these confusions and their possible negative implications for supported decision-making instruments and those whose interests these instruments would serve, and advises a more incremental development of existing guardianship regimes. This provides a more realistic balance between neglecting the real limits of those with mental disabilities and thereby ignoring their identity and particularity, and continuing to bring them equally and fully into society.

Confronting the risks of terrorism: making the right decisions

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

John Garrick, B.; Hall, James E.; Kilger, Max; McDonald, John C.; O'Toole, Tara; Probst, Peter S.; Rindskopf Parker, Elizabeth; Rosenthal, Robert; Trivelpiece, Alvin W.; Van Arsdale, Lee A.; Zebroski, Edwin L.

2004-01-01

This report offers a methodology for assessing, quantitatively, the risks of terrorism. The purpose of the methodology is to support effective decision making to combat terrorism. The emphasis is on terrorist attacks that could have catastrophic consequences. The perspective taken is that in order to make the right decisions about combating terrorism, their needs to be a systematic means of assessing the likelihood of such attacks. A process of implementation of the decisions resulting from risk assessment is essential. That process includes (1) an understanding of the nature of the threat, (2) an information system linked directly to 'intelligence' on terrorism, and (3) organizational structures that can take timely, coordinated, and effective actions. There must also be sound evidence that the methodology can be successfully applied. A description of the nature of terrorism, a terrorism risk assessment methodology, information requirements to fight terrorism, and recommendations for successful implementation is what this report is about

Achieving social justice for children: How can children's rights thinking make a difference?

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Anne B

2016-01-01

This article draws on themes from the author's book, Children’s Rights: Toward Social Justice , that emerge from surveying children’s rights issues in different childhood contexts; the family, education, child protection, and health services. The author has selected five examples of application of children’s rights to a policy area and identified the implications for policy and practice. There are four core rights that cut across all children’s rights issues that are mentioned before discussing specific areas. First, children, regardless of race, sex, language, religion, disability, or class, are entitled to rights. In other words, all children should enjoy their rights and should not be discriminated against. Second, “the best interests of the child” should be “a primary consideration” in actions or decisions concerning children. Third, children have the right to survival and development. And fourth, children have the right to be consulted and have their views heard in matters that affect them. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved

Decision-making process related to treatment and management in Korean women with breast cancer: Finding the right individualized healthcare trajectory.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Kkotbong; Yang, Jinhyang

2017-06-01

After being diagnosed with breast cancer, women must make a number of decisions about their treatment and management. When the decision-making process among breast cancer patients is ineffective, it results in harm to their health. Little is known about the decision-making process of breast cancer patients during the entire course of treatment and management. We investigated women with breast cancer to explore the decision-making processes related to treatment and management. Eleven women participated, all of whom were receiving treatment or management in Korea. The average participant age was 43.5years. For data collection and analysis, a grounded theory methodology was used. Through constant comparative analyses, a core category emerged that we referred to as "finding the right individualized healthcare trajectory." The decision-making process occurred in four phases: turmoil, exploration, balance, and control. The turmoil phase included weighing the credibility of information and lowering the anxiety level. The exploration phase included assessing the expertise/promptness of medical treatment and evaluating the effectiveness of follow-up management. The balance phase included performing analyses from multiple angles and rediscovering value as a human being. The control phase included constructing an individualized management system and following prescribed and other management options. It is important to provide patients with accurate information related to the treatment and management of breast cancer so that they can make effective decisions. Healthcare providers should engage with patients on issues related to their disease, understand the burden placed on patients because of issues related to their sex, and ensure that the patient has a sufficient support system. The results of this study can be used to develop phase-specific, patient-centered, and tailored interventions for breast cancer patients. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Anthropology and decision making about chronic technological disasters: Mixed waste remediation on the Oak Ridge Reservation

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Wolfe, A.K.; Schweitzer, M.

1996-01-01

This paper discusses two related case studies of decision making about the remediation of mixed (hazardous and radioactive) wastes on the Oak Ridge Reservation in Tennessee. The three goals of the paper are to (1) place current decision-making efforts in the varied and evolving social, political, regulatory, economic, and technological contexts in which they occur; (2) present definitions and attributes of open-quotes successfulclose quotes environmental decision making from the perspectives of key constituency groups that participate in decision making; and (3) discuss the role of anthropology in addressing environmental decision making. Environmental decision making about remediation is extraordinarily complex, involving human health and ecological risks; uncertainties about risks, technological ability to clean up, the financial costs of clean up; multiple and sometimes conflicting regulations; social equity and justice considerations; and decreasing budgets. Anthropological theories and methods can contribute to better understanding and, potentially, to better decision making

Reserving Charging Decision-Making Model and Route Plan for Electric Vehicles Considering Information of Traffic and Charging Station

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Haoming Liu

2018-04-01

Full Text Available With the advance of battery energy technology, electric vehicles (EV are catching more and more attention. One of the influencing factors of electric vehicles large-scale application is the availability of charging stations and convenience of charging. It is important to investigate how to make reserving charging strategies and ensure electric vehicles are charged with shorter time and lower charging expense whenever charging request is proposed. This paper proposes a reserving charging decision-making model for electric vehicles that move to certain destinations and need charging services in consideration of traffic conditions and available charging resources at the charging stations. Besides, the interactive mechanism is described to show how the reserving charging system works, as well as the rolling records-based credit mechanism where extra charges from EV is considered to hedge default behavior. With the objectives of minimizing driving time and minimizing charging expenses, an optimization model with two objective functions is formulated. Then the optimizations are solved by a K shortest paths algorithm based on a weighted directed graph, where the time and distance factors are respectively treated as weights of corresponding edges of transportation networks. Case studies show the effectiveness and validity of the proposed route plan and reserving charging decision-making model.

Anodal transcranial direct current stimulation over right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex alters decision making during approach-avoidance conflict.

Science.gov (United States)

Chrysikou, Evangelia G; Gorey, Claire; Aupperle, Robin L

2017-03-01

Approach-avoidance conflict (AAC) refers to situations associated with both rewarding and threatening outcomes. The AAC task was developed to measure AAC decision-making. Approach behavior during this task has been linked to self-reported anxiety sensitivity and has elicited anterior cingulate, insula, caudate and right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) activity, with right lateral PFC tracking the extent of approach behavior. Guided by these results, we used excitatory transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to demonstrate the causal involvement of right dlPFC in AAC decision-making. Participants received anodal tDCS at 1.5mA over either left or right dlPFC or sham stimulation, while performing the AAC task and a control short-term memory task. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) revealed that for individuals with high anxiety sensitivity excitatory right (but not left or sham) dlPFC stimulation elicited measurable decreases in approach behavior during conflict. Excitatory left (but not right or sham) dlPFC simulation improved performance on the control task. These results support a possible asymmetry between the contributions of right and left dlPFC to AAC resolution during emotional decision-making. Increased activity in right dlPFC may contribute to anxiety-related symptoms and, as such, serve as a neurobehavioral target of anxiolytic treatments aiming to decrease avoidance behavior. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press.

Reserves reporting for decision-making planning and control

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Higgins, G.

1992-01-01

This paper shows how the established Monte Carlo simulation approach to estimating hydrocarbon reserves can be expanded to provide the basis of a comprehensive valuation, planning and control system meeting all the reserve reporting requirements of an oil exploration and production company. The approach presented is also appropriate for other mining and extractive industries. The paper demonstrates how individual expectation curves can be modified to reflect both technically and commercially recoverable reserves and how these are in turn combined into the economic valuation, planning and control processes of an enterprise. Estimates across the full range of risk and reserves can be aggregated to provide a powerful planning tool that can be used to set corporate, divisional and individual objectives

Doing what's right: A grounded theory of ethical decision-making in occupational therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

VanderKaay, Sandra; Letts, Lori; Jung, Bonny; Moll, Sandra E

2018-04-20

Ethical decision-making is an important aspect of reasoning in occupational therapy practice. However, the process of ethical decision-making within the broader context of reasoning is yet to be clearly explicated. The purpose of this study was to advance a theoretical understanding of the process by which occupational therapists make ethical decisions in day-to-day practice. A constructivist grounded theory approach was adopted, incorporating in-depth semi-structured interviews with 18 occupational therapists from a range of practice settings and years of experience. Initially, participants nominated as key informants who were able to reflect on their decision-making processes were recruited. Theoretical sampling informed subsequent stages of data collection. Participants were asked to describe their process of ethical decision-making using scenarios from clinical practice. Interview transcripts were analyzed using a systematic process of initial then focused coding, and theoretical categorization to construct a theory regarding the process of ethical decision-making. An ethical decision-making prism was developed to capture three main processes: Considering the Fundamental Checklist, Consulting Others, and Doing What's Right. Ethical decision-making appeared to be an inductive and dialectical process with the occupational therapist at its core. Study findings advance our understanding of ethical decision-making in day-to-day clinical practice.

Decision-Making and the Law in Higher Education--Emphasis on Student Rights: Essay and Bibliography.

Science.gov (United States)

Tice, Terrence N.

The essay and bibliography presented here are designed for general use among those concerned with questions of campus rights and responsibilities and with the application of legal principles in campus decision-making. The primary focus is on student rights issues. The discussion falls into three parts: (1) "Law and Morality in the Open Society" is…

Sexuality Education: Building an Evidence- and Rights-Based Approach to Healthy Decision-Making

Science.gov (United States)

Bridges, Emily; Hauser, Debra

2014-01-01

As they grow up, young people face important decisions about relationships, sexuality, and sexual behavior. The decisions they make can impact their health and well-being for the rest of their lives. Young people have the right to lead healthy lives, and society has the responsibility to prepare youth by providing them with comprehensive sexual…

Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation over the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex affects strategic decision-making

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van't Wout, M; Kahn, RS; Sanfey, AG; Aleman, A

2005-01-01

Although decision-making is typically seen as a rational process, emotions play a role in tasks that include unfairness. Recently, activation in the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex during offers experienced as unfair in the Ultimatum Game was suggested to subserve goal maintenance in this task.

Youth, Privacy and Online Media: Framing the right to privacy in public policy-making

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hasselbalch, Gry; Jørgensen, Rikke Frank

2015-01-01

debate. It presents the results of a qualitative study amongst 68 Danish high school students concerning how they perceive, negotiate and control their private sphere when using social media and builds a case for utilizing the results of studies as this to inform the ongoing policy discourses concerning...... policy making that the right to privacy is challenged in new ways in a structurally transformed online public sphere, the way in which it has been framed does not seem to acknowledge this transformation. This paper therefore argues for a reformulation of “online privacy” in the current global policy......The right to privacy is a fundamental human right defined in international and regional human rights instruments. As such it has been included as a core component of key legislature and policy proceedings throughout the brief history of the World Wide Web. While it is generally recognized in public...

Comparison of fractional flow reserve of composite Y-grafts with saphenous vein or right internal thoracic arteries.

Science.gov (United States)

Glineur, David; Boodhwani, Munir; Poncelet, Alain; De Kerchove, Laurent; Etienne, Pierre Yves; Noirhomme, Philippe; Deceuninck, Paul; Michel, Xavier; El Khoury, Gebrine; Hanet, Claude

2010-09-01

Composite Y-grafts, using the left internal thoracic artery as the inflow, allow a more efficient use of conduits without the need to touch a diseased ascending aorta. Among other conduits, the saphenous vein graft may be an alternative to the radial artery in elderly patients. We evaluated the hemodynamic characteristics of 17 composite Y-grafts made with the left internal thoracic artery anastomosed to the left anterior descending coronary artery in all cases and with either the free right internal thoracic artery (RITA group, n = 10) or a saphenous vein graft (SVG group, n = 7) implanted proximally to the left internal thoracic artery and distally to the circumflex territory 6 months after the operation. At baseline, the pressure gradient measured with a 0.014-inch pressure wire was minimal between the aorta and the internal thoracic artery stem (2 +/- 1 mm Hg), the internal thoracic artery and left anterior descending (4 +/- 2 mm Hg), the internal thoracic artery and left circumflex (3 +/- 1 mm Hg), and the saphenous vein graft and left circumflex (2 +/- 2 mm Hg). During hyperemia induced by adenosine, the pressure gradient increased significantly to 6 +/- 2 mm Hg in the internal thoracic artery stem, 9 +/- 4 mm Hg in the internal thoracic artery and left anterior descending artery, 9 +/- 3 mm Hg in the internal thoracic artery and left circumflex, and 7 +/- 4 mm Hg in the saphenous vein graft and left circumflex. Fractional flow reserve was 0.94 +/- 0.02 in internal thoracic artery stem, 0.90 +/- 0.04 mm Hg in the internal thoracic artery and left anterior descending, 0.91 +/- 0.03 mm Hg in the internal thoracic artery and left circumflex, and 0.92 +/- 0.06 mm Hg in the saphenous vein graft and left circumflex. No difference between the two types of composite Y-grafts was observed for pressure gradients or fractional flow reserve measured in internal thoracic artery stem or in distal branches. Composite Y-grafts with saphenous vein or right internal thoracic

BioMake: a GNU make-compatible utility for declarative workflow management.

Science.gov (United States)

Holmes, Ian H; Mungall, Christopher J

2017-11-01

The Unix 'make' program is widely used in bioinformatics pipelines, but suffers from problems that limit its application to large analysis datasets. These include reliance on file modification times to determine whether a target is stale, lack of support for parallel execution on clusters, and restricted flexibility to extend the underlying logic program. We present BioMake, a make-like utility that is compatible with most features of GNU Make and adds support for popular cluster-based job-queue engines, MD5 signatures as an alternative to timestamps, and logic programming extensions in Prolog. BioMake is available for MacOSX and Linux systems from https://github.com/evoldoers/biomake under the BSD3 license. The only dependency is SWI-Prolog (version 7), available from http://www.swi-prolog.org/. ihholmes + biomake@gmail.com or cmungall + biomake@gmail.com. Feature table comparing BioMake to similar tools. Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online. © The Author (2017). Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: a new approach to decision-making in mental health law.

Science.gov (United States)

Morrissey, Fiona

2012-12-01

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) requires us to engage in new approaches to decision-making in mental health law. The reclassification of mental health rights to the realm of disability rights is an important step towards equal treatment for persons with psychosocial disabilities. Law reformers worldwide are beginning to consider the implications of the provisions. Legislators will be required to understand the underlying philosophy of the CRPD to realise the rights set out in it. The CRPD possesses a number of innovative provisions which can transform decision-making in the mental health context. Article 12 provides a new conceptualisation of persons with disabilities and their capacity to participate by requiring support to exercise legal capacity. While good practice exists, the provision has yet to be fully implemented by many State Parties. This article discusses the impact of the CRPD on mental health law, legal capacity law and describes examples of supported decision-making models for mental health care.

Decision making and cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Reyna, Valerie F; Nelson, Wendy L; Han, Paul K; Pignone, Michael P

2015-01-01

We review decision making along the cancer continuum in the contemporary context of informed and shared decision making in which patients are encouraged to take a more active role in their health care. We discuss challenges to achieving informed and shared decision making, including cognitive limitations and emotional factors, but argue that understanding the mechanisms of decision making offers hope for improving decision support. Theoretical approaches to decision making that explain cognition, emotion, and their interaction are described, including classical psychophysical approaches, dual-process approaches that focus on conflicts between emotion versus cognition (or reason), and modern integrative approaches such as fuzzy-trace theory. In contrast to the earlier emphasis on rote use of numerical detail, modern approaches emphasize understanding the bottom-line gist of options (which encompasses emotion and other influences on meaning) and retrieving relevant social and moral values to apply to those gist representations. Finally, research on interventions to support better decision making in clinical settings is reviewed, drawing out implications for future research on decision making and cancer. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved.

7 CFR 1467.9 - Wetlands Reserve Enhancement Program.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

..., restoration, and enhancement objectives through agreements with States (including a political subdivision or... project. (b) Reserved Rights Pilot. (1) The Chief shall carry out a reserved rights pilot subject to the requirements established in this part. (2) Under the reserved rights pilot, a landowner may reserve grazing...

Echocardiographic and hemodynamic determinants of right coronary artery flow reserve and phasic flow pattern in advanced non-ischemic cardiomyopathy

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Mady Charles

2007-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In patients with advanced non-ischemic cardiomyopathy (NIC, right-sided cardiac disturbances has prognostic implications. Right coronary artery (RCA flow pattern and flow reserve (CFR are not well known in this setting. The purpose of this study was to assess, in human advanced NIC, the RCA phasic flow pattern and CFR, also under right-sided cardiac disturbances, and compare with left coronary circulation. As well as to investigate any correlation between the cardiac structural, mechanical and hemodynamic parameters with RCA phasic flow pattern or CFR. Methods Twenty four patients with dilated severe NIC were evaluated non-invasively, even by echocardiography, and also by cardiac catheterization, inclusive with Swan-Ganz catheter. Intracoronary Doppler (Flowire data was obtained in RCA and left anterior descendent coronary artery (LAD before and after adenosine. Resting RCA phasic pattern (diastolic/systolic was compared between subgroups with and without pulmonary hypertension, and with and without right ventricular (RV dysfunction; and also with LAD. RCA-CFR was compared with LAD, as well as in those subgroups. Pearson's correlation analysis was accomplished among echocardiographic (including LV fractional shortening, mass index, end systolic wall stress more hemodynamic parameters with RCA phasic flow pattern or RCA-CFR. Results LV fractional shortening and end diastolic diameter were 15.3 ± 3.5 % and 69.4 ± 12.2 mm. Resting RCA phasic pattern had no difference comparing subgroups with vs. without pulmonary hypertension (1.45 vs. 1.29, p = NS either with vs. without RV dysfunction (1.47 vs. 1.23, p = NS; RCA vs. LAD was 1.35 vs. 2.85 (p Conclusion In patients with chronic advanced NIC, RCA phasic flow pattern has a mild diastolic predominance, less marked than in LAD, with no effects from pulmonary artery hypertension or RV dysfunction. There is no significant correlation between any cardiac mechanical-structural or

Role of affect in decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Bandyopadhyay, Debarati; Pammi, V S Chandrasekhar; Srinivasan, Narayanan

2013-01-01

Emotion plays a major role in influencing our everyday cognitive and behavioral functions, including decision making. We introduce different ways in which emotions are characterized in terms of the way they influence or elicited by decision making. This chapter discusses different theories that have been proposed to explain the role of emotions in judgment and decision making. We also discuss incidental emotional influences, both long-duration influences like mood and short-duration influences by emotional context present prior to or during decision making. We present and discuss results from a study with emotional pictures presented prior to decision making and how that influences both decision processes and postdecision experience as a function of uncertainty. We conclude with a summary of the work on emotions and decision making in the context of decision-making theories and our work on incidental emotions. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Neural Basis of Strategic Decision Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Daeyeol; Seo, Hyojung

2016-01-01

Human choice behaviors during social interactions often deviate from the predictions of game theory. This might arise partly from the limitations in the cognitive abilities necessary for recursive reasoning about the behaviors of others. In addition, during iterative social interactions, choices might change dynamically as knowledge about the intentions of others and estimates for choice outcomes are incrementally updated via reinforcement learning. Some of the brain circuits utilized during social decision making might be general-purpose and contribute to isomorphic individual and social decision making. By contrast, regions in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) and temporal parietal junction (TPJ) might be recruited for cognitive processes unique to social decision making. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The amygdala and decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Gupta, Rupa; Koscik, Timothy R; Bechara, Antoine; Tranel, Daniel

2011-03-01

Decision-making is a complex process that requires the orchestration of multiple neural systems. For example, decision-making is believed to involve areas of the brain involved in emotion (e.g., amygdala, ventromedial prefrontal cortex) and memory (e.g., hippocampus, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). In this article, we will present findings related to the amygdala's role in decision-making, and differentiate the contributions of the amygdala from those of other structurally and functionally connected neural regions. Decades of research have shown that the amygdala is involved in associating a stimulus with its emotional value. This tradition has been extended in newer work, which has shown that the amygdala is especially important for decision-making, by triggering autonomic responses to emotional stimuli, including monetary reward and punishment. Patients with amygdala damage lack these autonomic responses to reward and punishment, and consequently, cannot utilize "somatic marker" type cues to guide future decision-making. Studies using laboratory decision-making tests have found deficient decision-making in patients with bilateral amygdala damage, which resembles their real-world difficulties with decision-making. Additionally, we have found evidence for an interaction between sex and laterality of amygdala functioning, such that unilateral damage to the right amygdala results in greater deficits in decision-making and social behavior in men, while left amygdala damage seems to be more detrimental for women. We have posited that the amygdala is part of an "impulsive," habit type system that triggers emotional responses to immediate outcomes. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Efficient Allocation of Reserve Costs in RTO Markets

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Kirsch, Laurence D.; Morey, Mathew J.

2006-10-15

RTOs' make-whole payments for generation commitment are needed partly because of flaws in the design of reserve markets. Markets might be made more efficient with greater locational differentiation in reserve prices and incorporation of make-whole payments into reserve prices. (author)

Decision-Making: Are Plants More Rational than Animals?

Science.gov (United States)

Schmid, Bernhard

2016-07-25

A new study presents a novel experimental design and allows a test of risk sensitivity in plants. Faced with a choice between constant and variable resource supply, they make a rational decision for the option that maximizes fitness, a fact rarely observed in animals. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

All rights reserved

African Journals Online (AJOL)

ADOWIE PERE

ABSTRACT: The influence of weather in all aspects of human endeavours is evident in the recorded loss of lives and properties .... forecasting the rain, frost and fog formation as well as ... 2017). The trend graphs of relative humidity and the ... equation was obtained using the curve estimation .... empirical regression models.

Computational Complexity and Human Decision-Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Bossaerts, Peter; Murawski, Carsten

2017-12-01

The rationality principle postulates that decision-makers always choose the best action available to them. It underlies most modern theories of decision-making. The principle does not take into account the difficulty of finding the best option. Here, we propose that computational complexity theory (CCT) provides a framework for defining and quantifying the difficulty of decisions. We review evidence showing that human decision-making is affected by computational complexity. Building on this evidence, we argue that most models of decision-making, and metacognition, are intractable from a computational perspective. To be plausible, future theories of decision-making will need to take into account both the resources required for implementing the computations implied by the theory, and the resource constraints imposed on the decision-maker by biology. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Influences on decision-making for young women undergoing bilateral prophylactic mastectomy.

Science.gov (United States)

Glassey, Rachael; O'Connor, Moira; Ives, Angela; Saunders, Christobel; Hardcastle, Sarah J

2018-02-01

The objective of this study was to explore the influences on decision-making of younger women (decision-making were identified: fear and anxiety, children, personal experiences with BC, health professional's influence. The decision to undergo BPM for younger women (account the way younger women perceive information given to them when discussing risk. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Rights and the Role of Family Engagement in Child Welfare: An International Treaties Perspective on Families' Rights, Parents' Rights, and Children's Rights

Science.gov (United States)

Lenzer, Gertrud; Gran, Brian

2011-01-01

According to international human rights treaties, what rights do family members, parents, and children have in family engagement in child welfare decision-making? A sociolegal analytical approach produces a typology of rights, then applies the typology to eight countries' approaches to family engagement to show that strong bundles of rights are…

Status of fossil fuel reserves; Etat des reserves des combustibles fossiles

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Laherrere, J

2005-07-01

Reserves represent the sum of past and future productions up to the end of production. In most countries the reserve data of fields are confidential. Therefore, fossil fuel reserves are badly known because the published data are more political than technical and many countries make a confusion between resources and reserves. The cumulated production of fossil fuels represents only between a third and a fifth of the ultimate reserves. The production peak will take place between 2020 and 2050. In the ultimate reserves, which extrapolate the past, the fossil fuels represent three thirds of the overall energy. This document analyses the uncertainties linked with fossil fuel reserves: reliability of published data, modeling of future production, comparison with other energy sources, energy consumption forecasts, reserves/production ratio, exploitation of non-conventional hydrocarbons (tar sands, extra-heavy oils, bituminous shales, coal gas, gas shales, methane in overpressure aquifers, methane hydrates), technology impacts, prices impact, and reserves growth. (J.S.)

Guide to Decision-Making Getting it more right than wrong

CERN Document Server

Drummond, Helga

2012-01-01

We make decisions, and these decisions make us and our organisations. And in theory, decision-making should be easy: a problem is identified, the decision-makers generate solutions, and choose the optimal one - and powerful mathematical tools are available to facilitate the task. Yet if it is all so simple why do organisations, both private and public sector, keep making mistakes - the results of which are borne by shareholders, employees, taxpayers and ultimately society at large? This guide to decision making. by leading decision science academic Helga Drummond, aims to improve decision-maki

Pursuing the Right to an Effective Remedy for Human Rights ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Undoubtedly, global and regional human rights instruments clearly entrench the right to an effective remedy for a human rights violation. The substantive nature of the right to an effective remedy makes it relevant to the realisation of the right to equality as well as the right to equal protection under the law. Cameroon, as a ...

Right For Me: protocol for a cluster randomised trial of two interventions for facilitating shared decision-making about contraceptive methods.

Science.gov (United States)

Thompson, Rachel; Manski, Ruth; Donnelly, Kyla Z; Stevens, Gabrielle; Agusti, Daniela; Banach, Michelle; Boardman, Maureen B; Brady, Pearl; Colón Bradt, Christina; Foster, Tina; Johnson, Deborah J; Li, Zhongze; Norsigian, Judy; Nothnagle, Melissa; Olson, Ardis L; Shepherd, Heather L; Stern, Lisa F; Tosteson, Tor D; Trevena, Lyndal; Upadhya, Krishna K; Elwyn, Glyn

2017-10-22

Trials.gov Identifier: NCT02759939. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2017. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Indigenous Rights in the Making: The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples

OpenAIRE

Gilbert, Jérémie

2007-01-01

This article examines to what extent the recently adopted United Nations Declarations on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples participate to the development of indigenous peoples' international human rights.

Do cultural diversity and human rights make a good match?

Science.gov (United States)

Donders, Yvonne

2010-01-01

The link between cultural diversity and human rights was clearly established by the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, adopted by the member states of UNESCO in 2001, which holds that "the defence of cultural diversity is … inseparable from respect for human dignity" and that it "implies a commitment to human rights and fundamental freedoms." The UNESCO Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions, adopted in 2005, states that "cultural diversity can be protected and promoted only if human rights and fundamental freedoms … are guaranteed" (Article 2[1]). The precise relationship between cultural diversity and human rights, however, is not clarified and thus leaves room for further exploration. This contribution analyses the issues surrounding the relationship between cultural diversity and human rights, in particular cultural rights. Firstly, it addresses general human rights issues such as universality and cultural relativism and the principles of equality and non-discrimination. Secondly, it explores the scope of cultural rights, as well as the cultural dimension of human rights. Thirdly, several cases are discussed in which human rights were invoked to protect cultural interests, confirming the value of cultural diversity. Finally, some concluding remarks are presented, indicating which areas require attention in order to further improve the promotion and protection of human rights in relation to cultural diversity.

Using the Situated Clinical Decision-Making framework to guide analysis of nurses' clinical decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Gillespie, Mary

2010-11-01

Nurses' clinical decision-making is a complex process that holds potential to influence the quality of care provided and patient outcomes. The evolution of nurses' decision-making that occurs with experience has been well documented. In addition, literature includes numerous strategies and approaches purported to support development of nurses' clinical decision-making. There has been, however, significantly less attention given to the process of assessing nurses' clinical decision-making and novice clinical educators are often challenged with knowing how to best support nurses and nursing students in developing their clinical decision-making capacity. The Situated Clinical Decision-Making framework is presented for use by clinical educators: it provides a structured approach to analyzing nursing students' and novice nurses' decision-making in clinical nursing practice, assists educators in identifying specific issues within nurses' clinical decision-making, and guides selection of relevant strategies to support development of clinical decision-making. A series of questions is offered as a guide for clinical educators when assessing nurses' clinical decision-making. The discussion presents key considerations related to analysis of various decision-making components, including common sources of challenge and errors that may occur within nurses' clinical decision-making. An exemplar illustrates use of the framework and guiding questions. Implications of this approach for selection of strategies that support development of clinical decision-making are highlighted. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A cognitive prosthesis for complex decision-making.

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Tremblay, Sébastien; Gagnon, Jean-François; Lafond, Daniel; Hodgetts, Helen M; Doiron, Maxime; Jeuniaux, Patrick P J M H

2017-01-01

While simple heuristics can be ecologically rational and effective in naturalistic decision making contexts, complex situations require analytical decision making strategies, hypothesis-testing and learning. Sub-optimal decision strategies - using simplified as opposed to analytic decision rules - have been reported in domains such as healthcare, military operational planning, and government policy making. We investigate the potential of a computational toolkit called "IMAGE" to improve decision-making by developing structural knowledge and increasing understanding of complex situations. IMAGE is tested within the context of a complex military convoy management task through (a) interactive simulations, and (b) visualization and knowledge representation capabilities. We assess the usefulness of two versions of IMAGE (desktop and immersive) compared to a baseline. Results suggest that the prosthesis helped analysts in making better decisions, but failed to increase their structural knowledge about the situation once the cognitive prosthesis is removed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Fractional Reserve in Banking System

OpenAIRE

Valkonen, Maria

2016-01-01

This thesis is aimed to provide understanding of the role of the fractional reserve in the mod-ern banking system worldwide and particularly in Finland. The fractional reserve banking is used worldwide, but the benefits of this system are very disputable. On the one hand, experts say that the fractional reserve is a necessary instrument for the normal business and profit making. On the other hand, sceptics openly criticize the fractional reserve system and blame it for fiat money (money n...

Serotonin and decision making processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Homberg, Judith R

2012-01-01

Serotonin (5-HT) is an important player in decision making. Serotonergic antidepressant, anxiolytic and antipsychotic drugs are extensively used in the treatment of neuropsychiatric disorders characterized by impaired decision making, and exert both beneficial and harmful effects in patients. Detailed insight into the serotonergic mechanisms underlying decision making is needed to strengthen the first and weaken the latter. Although much remains to be done to achieve this, accumulating studies begin to deliver a coherent view. Thus, high central 5-HT levels are generally associated with improved reversal learning, improved attentional set shifting, decreased delay discounting, and increased response inhibition, but a failure to use outcome representations. Based on 5-HT's evolutionary role, I hypothesize that 5-HT integrates expected, or changes in, relevant sensory and emotional internal/external information, leading to vigilance behaviour affecting various decision making processes. 5-HT receptor subtypes play distinctive roles in decision making. 5-HT(2A) agonists and 5-HT2c antagonists decrease compulsivity, whereas 5-HT(2A) antagonists and 5-HT(2C) agonists decrease impulsivity. 5-HT(6) antagonists univocally affect decision making processes. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Disclosing incidental findings in brain research: the rights of minors in decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Di Pietro, Nina C; Illes, Judy

2013-11-01

MRI is used routinely in research with children to generate new knowledge about brain development. The detection of unexpected brain abnormalities (incidental findings; IFs) in these studies presents unique challenges. While key issues surrounding incidence and significance, duty of care, and burden of disclosure have been addressed substantially for adults, less empirical data and normative analyses exist for minors who participate in minimal risk research. To identify ethical concerns and fill existing gaps, we conducted a comprehensive review of papers that focused explicitly on the discovery of IFs in minors. The discourse in the 21 papers retrieved for this analysis amply covered practical issues such as informed consent and screening, difficulties in ascertaining clinical significance, the economic costs and burden of responsibility on researchers, and risks (physical or psychological). However, we found little discussion about the involvement of minors in decisions about disclosure of IFs in the brain, especially for IFs of low clinical significance. In response, we propose a framework for managing IFs that integrates practical considerations with explicit appreciation of rights along the continuum of maturity. This capacity-adjusted framework emphasizes the importance of involving competent minors and respecting their right to make decisions about disclosure. Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Human Rights Texts: Converting Human Rights Primary Source Documents into Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Fariss, Christopher J; Linder, Fridolin J; Jones, Zachary M; Crabtree, Charles D; Biek, Megan A; Ross, Ana-Sophia M; Kaur, Taranamol; Tsai, Michael

2015-01-01

We introduce and make publicly available a large corpus of digitized primary source human rights documents which are published annually by monitoring agencies that include Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and the United States Department of State. In addition to the digitized text, we also make available and describe document-term matrices, which are datasets that systematically organize the word counts from each unique document by each unique term within the corpus of human rights documents. To contextualize the importance of this corpus, we describe the development of coding procedures in the human rights community and several existing categorical indicators that have been created by human coding of the human rights documents contained in the corpus. We then discuss how the new human rights corpus and the existing human rights datasets can be used with a variety of statistical analyses and machine learning algorithms to help scholars understand how human rights practices and reporting have evolved over time. We close with a discussion of our plans for dataset maintenance, updating, and availability.

Changing stakeholder relationships in nature reserve management: a case study on Snake Island-Laotie Mountain National Nature Reserve, Liaoning, China.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhou, Dan; Wang, Ziyan; Lassoie, James; Wang, Xiaoping; Sun, Lixin

2014-12-15

The number and total area of nature reserves in China has increased rapidly over the past couple of decades; however, the ability to effectively manage these reserves has not kept pace and conflicts between conservation efforts and economic development have emerged. The Snake Island-Laotie Mountain National Nature Reserve (SILMNNR) currently is experiencing the challenges of balancing conservation with local community development. This paper uses components analysis of human ecosystems (HEC) to examine conflicts arising from the management of the nature reserve and uses a stakeholder analysis to identify and better understand stakeholder inter-relationships in the SILMNNR-HEC. The goal of this study is to identify critical factors influencing stakeholder relationships in order to find ways of relieving conflicts between the reserve management and development. The stakeholder analysis revealed that the key stakeholders in the SILMNNR-HEC are natural resources, the Liaoning SILMNNR Authority, local residents, and enterprise developers; however, there was unequal power among stakeholders in the decision making process affecting the nature reserve. The paper evaluated the conditions and processes of SILMNNR-HEC through a framework of stakeholder relationships where critical factors, such as policy, finance, technology, and labor, and their respective strengths and feedbacks among stakeholders, were assessed and showed unequal flows of power among stakeholders. Two approaches are provided for transforming the unbalanced relationships into a stable and sustainable framework to sustainably manage the nature reserve: the first is by changing stakeholder relationships from opposition to cooperation; and the second by enhancing feedbacks and dynamics among stakeholders. The analysis used in this paper can be used as a model to assess conflicts around other protected areas in China and elsewhere. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

No Change in Social Decision-Making Following Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Right Temporoparietal Junction

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Laura F. Blair-West

2018-04-01

Full Text Available The right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ is thought to play an important role in social cognition and pro-social decision-making. One way to explore this link is through the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS, a non-invasive brain stimulation method that is able to modulate cortical activity. The aim of this research was therefore to determine whether anodal tDCS to the rTPJ altered response to a social decision-making task. In this study, 34 healthy volunteers participated in a single-center, double-blinded, sham-controlled crossover design. Subjects received 20 min of active/sham anodal tDCS to the rTPJ before undertaking the Ultimatum Game (UG, a neuroeconomics paradigm in which participants are forced to choose between monetary reward and punishing an opponent's unfairness. Contrary to expectations, we found no significant difference between anodal and sham stimulation with regard to either the total number or reaction time of unfair offer rejections in the UG. This study draws attention to methodological issues in tDCS studies of the rTPJ, and highlights the complexity of social decision-making in the UG.

No Change in Social Decision-Making Following Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation of the Right Temporoparietal Junction.

Science.gov (United States)

Blair-West, Laura F; Hoy, Kate E; Hall, Phillip J; Fitzgerald, Paul B; Fitzgibbon, Bernadette M

2018-01-01

The right temporoparietal junction (rTPJ) is thought to play an important role in social cognition and pro-social decision-making. One way to explore this link is through the use of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a non-invasive brain stimulation method that is able to modulate cortical activity. The aim of this research was therefore to determine whether anodal tDCS to the rTPJ altered response to a social decision-making task. In this study, 34 healthy volunteers participated in a single-center, double-blinded, sham-controlled crossover design. Subjects received 20 min of active/sham anodal tDCS to the rTPJ before undertaking the Ultimatum Game (UG), a neuroeconomics paradigm in which participants are forced to choose between monetary reward and punishing an opponent's unfairness. Contrary to expectations, we found no significant difference between anodal and sham stimulation with regard to either the total number or reaction time of unfair offer rejections in the UG. This study draws attention to methodological issues in tDCS studies of the rTPJ, and highlights the complexity of social decision-making in the UG.

A judgment and decision-making model for plant behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Karban, Richard; Orrock, John L

2018-06-12

Recently plant biologists have documented that plants, like animals, engage in many activities that can be considered as behaviors, although plant biologists currently lack a conceptual framework to understand these processes. Borrowing the well-established framework developed by psychologists, we propose that plant behaviors can be constructively modeled by identifying four distinct components: 1) a cue or stimulus that provides information, 2) a judgment whereby the plant perceives and processes this informative cue, 3) a decision whereby the plant chooses among several options based on their relative costs and benefits, and 4) action. Judgment for plants can be determined empirically by monitoring signaling associated with electrical, calcium, or hormonal fluxes. Decision-making can be evaluated empirically by monitoring gene expression or differential allocation of resources. We provide examples of the utility of this judgment and decision-making framework by considering cases in which plants either successfully or unsuccessfully induced resistance against attacking herbivores. Separating judgment from decision-making suggests new analytical paradigms (i.e., Bayesian methods for judgment and economic utility models for decision-making). Following this framework, we propose an experimental approach to plant behavior that explicitly manipulates the stimuli provided to plants, uses plants that vary in sensory abilities, and examines how environmental context affects plant responses. The concepts and approaches that follow from the judgment and decision-making framework can shape how we study and understand plant-herbivore interactions, biological invasions, plant responses to climate change, and the susceptibility of plants to evolutionary traps. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

MAKING HOTEL RESERVATIONS ONLINE: A CONTENT ANALYSIS OF U.S. TRAVELERS’ COMMENTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Cristian MOROSAN

2007-06-01

Full Text Available As a substantial portion of online room reservations continues to be made via intermediary travel Web sites, the American hotel companies deploy large amounts of resources to attract travelers to their Web sites through lowest guaranteed rates, direct connections with agencies and corporate clients, and industry partnerships. This article reports the results of a study that investigated travelers’ comments about their reservation experiences via hotel-owned and intermediary Web sites. The study revealed that the travelers had more favorable views of intermediary Web sites rather than hotel-owned Web sites. Travelers’ comments addressed the need for lowest room rates online, easy to use reservation tools, comparisons of room rates across properties within a destination, and security of online transactions. Hotel brand and travelers’ experience with online reservations have not been found to play a substantial role in travelers’ Web site preferences.

Patients' Values in Clinical Decision-Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Faggion, Clovis Mariano; Pachur, Thorsten; Giannakopoulos, Nikolaos Nikitas

2017-09-01

Shared decision-making involves the participation of patient and dental practitioner. Well-informed decision-making requires that both parties understand important concepts that may influence the decision. This fourth article in a series of 4 aims to discuss the importance of patients' values when a clinical decision is made. We report on how to incorporate important concepts for well-informed, shared decision-making. Here, we present patient values as an important issue, in addition to previously established topics such as the risk of bias of a study, cost-effectiveness of treatment approaches, and a comparison of therapeutic benefit with potential side effects. We provide 2 clinical examples and suggestions for a decision tree, based on the available evidence. The information reported in this article may improve the relationship between patient and dental practitioner, resulting in more well-informed clinical decisions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Fearless School Leader: Making the Right Decisions

Science.gov (United States)

McCabe, Cynthia

2011-01-01

This book identifies the six fearless decisions that school leaders need to make to be successful. The author analyzes the top fears that impede effective leadership and lower student achievement, then provides a step by step antidote that will change fear into intention, increase confidence, and produce positive results in your school. In this…

Right ventricular oxygen supply/demand balance in exercising dogs.

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, B J; Bian, X; Gwirtz, P A; Setty, S; Downey, H F

2001-08-01

This is the first investigation of right ventricular (RV) myocardial oxygen supply/demand balance in a conscious animal. A novel technique developed in our laboratory was used to collect right coronary (RC) venous blood samples from seven instrumented, conscious dogs at rest and during graded treadmill exercise. Contributions of the RV oxygen extraction reserve and the RC flow reserve to exercise-induced increases in RV oxygen demand were measured. Strenuous exercise caused a 269% increase in RV oxygen consumption. Expanded arteriovenous oxygen content difference (A-V(Delta)O2) provided 58% of this increase in oxygen demand, and increased RC blood flow (RCBF) provided 42%. At less strenuous exercise, expanded A-V(Delta)O2 provided 60-80% of the required oxygen, and increases in RCBF were small and driven by increased aortic pressure. RC resistance fell only at strenuous exercise after the extraction reserve had been mobilized. Thus RC resistance was unaffected by large decreases in RC venous PO2 until an apparent threshold at 20 mmHg was reached. Comparisons of RV findings with published left ventricular data from exercising dogs demonstrated that increased O2 demand of the left ventricle is met primarily by increasing coronary flow, whereas increased O2 extraction makes a greater contribution to RV O2 supply.

Risk communication and decision-making in the prevention of invasive breast cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Partridge, Ann H

2017-08-01

Risk communication surrounding the prevention of invasive breast cancer entails not only understanding of the disease, risks and opportunities for intervention. But it also requires understanding and implementation of optimal strategies for communication with patients who are making these decisions. In this article, available evidence for the issues surrounding risk communication and decision making in the prevention of invasive breast cancer are reviewed and strategies for improvement are discussed. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Making Things Right: Nurses' Experiences with Workplace Bullying—A Grounded Theory

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Gaffney, Donna A.; DeMarco, Rosanna F.; Hofmeyer, Anne; Vessey, Judith A.; Budin, Wendy C.

2012-01-01

While bullying in the healthcare workplace has been recognized internationally, there is still a culture of silence in many institutions in the United States, perpetuating underreporting and insufficient and unproven interventions. The deliberate, repetitive, and aggressive behaviors of bullying can cause psychological and/or physical harm among professionals, disrupt nursing care, and threaten patient safety and quality outcomes. Much of the literature focuses on categories of bullying behaviors and nurse responses. This qualitative study reports on the experiences of nurses confronting workplace bullying. We collected data from the narratives of 99 nurses who completed an open-ended question embedded in an online survey in 2007. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to analyze the data and shape a theory of how nurses make things right when confronted with bullying. In a four-step process, nurses place bullying in context, assess the situation, take action, and judge the outcomes of their actions. While many nurses do engage in a number of effective yet untested strategies, two additional concerns remain: inadequate support among nursing colleagues and silence and inaction by nurse administrators. Qualitative inquiry has the potential to guide researchers to a greater understanding of the complexities of bullying in the workplace. PMID:22567223

Making Things Right: Nurses' Experiences with Workplace Bullying—A Grounded Theory

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Donna A. Gaffney

2012-01-01

Full Text Available While bullying in the healthcare workplace has been recognized internationally, there is still a culture of silence in many institutions in the United States, perpetuating underreporting and insufficient and unproven interventions. The deliberate, repetitive, and aggressive behaviors of bullying can cause psychological and/or physical harm among professionals, disrupt nursing care, and threaten patient safety and quality outcomes. Much of the literature focuses on categories of bullying behaviors and nurse responses. This qualitative study reports on the experiences of nurses confronting workplace bullying. We collected data from the narratives of 99 nurses who completed an open-ended question embedded in an online survey in 2007. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to analyze the data and shape a theory of how nurses make things right when confronted with bullying. In a four-step process, nurses place bullying in context, assess the situation, take action, and judge the outcomes of their actions. While many nurses do engage in a number of effective yet untested strategies, two additional concerns remain: inadequate support among nursing colleagues and silence and inaction by nurse administrators. Qualitative inquiry has the potential to guide researchers to a greater understanding of the complexities of bullying in the workplace.

Can quantum approaches benefit biology of decision making?

Science.gov (United States)

Takahashi, Taiki

2017-11-01

Human decision making has recently been focused in the emerging fields of quantum decision theory and neuroeconomics. The former discipline utilizes mathematical formulations developed in quantum theory, while the latter combines behavioral economics and neurobiology. In this paper, the author speculates on possible future directions unifying the two approaches, by contrasting the roles of quantum theory in the birth of molecular biology of the gene. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Cognitive-emotional decision making (CEDM): a framework of patient medical decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Power, Tara E; Swartzman, Leora C; Robinson, John W

2011-05-01

Assistance for patients faced with medical decisions has largely focussed on the clarification of information and personal values. Our aim is to draw on the decision research describing the role of emotion in combination with health behaviour models to provide a framework for conceptualizing patient decisions. A review of the psychological and medical decision making literature concerned with the role of emotion/affect in decision making and health behaviours. Emotion plays an influential role in decision making. Both current and anticipated emotions play a motivational role in choice. Amalgamating these findings with that of Leventhal's (1970) SRM provide a framework for thinking about the influence of emotion on a patient medical decision. Our framework suggests that a patient must cope with four sets of elements. The first two relate to the need to manage the cognitive and emotional aspects of the health threat. The second set relate to the management of the cognitive and emotional elements of the decision, itself. The framework provides a way for practitioners and researchers to frame thinking about a patient medical decision in order to assist the patient in clarifying decisional priorities. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Status of fossil fuel reserves

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Laherrere, J.

2005-01-01

Reserves represent the sum of past and future productions up to the end of production. In most countries the reserve data of fields are confidential. Therefore, fossil fuel reserves are badly known because the published data are more political than technical and many countries make a confusion between resources and reserves. The cumulated production of fossil fuels represents only between a third and a fifth of the ultimate reserves. The production peak will take place between 2020 and 2050. In the ultimate reserves, which extrapolate the past, the fossil fuels represent three thirds of the overall energy. This document analyses the uncertainties linked with fossil fuel reserves: reliability of published data, modeling of future production, comparison with other energy sources, energy consumption forecasts, reserves/production ratio, exploitation of non-conventional hydrocarbons (tar sands, extra-heavy oils, bituminous shales, coal gas, gas shales, methane in overpressure aquifers, methane hydrates), technology impacts, prices impact, and reserves growth. (J.S.)

Errors on the Trail Making Test Are Associated with Right Hemispheric Frontal Lobe Damage in Stroke Patients

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Bruno Kopp

2015-01-01

Full Text Available Measures of performance on the Trail Making Test (TMT are among the most popular neuropsychological assessment techniques. Completion time on TMT-A is considered to provide a measure of processing speed, whereas completion time on TMT-B is considered to constitute a behavioral measure of the ability to shift between cognitive sets (cognitive flexibility, commonly attributed to the frontal lobes. However, empirical evidence linking performance on the TMT-B to localized frontal lesions is mostly lacking. Here, we examined the association of frontal lesions following stroke with TMT-B performance measures (i.e., completion time and completion accuracy measures using voxel-based lesion-behavior mapping, with a focus on right hemispheric frontal lobe lesions. Our results suggest that the number of errors, but not completion time on the TMT-B, is associated with right hemispheric frontal lesions. This finding contradicts common clinical practice—the use of completion time on the TMT-B to measure cognitive flexibility, and it underscores the need for additional research on the association between cognitive flexibility and the frontal lobes. Further work in a larger sample, including left frontal lobe damage and with more power to detect effects of right posterior brain injury, is necessary to determine whether our observation is specific for right frontal lesions.

Understanding and Making Use of Academic Authors’ Open Access Rights

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

David Hansen

2012-09-01

Full Text Available INTRODUCTION Authors of academic works do not take full advantage of the self-archiving rights that they retain in their publications, though research shows that many academic authors are well-aligned (at least in principle with open access (OA principles. This article explains how institutionally-assisted self-archiving in open access repositories can effectively take advantage of retained rights and highlights at least one method of facilitating this process through automated means. METHODS To understand the scope of author-retained rights (including the right to purchase hybrid or other open access options at some sample universities, author-rights data through the SHERPA/RoMEO API was combined with individual article citations (from Thomson Reuters' Web of Science for works published over a one-year period (2011 and authored by individuals affiliated with five major U.S. research universities. RESULTS Authors retain significant rights in the articles that they create. Of the 29,322 unique articles authored over the one year period at the five universities, 28.83 percent could be archived in final PDF form and 87.95 percent could be archived as the post-print version. Nearly 43.47 percent also provided authors the choice of purchasing a hybrid paid open access option. DISCUSSION A significant percentage of current published output could be archived with little or no author intervention. With prior approval through an open access policy or otherwise, article manuscripts or final PDFs can be obtained and archived by library staff, and hybrid paid-OA options could be negotiated and exploited by library administrators. CONCLUSION Although mandates, legislation, and other policy tools may be useful to promote open access, many institutions already have the ability to increase the percentage of accessible works by taking advantage of retained author rights and hybrid OA options.

[Transparency in public health decision-making].

Science.gov (United States)

García-Altés, Anna; Argimon, Josep M

2016-11-01

Improving the quality and transparency of governmental healthcare decision-making has an impact on the health of the population through policies, organisational management and clinical practice. Moreover, the comparison between healthcare centres and the transparent feedback of results to professionals and to the wider public contribute directly to improved results. The "Results Centre" of the Catalan healthcare system measures and disseminates the results achieved by the different healthcare centres in order to facilitate a shared decision-making process, thereby enhancing the quality of healthcare provided to the population of Catalonia (Spain). This is a pioneering initiative in Spain and is aligned with the most advanced countries in terms of policies of transparency and accountability. Copyright © 2016 SESPAS. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Trying to make things right: adherence work in high-poverty, African American neighborhoods.

Science.gov (United States)

Senteio, Charles; Veinot, Tiffany

2014-12-01

Adherence to treatment recommendations for chronic diseases is notoriously low across all patient populations. But African American patients, who are more likely to live in low-income neighborhoods and to have multiple chronic conditions, are even less likely to follow medical recommendations. Yet we know little about their contextually embedded, adherence-related experiences. We interviewed individuals (n = 37) with at least two of the following conditions: hypertension, diabetes, and chronic kidney disease. Using an "invisible work" theoretical framework, we outline the adherence work that arose in patients' common life circumstances. We found five types: constantly searching for better care, stretching medications, eating what I know, keeping myself alive, and trying to make it right. Adherence work was effortful, challenging, and addressed external contingencies present in high-poverty African American neighborhoods. This work was invisible within the health care system because participants lacked ongoing, trusting relationships with providers and rarely discussed challenges with them. © The Author(s) 2014.

Making decisions about decision-making: conscience, regulation, and the law.

Science.gov (United States)

Miola, José

2015-01-01

The exercise of conscience can have far reaching effects. Poor behaviour can be fatal, as it has occurred in various medical scandals over the years. This article takes a wide definition of conscience as its starting point, and argues that the decision-making processes open to society--legal regulation and professional regulation--can serve to limit the options available to an individual and thus her ability to exercise her conscience. The article charts the law's changing attitude to legal intervention, which now seeks to limit the use of conscience by individuals, and addresses concerns that this may serve to 'de-moralise' medicine. It also examines the reasons for this legal change of approach. © The Author [2015]. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Right ventricular strain in heart failure: Clinical perspective.

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Tadic, Marijana; Pieske-Kraigher, Elisabeth; Cuspidi, Cesare; Morris, Daniel A; Burkhardt, Franziska; Baudisch, Ana; Haßfeld, Sabine; Tschöpe, Carsten; Pieske, Burket

2017-10-01

The number of studies demonstrating the importance of right ventricular remodelling in a wide range of cardiovascular diseases has increased in the past two decades. Speckle-tracking imaging provides new variables that give comprehensive information about right ventricular function and mechanics. In this review, we summarize current knowledge of right ventricular mechanics in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and preserved ejection fraction. We searched PubMed, MEDLINE, Ovid and Embase databases for studies published from January 2000 to December 2016 in the English language using the following keywords: "right ventricle"; "strain"; "speckle tracking"; "heart failure with reduced ejection fraction"; and "heart failure with preserved ejection fraction". Investigations showed that right ventricular dysfunction is associated with higher cardiovascular and overall mortality in patients with heart failure, irrespective of ejection fraction. The number of studies investigating right ventricular strain in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction is constantly increasing, whereas data on right ventricular mechanics in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction are limited. Given the high feasibility, accuracy and clinical implications of right ventricular strain in the population with heart failure, it is of great importance to try to include the evaluation of right ventricular strain as a regular part of each echocardiographic examination in patients with heart failure. However, further investigations are necessary to establish right ventricular strain as a standard variable for decision-making. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

The Worker Rights Consortium Makes Strides toward Legitimacy.

Science.gov (United States)

Van der Werf, Martin

2000-01-01

Discusses the rapid growth of the Workers Rights Consortium, a student-originated group with 44 member institutions which opposes sweatshop labor conditions especially in the apparel industry. Notes disagreements about the number of administrators on the board of directors and about the role of industry representives. Compares this group with the…

Frailty assessment in vascular surgery and its utility in preoperative decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Kraiss, Larry W; Beckstrom, Julie L; Brooke, Benjamin S

2015-06-01

The average patient requiring vascular surgery has become older, as life expectancy within the US population has increased. Many older patients have some degree of frailty and reside near the limit of their physiological reserve with restricted ability to respond to stressors such as surgery. Frailty assessment is an important part of the preoperative decision-making process, in order to determine whether patients are fit enough to survive the vascular surgery procedure and live long enough to benefit from the intervention. In this review, we will discuss different measures of frailty assessment and how they can be used by vascular surgery providers to improve preoperative decision making and the quality of patient care. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Neural substrates of decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Broche-Pérez, Y; Herrera Jiménez, L F; Omar-Martínez, E

2016-06-01

Decision-making is the process of selecting a course of action from among 2 or more alternatives by considering the potential outcomes of selecting each option and estimating its consequences in the short, medium and long term. The prefrontal cortex (PFC) has traditionally been considered the key neural structure in decision-making process. However, new studies support the hypothesis that describes a complex neural network including both cortical and subcortical structures. The aim of this review is to summarise evidence on the anatomical structures underlying the decision-making process, considering new findings that support the existence of a complex neural network that gives rise to this complex neuropsychological process. Current evidence shows that the cortical structures involved in decision-making include the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC). This process is assisted by subcortical structures including the amygdala, thalamus, and cerebellum. Findings to date show that both cortical and subcortical brain regions contribute to the decision-making process. The neural basis of decision-making is a complex neural network of cortico-cortical and cortico-subcortical connections which includes subareas of the PFC, limbic structures, and the cerebellum. Copyright © 2014 Sociedad Española de Neurología. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

The role of the right temporo-parietal junction in social decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Bitsch, Florian; Berger, Philipp; Nagels, Arne; Falkenberg, Irina; Straube, Benjamin

2018-03-26

Identifying someone else's noncooperative intentions can prevent exploitation in social interactions. Hence, the inference of another person's mental state might be most pronounced in order to improve social decision-making. Here, we tested the hypothesis that brain regions associated with Theory of Mind (ToM), particularly the right temporo-parietal junction (rTPJ), show higher neural responses when interacting with a selfish person and that the rTPJ-activity as well as cooperative tendencies will change over time. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and a modified prisoner's dilemma game in which 20 participants interacted with three fictive playing partners who behaved according to stable strategies either competitively, cooperatively or randomly during seven interaction blocks. The rTPJ and the posterior-medial prefrontal cortex showed higher activity during the interaction with a competitive compared with a cooperative playing partner. Only the rTPJ showed a high response during an early interaction phase, which preceded participants increase in defective decisions. Enhanced functional connectivity between the rTPJ and the left hippocampus suggests that social cognition and learning processes co-occur when behavioral adaptation seems beneficial. © 2018 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Making U.S. Security and Privacy Rights Compatible

Science.gov (United States)

2013-09-01

is not only slow and eats up resources, but it is unreasonable for 21st century methods of fighting terrorism because the standard for probable...what they are saying is true is healthy . The authority to classify documents is done to protect information from getting into the wrong hands that...some of the myths about government surveillance activities.349 This makes one wonder about the classification process if reports can be top-secret

Making Acquisition Measurable

Science.gov (United States)

2011-04-30

Corporation. All rights reserved End Users Administrator/ Maintainer (A/M) Subject Matter Expert ( SME ) Trainer/ Instructor Manager, Evaluator, Supervisor... CMMI ) - Acquisition (AQ) © 2011 The MITRE Corporation. All rights reserved 13 CMMI -Development Incremental iterative development (planning & execution...objectives Constructing games highlighting particular aspects of proposed CCOD® acquisition, and conducting exercises with Subject Matter Experts ( SMEs

24 CFR 206.115 - [Reserved

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... MORTGAGE AND LOAN INSURANCE PROGRAMS UNDER NATIONAL HOUSING ACT AND OTHER AUTHORITIES HOME EQUITY CONVERSION MORTGAGE INSURANCE Contract Rights and Obligations Mortgage Insurance Premiums § 206.115 [Reserved] ...

Striatal activation reflects urgency in perceptual decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

van Maanen, Leendert; Fontanesi, Laura; Hawkins, Guy E; Forstmann, Birte U

2016-10-01

Deciding between multiple courses of action often entails an increasing need to do something as time passes - a sense of urgency. This notion of urgency is not incorporated in standard theories of speeded decision making that assume information is accumulated until a critical fixed threshold is reached. Yet, it is hypothesized in novel theoretical models of decision making. In two experiments, we investigated the behavioral and neural evidence for an "urgency signal" in human perceptual decision making. Experiment 1 found that as the duration of the decision making process increased, participants made a choice based on less evidence for the selected option. Experiment 2 replicated this finding, and additionally found that variability in this effect across participants covaried with activation in the striatum. We conclude that individual differences in susceptibility to urgency are reflected by striatal activation. By dynamically updating a response threshold, the striatum is involved in signaling urgency in humans. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

People learn other people's preferences through inverse decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Jern, Alan; Lucas, Christopher G; Kemp, Charles

2017-11-01

People are capable of learning other people's preferences by observing the choices they make. We propose that this learning relies on inverse decision-making-inverting a decision-making model to infer the preferences that led to an observed choice. In Experiment 1, participants observed 47 choices made by others and ranked them by how strongly each choice suggested that the decision maker had a preference for a specific item. An inverse decision-making model generated predictions that were in accordance with participants' inferences. Experiment 2 replicated and extended a previous study by Newtson (1974) in which participants observed pairs of choices and made judgments about which choice provided stronger evidence for a preference. Inverse decision-making again predicted the results, including a result that previous accounts could not explain. Experiment 3 used the same method as Experiment 2 and found that participants did not expect decision makers to be perfect utility-maximizers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

[Shared medical decision making in gynaecology].

Science.gov (United States)

This, P; Panel, P

2010-02-01

When two options or more can be chosen in medical care, the final decision implies two steps: facts analysis, and patient evaluation of preferences. Shared Medical Decision-Making is a rational conceptual frame that can be used in such cases. In this paper, we describe the concept, its practical modalities, and the questions raised by its use. In gynaecology, many medical situations involve "sensitive preferences choice": for example, contraceptive choice, menorrhagia treatment, and approach of menopause. Some tools from the "Shared Medical Decision Making" concept are useful to structure medical consultations, to convey information, and to reveal patients preferences. Decision aid are used in clinical research settings, but some of them may also be easily used in usual practice, and help physicians to improve both quality and traceability of the decisional process. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Postnatal Psychosocial Assessment and Clinical Decision-Making, a Descriptive Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Sims, Deborah; Fowler, Cathrine

2018-05-18

that experienced nurses use for psychosocial assessment potentially improves practice by providing a framework for education and mentoring. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Drug policy, harm and human rights: a rationalist approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Stevens, Alex

2011-05-01

It has recently been argued that drug-related harms cannot be compared, so making it impossible to choose rationally between various drug policy options. Attempts to apply international human rights law to this area are valid, but have found it difficult to overcome the problems in applying codified human rights to issues of drug policy. This article applies the rationalist ethical argument of Gewirth (1978) to this issue. It outlines his argument to the 'principle of generic consistency' and the hierarchy of basic, nonsubtractive and additive rights that it entails. It then applies these ideas to drug policy issues, such as whether there is a right to use drugs, whether the rights of drug 'addicts' can be limited, and how different harms can be compared in choosing between policies. There is an additive right to use drugs, but only insofar as this right does not conflict with the basic and nonsubtractive rights of others. People whose freedom to choose whether to use drugs is compromised by compulsion have a right to receive treatment. They retain enforceable duties not to inflict harms on others. Policies which reduce harms to basic and nonsubtractive rights should be pursued, even if they lead to harms to additive rights. There exists a sound, rational, extra-legal basis for the discussion of drug policy and related harms which enables commensurable discussion of drug policy options. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

How To Follow-Up On Voice Reservations Inquiries With Personalized Emails And Phone Calls

OpenAIRE

Kennedy, Doug

2017-01-01

If you're like most hotel marketing and revenue leaders, chances are that one of your major near-term strategic goals is to drive more direct bookings and thus reduce the costs of customer acquisition. Certainly, this strategy calls for finding ways to drive traffic to your website and make it easy for them to book there right now. However, while many guests will book online, others prefer to first speak directly with a credible reservations agent. Generally, the higher the rate, the longer t...

The right to be loved

CERN Document Server

Liao, Matthew S

2015-01-01

S. Matthew Liao argues here that children have a right to be loved. To do so he investigates questions such as whether children are rightholders; what grounds a child's right to beloved; whether love is an appropriate object of a right; and other philosophical and practical issues. His proposal is that all human beings have rights to the fundamental conditions for pursuing a good life; therefore, as human beings, children have human rights to the fundamental conditions for pursuing a good life. Since being loved is one of those fundamental conditions, children thus have a right to be loved. Liao shows that this claim need not be merely empty rhetoric, and that the arguments for this right can hang together as a coherent whole. This is the first book to make a sustained philosophical case for the right of children to be loved. It makes a unique contribution to the fast-growing literature on family ethics, in particular, on children's rights and parental rights and responsibilities, and to the emerging field of...

Shared decision-making to improve attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder care.

Science.gov (United States)

Brinkman, William B; Hartl Majcher, Jessica; Poling, Lauren M; Shi, Gaoyan; Zender, Mike; Sucharew, Heidi; Britto, Maria T; Epstein, Jeffery N

2013-10-01

To examine the effect of a shared decision-making intervention with parents of children newly diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Seven pediatricians participated in a pre/post open trial of decision aids for use before and during the office visit to discuss diagnosis and develop a treatment plan. Encounters pre- (n=21, control group) and post-intervention implementation (n=33, intervention group) were compared. We video-recorded encounters and surveyed parents. Compared to controls, intervention group parents were more involved in shared decision-making (31.2 vs. 43.8 on OPTION score, pdecision-making with parents. Parents were better informed about treatment options without increasing visit duration. Interventions are available to prepare parents for visits and enable physicians to elicit parent preferences and involvement in decision-making. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Enhancing clinical decision making: development of a contiguous definition and conceptual framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Tiffen, Jennifer; Corbridge, Susan J; Slimmer, Lynda

2014-01-01

Clinical decision making is a term frequently used to describe the fundamental role of the nurse practitioner; however, other terms have been used interchangeably. The purpose of this article is to begin the process of developing a definition and framework of clinical decision making. The developed definition was "Clinical decision making is a contextual, continuous, and evolving process, where data are gathered, interpreted, and evaluated in order to select an evidence-based choice of action." A contiguous framework for clinical decision making specific for nurse practitioners is also proposed. Having a clear and unique understanding of clinical decision making will allow for consistent use of the term, which is relevant given the changing educational requirements for nurse practitioners and broadening scope of practice. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Making the assessment right, or making the right assessment?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Ritzen, M.J.; Rovers, R.; Vroon, Z.A.E.P.; Geurts, C.P.W.; Khan, A.; Allacker, K.

2015-01-01

While its design has significant impact on the sustainability of a building, assessment methods to measure sustainability in design phases are not widely used. If assessment methods are applied, it is debateable whether they can generate the insight that is needed to realize a truly sustainable

Public reason and the limited right to conscientious objection: a response to Magelssen.

Science.gov (United States)

Greenblum, Jake

2018-03-01

In a recent article for this journal, Morten Magelssen argues that the right to conscientious objection in healthcare is grounded in the moral integrity of healthcare professionals, a good for both professionals and society. In this paper, I argue that there is no right to conscientious objection in healthcare, at least as Magelssen conceives of it. Magelssen's conception of the right to conscientious objection is too expansive in nature. Although I will assume that there is a right to conscientious objection, it does not extend to objections that are purely religious in nature. i Thus, this right is considerably more restricted than Magelssen thinks. In making my case, I draw on John Rawls's later work in arguing for the claim that conscientious objection based on purely religious considerations fails to benefit society in the appropriate way. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Making Sure you Solve the Right Problem

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kim Cartledge

2009-12-01

Full Text Available Macleod et al. have given us an admirable case study and argued that "... there is an urgent need to create stronger and more transparent, integrated, and adaptive linkages between opening-up and closing down mechanisms at the science-policy interface." Two questions must be addressed: what sorts of managerial reform would be required to achieve this? and Is this likely to happen? A natural subsidiarity makes large institutions more inclined to "closing down" (specification actions and smaller ones more inclined to open problems up. The method of boundary judgments developed in integrative research could be applied to the science-policy interface but there are political and sociological reasons why this is unlikely to happen. Receptiveness to opening up actions is a prerequisite of innovation. Innovations are suppressed in times of geopolitical and economic stress. The result is often an ill-structured, co-evolutionary dynamic in which the actions of one species or population reduce the fitness of another.

Neglected Population, Neglected Right: Children Living with HIV and the Right to Science.

Science.gov (United States)

Scanlon, Michael L; MacNaughton, Gillian; Sprague, Courtenay

2017-12-01

The laws, language, and tools of human rights have been instrumental in expanding access to lifesaving treatment for people living with HIV. Children, however, remain a neglected population, as evidenced by inadequate child-specific and child-friendly HIV treatment options. In this article, we explore the right to science, a potentially powerful but underdeveloped right in international law, and its application to research and development for pediatric HIV treatment. Drawing on reports of human rights bodies and scholars and applying the human rights typology of state obligations to respect, protect, and fulfill, we argue that states have five core obligations related to research and development for child-specific and child-friendly treatment: (1) adopting a public goods approach to science and science policy; (2) including and protecting children in research activities; (3) adopting legal and policy frameworks to support research and development through public funding and private sector incentives; (4) promoting international cooperation and assistance; and (5) ensuring the participation of marginalized communities in decision-making processes. In concluding, we make a number of recommendations for states, human rights bodies, international organizations, civil society, and private industry to further develop and implement the right to science.

Foucault and Human Rights: Seeking the Renewal of Human Rights Education

Science.gov (United States)

Zembylas, Michalinos

2016-01-01

This article takes up Foucault's politics of human rights and suggests that it may constitute a point of departure for the renewal of HRE, not only because it rejects the moral superiority of humanism--the grounding for the dominant liberal framework of international human rights--but also because it makes visible the complexities of human rights…

Molecular neuroimaging of emotional decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Takahashi, Hidehiko

2013-04-01

With the dissemination of non-invasive human neuroimaging techniques such as fMRI and the advancement of cognitive science, neuroimaging studies focusing on emotions and social cognition have become established. Along with this advancement, behavioral economics taking emotional and social factors into account for economic decisions has been merged with neuroscientific studies, and this interdisciplinary approach is called neuroeconomics. Past neuroeconomics studies have demonstrated that subcortical emotion-related brain structures play an important role in "irrational" decision-making. The research field that investigates the role of central neurotransmitters in this process is worthy of further development. Here, we provide an overview of recent molecular neuroimaging studies to further the understanding of the neurochemical basis of "irrational" or emotional decision-making and the future direction, including clinical implications, of the field. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ireland Ltd and the Japan Neuroscience Society. All rights reserved.

"When does making detailed predictions make predictions worse?": Correction to Kelly and Simmons (2016).

Science.gov (United States)

2016-10-01

Reports an error in "When Does Making Detailed Predictions Make Predictions Worse" by Theresa F. Kelly and Joseph P. Simmons ( Journal of Experimental Psychology: General , Advanced Online Publication, Aug 8, 2016, np). In the article, the symbols in Figure 2 were inadvertently altered in production. All versions of this article have been corrected. (The following abstract of the original article appeared in record 2016-37952-001.) In this article, we investigate whether making detailed predictions about an event worsens other predictions of the event. Across 19 experiments, 10,896 participants, and 407,045 predictions about 724 professional sports games, we find that people who made detailed predictions about sporting events (e.g., how many hits each baseball team would get) made worse predictions about more general outcomes (e.g., which team would win). We rule out that this effect is caused by inattention or fatigue, thinking too hard, or a differential reliance on holistic information about the teams. Instead, we find that thinking about game-relevant details before predicting winning teams causes people to give less weight to predictive information, presumably because predicting details makes useless or redundant information more accessible and thus more likely to be incorporated into forecasts. Furthermore, we show that this differential use of information can be used to predict what kinds of events will and will not be susceptible to the negative effect of making detailed predictions. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved

Neonatologists can impede or support parents' participation in decision-making during medical rounds in neonatal intensive care units.

Science.gov (United States)

Axelin, Anna; Outinen, Jyri; Lainema, Kirsi; Lehtonen, Liisa; Franck, Linda S

2018-05-03

We explored the dynamics of neonatologist-parent communication and decision-making during medical rounds in a level three neonatal intensive care unit. This was a qualitative study, with an ethnographic approach, that was conducted at Turku University Hospital, Finland, from 2013-2014. We recruited eight mothers and seven couples, their 11 singletons and four sets of twins and two neonatologists and observed and video recorded 15 medical rounds. The infants were born at 23+5 to 40+1 weeks and the parents were aged 24-47. The neonatologists and parents were interviewed separately after the rounds. Four patterns of interaction emerged. The collaborative pattern was most consistent, with the ideal of shared decision-making, as the parents' preferences were genuinely and visibly integrated into the treatment decisions. In the neonatologist-led interactional pattern, the decision-making process was only somewhat inclusive of the parents' observations and preferences. The remaining two patterns, emergency and disconnected, were characterised by a paternalistic decision-making model where the parents' observations and preferences had minimal to no influence on the communication or decision-making. The neonatologists played a central role in facilitating parental participation and their interaction during medical rounds were characterised by the level of parent participation in decision-making. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Mental disorder and legal responsibility: the relevance of stages of decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalis, Annemarie; Meynen, Gerben

2014-01-01

The paper discusses the relevance of decision-making models for evaluating the impact of mental disorder on legal responsibility. A three-stage model is presented that analyzes decision making in terms of behavioral control. We argue that understanding dysfunctions in each of the three stages of decision making could provide important insights in the relation between mental disorder and legal responsibility. In particular, it is argued that generating options for action constitutes an important but largely ignored stage of the decision-making process, and that dysfunctions in this early stage might undermine the whole process of making decisions (and thus behavioral control) more strongly than dysfunctions in later stages. Lastly, we show how the presented framework could be relevant to the actual psychiatric assessment of a defendant's decision making within the context of an insanity defense. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

RIGHTS, RULES, AND DEMOCRACY

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Richard S. Kay, University of Connecticut-School of Law, Estados Unidos

2012-11-01

Full Text Available Abstract: Democracy require protection of certain fundamental rights, but can we expect courts to follow rules? There seems little escape from the proposition that substantive constitutional review by an unelected judiciary is a presumptive abridgement of democratic decision-making. Once we have accepted the proposition that there exist human rights that ought to be protected, this should hardly surprise us. No one thinks courts are perfect translators of the rules invoked before them on every occasion. But it is equally clear that rules sometimes do decide cases. In modern legal systems the relative roles of courts and legislators with respect to the rules of the system is a commonplace. Legislatures make rules. Courts apply them in particular disputes. When we are talking about human rights, however, that assumption must be clarified in at least one way. The defense of the practice of constitutional review in this article assumes courts can and do enforce rules. This article also makes clear what is the meaning of “following rules”. Preference for judicial over legislative interpretation of rights, therefore, seems to hang on the question of whether or not judges are capable of subordinating their own judgment to that incorporated in the rules by their makers. This article maintains that, in general, entrenched constitutional rules (and not just constitutional courts can and do constrain public conduct and protect human rights. The article concludes that the value judgments will depend on our estimate of the benefits we derive from the process of representative self-government. Against those benefits we will have to measure the importance we place on being able to live our lives with the security created by a regime of human rights protected by the rule of law. Keywords: Democracy. Human Rights. Rules. Judicial Review.

Three-Dimensional Echocardiography-Derived Non-Invasive Right Ventricular Pressure-Volume Analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Huang, Kuan-Chih; Lin, Lian-Yu; Hwang, Juey-Jen; Lin, Lung-Chun

2017-09-01

In patients with pulmonary hypertension, repeated evaluations of right ventricular (RV) function are still required for clinical decision making, but the invasive nature of current pressure-volume analysis makes conducting regular follow-ups in a clinical setting infeasible. We enrolled 12 patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) and 10 with pulmonary venous hypertension (PVH) May 2016-October 2016. All patients underwent a clinically indicated right heart catheterization (RHC), from which the yielded right ventricular pressure recordings were conjugated with RV volume by 3-D echocardiography to generate a pressure-volume loop. A continuous-wave Doppler envelope of tricuspid regurgitation was transformed into a pressure gradient recording by the simplified Bernoulli equation, and then a systolic pressure gradient-volume (PG-V) diagram was generated from similar methods. The area enclosed by the pressure-volume loop was calculated to represent semi-invasive right ventricular stroke work (RVSW RHC ). The area between the PG-V diagram and x-axis was calculated to estimate non-invasive RVSW (RVSW echo ). Patients with PAH have higher RV pressure, lower pulmonary arterial wedge pressure and larger RV volume that was contributed by the dilation of RV mid-cavity minor dimension. We found no significant difference of traditional parameters between these two groups, but RVSW values were significantly higher in PAH patients. The RVSW values of these two methods were significantly correlated by the equation RVSW echo  = 0.8447 RVSW RHC  + 129.38 (R 2  = 0.9151, p rights reserved.

The Strategic Petroleum Reserve: United States energy security, oil politics, and petroleum reserves policies in the twentieth century

Science.gov (United States)

Beaubouef, Bruce Andre

The history of U.S. petroleum reserves policies in the twentieth century, including the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) program, provides a case study of the economic and political aspects of national security, and shows the ways in which the American political economy influences national security. One key problem plagued federal petroleum reserve programs and proposals throughout the twentieth century. In a political economy which traditionally placed strong emphasis upon the sanctity of private property and free markets, could the government develop an emergency petroleum reserve policy despite opposition from the private sector? Previous literature on the SPR and oil-stockpiling programs has largely disregarded the historical perspective, focusing instead upon econometric models, suggesting future oil-stockpiling policy options. This study will also make conclusions about the future of governmental oil-stockpiling policies, particularly with regard to the SPR program, but it will do so informed by a systematic history of the emergency petroleum reserve impulse in the twentieth century. Through a study of the emergency petroleum reserve impulse, one can see how the American political economy of oil and energy changed over the twentieth century. As petroleum became crucial to the military and then economic security of the United States, the federal government sought to develop emergency petroleum reserves first for the military, then for the civilian economy. But while the American petroleum industry could deliver the energy "goods" to American energy consumers at a reasonable price, the companies reigned supreme in the political equation. While that was true, federal petroleum reserve programs and proposals conflicted with and were overwhelmed by the historic American tradition of individual economic and private property rights. The depletion of American petroleum reserves changed that political equation, and the ensuing energy crises of the 1970s not only

Oil companies and human rights

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chandler, Geoffrey

1997-01-01

This article highlights the need for oil companies in the future to take into account human rights in corporate decision making. The influence oil companies can bring to bear on government violating human rights, excuses for not voicing condemnation of abuses, and the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights are discussed. (UK)

Resources transfer and centralization in Brazilian electrical sector: the reversion global reserve (RGR) and the guarantee global reserve (GGR)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Souza Amaral Filho, J.B. de.

1991-01-01

This dissertation makes the analysis of resources transfer and centralization in Brazilian electrical sector, through reversion global reserve (RGR) and guarantee global reserve (GGR). RGR and GGR are funds. RGR finances sectorial investments in electric power and GGR aims the supply of deficient concessionaires. Governmental investments and the results of this application are showing. (M.V.M.). 55 refs, 2 figs, 61 tabs

From global discourse to local action: the makings of a sexual rights movement?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan Garcia

Full Text Available This paper focuses on the development of discourses around sexual rights, linking tendencies in official global dialogues with national and local realities. Recognizing some of the factors that have facilitated or impeded discourses and action to promote sexual rights around the world, we explore the principles and processes of framing sexual rights and sexual citizenship. We consider political opportunity and the mobilization of resources as important as cultural and emotional interpretations of sexual rights in conceptualizing a "sexual rights movement". Throughout the paper we question whether a movement based on solidarity can be forged between different social movements (i.e., feminist movements, HIV/AIDS movements, LGBT movements, etc. that are advocating for distinct sexual rights. While theoretically sexual rights range from protection from sexual violation to the celebration of sexual pleasure, in reality the agendas of sexual rights movements are still largely fragmented, heteronormative, and focused on negative rights.

Newly graduated nurses' use of knowledge sources in clinical decision-making

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Voldbjerg, Siri Lygum; Grønkjaer, Mette; Wiechula, Rick

2017-01-01

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To explore which knowledge sources newly graduated nurses' use in clinical decision-making and why and how they are used. BACKGROUND: In spite of an increased educational focus on skills and competencies within evidence based practice newly graduated nurses' ability to use...... approaches to strengthen the knowledgebase used in clinical decision-making. DESIGN AND METHODS: Ethnographic study using participant-observation and individual semi-structured interviews of nine Danish newly graduated nurses in medical and surgical hospital settings. RESULTS: Newly graduates use...... in clinical decision-making. If newly graduates are to be supported in an articulate and reflective use of a variety of sources, they have to be allocated to experienced nurses who model a reflective, articulate and balanced use of knowledge sources. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved....

Surrogate decision making and intellectual virtue.

Science.gov (United States)

Bock, Gregory L

2014-01-01

Patients can be harmed by a religiously motivated surrogate decision maker whose decisions are contrary to the standard of care; therefore, surrogate decision making should be held to a high standard. Stewart Eskew and Christopher Meyers proposed a two-part rule for deciding which religiously based decisions to honor: (1) a secular reason condition and (2) a rationality condition. The second condition is based on a coherence theory of rationality, which they claim is accessible, generous, and culturally sensitive. In this article, I will propose strengthening the rationality condition by grounding it in a theory of intellectual virtue, which is both rigorous and culturally sensitive. Copyright 2014 The Journal of Clinical Ethics. All rights reserved.

Sexual rights as human rights: a guide to authoritative sources and principles for applying human rights to sexuality and sexual health.

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Alice M; Kismödi, Eszter; Cottingham, Jane; Gruskin, Sofia

2015-11-01

This Guide seeks to provide insight and resources to actors interested in the development of rights claims around sexuality and sexual health. After engaging with the vexed question of the scope of sexual rights, it explores the rules and principles governing the way in which human rights claims are developed and applied to sexuality and sexual health, and how that development is linked to law and made a matter of state obligation. This understanding is critical to policy and programming in sexual health and rights, as it supports calling on the relevant range of human rights, such as privacy, non-discrimination, health or other universally accepted human rights, as well as demanding the action of states under their international and national law obligations to support sexual health. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Biosphere reserves: Attributes for success.

Science.gov (United States)

Van Cuong, Chu; Dart, Peter; Hockings, Marc

2017-03-01

Biosphere reserves established under the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Program aim to harmonise biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Concerns over the extent to which the reserve network was living up to this ideal led to the development of a new strategy in 1995 (the Seville Strategy) to enhance the operation of the network of reserves. An evaluation of effectiveness of management of the biosphere reserve network was called for as part of this strategy. Expert opinion was assembled through a Delphi Process to identify successful and less successful reserves and investigate common factors influencing success or failure. Ninety biosphere reserves including sixty successful and thirty less successful reserves in 42 countries across all five Man and the Biosphere Program regions were identified. Most successful sites are the post-Seville generation while the majority of unsuccessful sites are pre-Seville that are managed as national parks and have not been amended to conform to the characteristics that are meant to define a biosphere reserve. Stakeholder participation and collaboration, governance, finance and resources, management, and awareness and communication are the most influential factors in the success or failure of the biosphere reserves. For success, the biosphere reserve concept needs to be clearly understood and applied through landscape zoning. Designated reserves then need a management system with inclusive good governance, strong participation and collaboration, adequate finance and human resource allocation and stable and responsible management and implementation. All rather obvious but it is difficult to achieve without commitment to the biosphere reserve concept by the governance authorities. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Decision making as a window on cognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Shadlen, Michael N; Kiani, Roozbeh

2013-10-30

A decision is a commitment to a proposition or plan of action based on information and values associated with the possible outcomes. The process operates in a flexible timeframe that is free from the immediacy of evidence acquisition and the real time demands of action itself. Thus, it involves deliberation, planning, and strategizing. This Perspective focuses on perceptual decision making in nonhuman primates and the discovery of neural mechanisms that support accuracy, speed, and confidence in a decision. We suggest that these mechanisms expose principles of cognitive function in general, and we speculate about the challenges and directions before the field. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Psychology and Neuroscience of Financial Decision Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Frydman, Cary; Camerer, Colin F

2016-09-01

Financial decisions are among the most important life-shaping decisions that people make. We review facts about financial decisions and what cognitive and neural processes influence them. Because of cognitive constraints and a low average level of financial literacy, many household decisions violate sound financial principles. Households typically have underdiversified stock holdings and low retirement savings rates. Investors overextrapolate from past returns and trade too often. Even top corporate managers, who are typically highly educated, make decisions that are affected by overconfidence and personal history. Many of these behaviors can be explained by well-known principles from cognitive science. A boom in high-quality accumulated evidence-especially how practical, low-cost 'nudges' can improve financial decisions-is already giving clear guidance for balanced government regulation. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Risky decision making in adults with ADHD.

Science.gov (United States)

Matthies, S; Philipsen, A; Svaldi, J

2012-09-01

Risky decision making and disadvantageous choices constitute core characteristics of patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Consequences include negative psychosocial and health-related outcomes. However, risky decision making and its interrelations with emotional states in ADHD are poorly understood. Therefore, the authors investigated risky decision making without and after boredom induction in adults with and without ADHD. In study 1, ADHD patients (n = 15) and age/education matched controls (CG; n = 16) were compared on the Game of Dice Task (GDT), an established task measuring decision making in unambiguous situations. In study 2, ADHD patients (n = 14) and CG (n = 13) underwent boredom induction prior to the GDT. In study 1, ADHD patients selected the disadvantageous alternatives significantly more often than CG. In study 2, no significant group differences were found due to an increase in risky decision making in CG following the boredom induction. Even if severity of depression did not affect our results, it may be necessary to compare GDT responses in ADHD patients with and without current depression. Risk as a motor of disadvantageous decision making needs to be taken into account in therapeutic contexts as a maintenance factor of dysfunctional behaviour. The findings of study 2 are in line with postulated alterations of emotional state adjustment in ADHD. The link between decisions making and emotional regulation in ADHD needs further attention in research. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

There is more to IT portfolio management than top-management making the right decisions: A review of the literature

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Hansen, Lars; Kræmmergaard, Pernille

2011-01-01

There is more to IT portfolio management than top-management making the right decisions: A review of the IT PPM literature. Organizations experience ongoing challenges in managing their portfolio of InformationTechnology (IT) as IT expenses are becoming a major part of the budget. Hence......, organizations implement a wide range of IT portfolio management (IT PPM) arrangements to increase value from IT. The literature vastly emphasizes the organizational benefits of establishing IT PPM, but only a minor part of the literature emphasizes the unintended and negative consequences of IT PPM....

Children's rights and school psychology: children's right to participation.

Science.gov (United States)

Lansdown, Gerison; Jimerson, Shane R; Shahroozi, Reza

2014-02-01

The Convention on the Rights of the Child detailed an international imperative to fulfilling, protecting, and respecting the rights of every child. In particular, the Convention set out a clear mandate for guaranteeing opportunities for children to be heard on all matters of concern to them. The attainment of these goals involves respecting and valuing children as active participants in the educational process. If fully implemented, the right of children to express views and have them taken seriously, throughout the school environment, would represent one of the most profound transformations in moving towards a culture of respect for children's rights, for their dignity and citizenship, and for their capacities to contribute significantly towards their own well-being. These values and principles are consistent with those of the school psychology profession, thus, school psychologists are encouraged to be at the Center of the process advocating and actualizing the Convention in schools throughout the world. Copyright © 2014 Society for the Study of School Psychology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Perceptual Decision-Making as Probabilistic Inference by Neural Sampling.

Science.gov (United States)

Haefner, Ralf M; Berkes, Pietro; Fiser, József

2016-05-04

We address two main challenges facing systems neuroscience today: understanding the nature and function of cortical feedback between sensory areas and of correlated variability. Starting from the old idea of perception as probabilistic inference, we show how to use knowledge of the psychophysical task to make testable predictions for the influence of feedback signals on early sensory representations. Applying our framework to a two-alternative forced choice task paradigm, we can explain multiple empirical findings that have been hard to account for by the traditional feedforward model of sensory processing, including the task dependence of neural response correlations and the diverging time courses of choice probabilities and psychophysical kernels. Our model makes new predictions and characterizes a component of correlated variability that represents task-related information rather than performance-degrading noise. It demonstrates a normative way to integrate sensory and cognitive components into physiologically testable models of perceptual decision-making. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Collaborative family health care, civil rights, and social determinants of health.

Science.gov (United States)

Mauksch, Larry B; Fogarty, Colleen T

2017-03-01

Social and economic disadvantage and civil rights infringement, worsens overall health (Adler, Glymour, & Fielding, 2016; McGowan, Lee, Meneses, Perkins, & Youdelman, 2016; Teitelbaum, 2005). While addressing these challenges is not new, there is reason to believe that the administration of Donald Trump and a republican majority in congress will exacerbate these challenges and their effects. How can collaborative family health care (CFHC) practitioners and our field help? The editors pondered this question and also asked a selection of leaders in the field. The editors will first share their ideas about the potential of CFHC to make a difference in daily interactions with patients. Next, they will identify key areas of risk and vulnerability. Finally, using the contributions of respected colleagues, they will propose a partial agenda for CFHC clinicians and the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

41 CFR 301-11.11 - How do I make my lodging reservations?

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... your agency travel management service as required by part 301-50 of this chapter. [FTR Amdt. 108, 67 FR... reservations? 301-11.11 Section 301-11.11 Public Contracts and Property Management Federal Travel Regulation System TEMPORARY DUTY (TDY) TRAVEL ALLOWANCES ALLOWABLE TRAVEL EXPENSES 11-PER DIEM EXPENSES General...

Children’s Rights as Living Rights : The Case of Street Children and a new Law in Yogyakarta, Indonesia

NARCIS (Netherlands)

van Daalen, E.; Hanson, K.; Nieuwenhuys, O.

2016-01-01

In this article we propose the notion of living rights to highlight that children, whilst making use of notions of rights, shape what these rights are, and become, in the social world. Emphasising children’s agency in living with and through their rights facilitates empirical enquiry, and moves the

Excessive Internet gaming and decision making: do excessive World of Warcraft players have problems in decision making under risky conditions?

Science.gov (United States)

Pawlikowski, Mirko; Brand, Matthias

2011-08-15

The dysfunctional behavior of excessive Internet gamers, such as preferring the immediate reward (to play World of Warcraft) despite the negative long-term consequences may be comparable with the dysfunctional behavior in substance abusers or individuals with behavioral addictions, e.g. pathological gambling. In these disorders, general decision-making deficits have been demonstrated. Hence, the aim of the present work was to examine decision-making competences of excessive World of Warcraft players. Nineteen excessive Internet gamers (EIG) and a control group (CG) consisting of 19 non-gamers were compared with respect to decision-making abilities. The Game of Dice Task (GDT) was applied to measure decision-making under risky conditions. Furthermore psychological-psychiatric symptoms were assessed in both groups. The EIG showed a reduced decision-making ability in the GDT. Furthermore the EIG group showed a higher psychological-psychiatric symptomatology in contrast to the CG. The results indicate that the reduced decision-making ability of EIG is comparable with patients with other forms of behavioral addiction (e.g. pathological gambling), impulse control disorders or substance abusers. Thus, these results suggest that excessive Internet gaming may be based on a myopia for the future, meaning that EIG prefer to play World of Warcraft despite the negative long-term consequences in social or work domains of life. 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Adverse consequences of article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities for persons with mental disabilities and an alternative way forward.

Science.gov (United States)

Scholten, Matthé; Gather, Jakov

2018-04-01

It is widely accepted among medical ethicists that competence is a necessary condition for informed consent. In this view, if a patient is incompetent to make a particular treatment decision, the decision must be based on an advance directive or made by a substitute decision-maker on behalf of the patient. We call this the competence model. According to a recent report of the United Nations (UN) High Commissioner for Human Rights, article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) presents a wholesale rejection of the competence model. The High Commissioner here adopts the interpretation of article 12 proposed by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. On this interpretation, CRPD article 12 renders it impermissible to deny persons with mental disabilities the right to make treatment decisions on the basis of impaired decision-making capacity and demands the replacement of all regimes of substitute decision-making by supported decision-making. In this paper, we explicate six adverse consequences of CRPD article 12 for persons with mental disabilities and propose an alternative way forward. The proposed model combines the strengths of the competence model and supported decision-making. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

THE RIGHT TO SUTURES: SOCIAL EPIDEMIOLOGY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND SOCIAL JUSTICE

Science.gov (United States)

Venkatapuram, Sridhar; Bell, Ruth; Marmot, Michael

2013-01-01

The article examines the convergences and contrasts between social epidemiology, social medicine, and human rights approaches toward advancing global health and health equity. The first section describes the goals and work of the WHO Commission on Social Determinants of Health. The second section discusses the role of human rights in the Commission’s work. The third section evaluates, from the perspective of social epidemiology, two rights-based approaches to advancing health and health equity as compared to a view that focuses more broadly on social justice. The concluding section identifies four areas where social epidemiologists, practitioners of social medicine, and health and human rights advocates can and must work together in order to make progress on health and health equity. PMID:21178186

Attention and choice: a review on eye movements in decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Orquin, Jacob L; Mueller Loose, Simone

2013-09-01

This paper reviews studies on eye movements in decision making, and compares their observations to theoretical predictions concerning the role of attention in decision making. Four decision theories are examined: rational models, bounded rationality, evidence accumulation, and parallel constraint satisfaction models. Although most theories were confirmed with regard to certain predictions, none of the theories adequately accounted for the role of attention during decision making. Several observations emerged concerning the drivers and down-stream effects of attention on choice, suggesting that attention processes plays an active role in constructing decisions. So far, decision theories have largely ignored the constructive role of attention by assuming that it is entirely determined by heuristics, or that it consists of stochastic information sampling. The empirical observations reveal that these assumptions are implausible, and that more accurate assumptions could have been made based on prior attention and eye movement research. Future decision making research would benefit from greater integration with attention research. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Procedural abortion rights: Ireland and the European Court of Human Rights.

Science.gov (United States)

Erdman, Joanna N

2014-11-01

The Irish Protection of Life During Pregnancy Act seeks to clarify the legal ground for abortion in cases of risk to life, and to create procedures to regulate women's access to services under it. This article explores the new law as the outcome of an international human rights litigation strategy premised on state duties to implement abortion laws through clear standards and procedural safeguards. It focuses specifically on the Irish law reform and the jurisprudence of the European Court of Human Rights, including A. B. and C. v. Ireland (2010). The article examines how procedural rights at the international level can engender domestic law reform that limits or expands women's access to lawful abortion services, serving conservative or progressive ends. Copyright © 2014 Reproductive Health Matters. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Exposure to acute stress enhances decision-making competence: Evidence for the role of DHEA.

Science.gov (United States)

Shields, Grant S; Lam, Jovian C W; Trainor, Brian C; Yonelinas, Andrew P

2016-05-01

Exposure to acute stress can impact performance on numerous cognitive abilities, but little is known about how acute stress affects real-world decision-making ability. In the present study, we induced acute stress with a standard laboratory task involving uncontrollable socio-evaluative stress and subsequently assessed decision-making ability using the Adult Decision Making Competence index. In addition, we took baseline and post-test saliva samples from participants to examine associations between decision-making competence and adrenal hormones. Participants in the stress induction group showed enhanced decision-making competence, relative to controls. Further, although both cortisol and dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) reactivity predicted decision-making competence when considered in isolation, DHEA was a significantly better predictor than cortisol when both hormones were considered simultaneously. Thus, our results show that exposure to acute stress can have beneficial effects on the cognitive ability underpinning real-world decision-making and that this effect relates to DHEA reactivity more than cortisol. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Work right to right work: An automythology of chronic illness and work.

Science.gov (United States)

Vijayasingham, Lavanya

2018-03-01

Objectives Chronic illness is known to disrupt and redirect the usual course of work trajectories. This article aims to portray the longitudinal course of negotiating work after multiple sclerosis. Methods Using therapy and personal journals to reconstruct memories and experience, an autoethnography is produced and narrated within Campbell's "Hero's Journey" automythology framework. Results The narrative highlights the intrasubjectivity of illness meaning-the changing internal meaning-making and external behavior and decision-making dynamics. The journey of being inhibited to "Work Right", to "Looking for the Right" and ultimately, finding "Right Work" is charted; portrayed as a bittersweet maneuver to achieve work-illness equilibrium. Discussion This journey traverses a spectrum of negative coping-the exhibition of deviant work behaviors, disengagement and depression; to recalibration and renewal; culminating in living the "new normal", and finding moral and meaningful work engagements. Life trajectories with chronic illness are often skewed and redirected; but longitudinal narratives of normalization and coping also highlight the pursuits to secure and maintain a life of meaning and value.

The dilemma of contact: voluntary isolation and the impacts of gas exploitation on health and rights in the Kugapakori Nahua Reserve, Peruvian Amazon

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Napolitano, Dora A; Ryan, Aliya S S

2007-01-01

Many small groups of indigenous peoples in the Amazon basin avoid and resist direct encounters with outsiders. As far as we know, they do so because of appalling experiences in earlier encounters with national society. When contacted today, they are extremely vulnerable to introduced diseases and exploitation. In this paper we draw on our experience in the Kugapakori Nahua Reserve for isolated peoples in SE Peru to discuss some of the current debates about whether isolated peoples should be contacted and how best to respect their right to life, health, autonomy and territory. The remote headwater regions where isolated peoples sought refuge during the last century are increasingly sought after for resource extraction. In particular, the extraction of oil and gas is increasing throughout the Peruvian Amazon. In the second part of the paper we give some examples of how oil/gas companies and the energy sector in Peru have affected the well-being of the peoples in this reserve in the 21st century. If this trend is not reversed the impacts for isolated peoples will be irreparable

The dilemma of contact: voluntary isolation and the impacts of gas exploitation on health and rights in the Kugapakori Nahua Reserve, Peruvian Amazon

Science.gov (United States)

Napolitano, Dora A.; Ryan, Aliya S. S.

2007-10-01

Many small groups of indigenous peoples in the Amazon basin avoid and resist direct encounters with outsiders. As far as we know, they do so because of appalling experiences in earlier encounters with national society. When contacted today, they are extremely vulnerable to introduced diseases and exploitation. In this paper we draw on our experience in the Kugapakori Nahua Reserve for isolated peoples in SE Peru to discuss some of the current debates about whether isolated peoples should be contacted and how best to respect their right to life, health, autonomy and territory. The remote headwater regions where isolated peoples sought refuge during the last century are increasingly sought after for resource extraction. In particular, the extraction of oil and gas is increasing throughout the Peruvian Amazon. In the second part of the paper we give some examples of how oil/gas companies and the energy sector in Peru have affected the well-being of the peoples in this reserve in the 21st century. If this trend is not reversed the impacts for isolated peoples will be irreparable.

Caregiving decision making by older mothers and adult children: process and expected outcome.

Science.gov (United States)

Cicirelli, Victor G

2006-06-01

Dyadic caregiving decision making was studied in 30 mother-son and 29 mother-daughter pairs (mother's age=65-94 years) who responded to a vignette depicting a caregiving decision situation. The observed decision-making process of mother-child pairs was largely naturalistic, with few alternatives proposed and quick convergence to a decision followed by a postdecision justification; a degree of more rational decision making was seen in some pairs. Among significant findings, adult children, especially sons, dominated the decision process, doing more talking and introducing more alternatives than did their mothers, who played a more subordinate role. Mother-son pairs expected more negative outcomes and greater regrets regarding their decisions than mother-daughter pairs. Closeness of the parent-child relationship influenced the decision-making process, expected outcomes, and regrets. Copyright (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved.

Climate Change, Human Rights, and Social Justice.

Science.gov (United States)

Levy, Barry S; Patz, Jonathan A

2015-01-01

The environmental and health consequences of climate change, which disproportionately affect low-income countries and poor people in high-income countries, profoundly affect human rights and social justice. Environmental consequences include increased temperature, excess precipitation in some areas and droughts in others, extreme weather events, and increased sea level. These consequences adversely affect agricultural production, access to safe water, and worker productivity, and, by inundating land or making land uninhabitable and uncultivatable, will force many people to become environmental refugees. Adverse health effects caused by climate change include heat-related disorders, vector-borne diseases, foodborne and waterborne diseases, respiratory and allergic disorders, malnutrition, collective violence, and mental health problems. These environmental and health consequences threaten civil and political rights and economic, social, and cultural rights, including rights to life, access to safe food and water, health, security, shelter, and culture. On a national or local level, those people who are most vulnerable to the adverse environmental and health consequences of climate change include poor people, members of minority groups, women, children, older people, people with chronic diseases and disabilities, those residing in areas with a high prevalence of climate-related diseases, and workers exposed to extreme heat or increased weather variability. On a global level, there is much inequity, with low-income countries, which produce the least greenhouse gases (GHGs), being more adversely affected by climate change than high-income countries, which produce substantially higher amounts of GHGs yet are less immediately affected. In addition, low-income countries have far less capability to adapt to climate change than high-income countries. Adaptation and mitigation measures to address climate change needed to protect human society must also be planned to protect

Reserve selection with land market feedbacks.

Science.gov (United States)

Butsic, Van; Lewis, David J; Radeloff, Volker C

2013-01-15

How to best site reserves is a leading question for conservation biologists. Recently, reserve selection has emphasized efficient conservation: maximizing conservation goals given the reality of limited conservation budgets, and this work indicates that land market can potentially undermine the conservation benefits of reserves by increasing property values and development probabilities near reserves. Here we propose a reserve selection methodology which optimizes conservation given both a budget constraint and land market feedbacks by using a combination of econometric models along with stochastic dynamic programming. We show that amenity based feedbacks can be accounted for in optimal reserve selection by choosing property price and land development models which exogenously estimate the effects of reserve establishment. In our empirical example, we use previously estimated models of land development and property prices to select parcels to maximize coarse woody debris along 16 lakes in Vilas County, WI, USA. Using each lake as an independent experiment, we find that including land market feedbacks in the reserve selection algorithm has only small effects on conservation efficacy. Likewise, we find that in our setting heuristic (minloss and maxgain) algorithms perform nearly as well as the optimal selection strategy. We emphasize that land market feedbacks can be included in optimal reserve selection; the extent to which this improves reserve placement will likely vary across landscapes. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Joint energy and spinning reserve dispatching and pricing

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Rashidinejad, M.; Song, Y.-H.; Javidi Dasht-Bayaz, M.H.

2000-01-01

Unpredictable load demand variations, and also sudden generation interruption, may cause imbalance in power systems. To prevent any blackout and to reduce such total power imbalance, spinning reserve can provide electric power system ability to respond. Adequate amount of spinning reserve should be based on economy and risk as an optimal decision making. This paper uses Quadratic Programming (QP) method to solve Joint Energy and Spinning Reserve Dispatch (JESRD) problem and derives the optimal price of spinning reserve. In JESRD, Unserved Energy Cost (UEC) is considered as an Opportunity Cost of Spinning Reserve (OCSR). To distribute the System Reserve Requirements (SRR) among generation units, two different models, Fixed Reserve Percentage (FRP) or fixed allocation model and Non-Fixed Reserve Percentage (NFRP) or flexible allocation model has been investigated. Numerical results on a 5-bus test system and the 30-bus IEEE standard system, considering FRP and NFRP models are included. (author)

Modulating activity in the prefrontal cortex changes decision-making for risky gains and losses: a transcranial direct current stimulation study.

Science.gov (United States)

Ye, Hang; Chen, Shu; Huang, Daqiang; Wang, Siqi; Luo, Jun

2015-06-01

When making choices under uncertainty, people usually consider both the risks and benefits of each option. Previous studies have found that weighing of risks and benefits during decision-making involves a complex neural network that includes the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), but the causal effect of this network on risk decision-making has remained unclear. This experiment was based on a risk-measurement table designed to provide a direct measure of risk preference, with a weighted value of the choices (denoted as weighted risk aversion, WRA) as an index of the participant's degree of risk aversion. We studied whether bifrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) applied over the right and left prefrontal cortex can change the balance of risky vs. safe responses under both gain frame and loss frame. A total of 60 volunteers performed risk tasks while receiving either anodal over the right with cathodal over the left DLPFC, anodal over the left with cathodal over the right DLPFC, or sham stimulation. The participants tended to choose more risky options in the gain frame and more safe options in the loss frame after the right anodal/left cathodal tDCS. We also found that right anodal/left cathodal tDCS significantly decreased the WRA values compared with those associated with sham stimulation. These findings extend the notion that DLPFC activity is critical for risk decision-making, indicating an asymmetric role of the right DLPFC in the gain frame vs. the loss frame of risk decision-making. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Does Teaching Children about Human Rights, Encourage Them to Practice, Protect and Promote the Rights of Others?

Science.gov (United States)

Dunhill, Ally

2018-01-01

The purpose of the article is to demonstrate how the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Rights Respecting Schools Award makes positive contributions to children's lives and experiences at school. Within the overall context of education as a right, the Award supports children to learn about their rights and the rights…

Do cultural diversity and human rights make a good match?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Donders, Y.

2010-01-01

The link between cultural diversity and human rights was clearly established by the Universal Declaration on Cultural Diversity, adopted by the member states of UNESCO in 2001, which holds that "the defence of cultural diversity is … inseparable from respect for human dignity" and that it " implies

12 CFR 204.135 - Shifting funds between depository institutions to make use of the low reserve tranche.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

... SYSTEM BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM RESERVE REQUIREMENTS OF DEPOSITORY INSTITUTIONS... prevent evasions of the requirements of that section. Section 19(b)(2) establishes general reserve... that is exempt from transaction account reserve requirements. [57 FR 38429, Aug. 25, 1992] ...

The role of technical progress in the process of recalculating oil reserves; Le role du progres technique dans le processus de renouvellement des reserves petrolieres

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Boulard, J.N. [Total/Fina/Institut Francais du Petrole (IFP), 92 - Rueil-Malmaison (France)

1999-08-01

Contrary to the concept of resources (which is essentially a geological one), the notion of reserves designates the quantities that are technically and economically recoverable. Beyond the production-related effect, the reserves therefore evolve over time in accordance with numerous technical and economic parameters. Among these parameters, it can be seen that technical progress plays a considerable role throughout the process of converting resources into reserves, including progress in the identification, accessibility and processing of the resources, and improvements in economic viability. After having tackled the problem of measuring the 'technical progress effects' and citing examples, we demonstrate that the evolution in oil reserves is subject to three types of impact. These are a quantitative impact by significantly improving the recovery rates or making it possible to identify hitherto undetectable oil fields, a qualitative impact by widening the resource base thanks to the adoption of new categories of oil (in particular the so-called 'unconventional' oils) and by carrying out the gradual substitution between these resources of differing qualities. There is also a dynamic impact, through the acceleration of resource availability. Through these three approaches, technical progress makes makes it possible to ensure continuity in oil supply and contributes significantly to the recalculation of reserves. It therefore acts as a compensating factor, counterbalancing the progressive depletion of resources. (author)

The role of emotion expectancies in adolescents' moral decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Krettenauer, Tobias; Jia, Fanli; Mosleh, Maureen

2011-02-01

This study investigated the impact of emotion expectancies on adolescents' moral decision making in hypothetical situations. The sample consisted of 160 participants from three different grade levels (mean age=15.79 years, SD=2.96). Participants were confronted with a set of scenarios that described various emotional outcomes of (im)moral actions and needed to decide what they would do if they were in the protagonist's shoes. Findings demonstrate that emotion expectancies differentially influenced adolescents' hypothetical decision making in antisocial versus prosocial behavioral contexts. Whereas negatively charged self-evaluative emotions over failing to act morally (e.g., guilt) were the strongest predictor for moral choice in antisocial behavioral contexts, positively charged self-evaluative emotions over acting morally (e.g., pride) most strongly predicted moral choice in prosocial contexts. Older adolescents paid greater attention to outcome-oriented emotions that make the decision to act morally less attractive (e.g., regret). Overall, the study suggests that emotion expectancies influence moral decision making in unique and meaningful ways. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[The ethical reflection approach in decision-making processes in health institutes].

Science.gov (United States)

Gruat, Renaud

2015-12-01

Except in the specific case of end-of-life care, the law says nothing about the way in which health professionals must carry out ethical reflection regarding the treatment of their patients. A problem-solving methodology called the "ethical reflection approach" performed over several stages can be used. The decision-making process involves the whole team and draws on the ability of each caregiver to put forward a reasoned argument, in the interest of the patient. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

[Judicial framework for medical decision-making concerning minors].

Science.gov (United States)

Sirvent, N; Bérard, E

2010-02-01

One aim of the law promulgated in France on March 4, 2002 concerning patients' rights and the quality of the health care system was to reconsider the bases of the physician-patient relationship. The new legal framework recommends establishment of a true dialogue between the two protagonists, and it assigns decisional priority to the patient rather than to the physician or third parties. In the case of minors, the principle of parental authority requires that the physician consults the holders of this authority before making any medical decision. However, the law of March 4, 2002 also reinforced the participation of minors in medical decisions concerning them. The lawmaker explicitly envisaged the possibility of overruling the principle of parental authority. This new "balance of power" obliges the physician to inform the minor of his or her medical condition in a manner appropriate to the child's degree of maturity. The minor may even put forward the principle of medical secrecy to prevent the sharing of information with his or her parents. This new "autonomy" of minors gives rise to at least two reservations: i) the difficulty involved in assessment of a minor's degree of discernment; ii) the minor's vulnerability with respect to his or her entourage. Copyright (c) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Brain mechanisms for perceptual and reward-related decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Deco, Gustavo; Rolls, Edmund T; Albantakis, Larissa; Romo, Ranulfo

2013-04-01

Phenomenological models of decision-making, including the drift-diffusion and race models, are compared with mechanistic, biologically plausible models, such as integrate-and-fire attractor neuronal network models. The attractor network models show how decision confidence is an emergent property; and make testable predictions about the neural processes (including neuronal activity and fMRI signals) involved in decision-making which indicate that the medial prefrontal cortex is involved in reward value-based decision-making. Synaptic facilitation in these models can help to account for sequential vibrotactile decision-making, and for how postponed decision-related responses are made. The randomness in the neuronal spiking-related noise that makes the decision-making probabilistic is shown to be increased by the graded firing rate representations found in the brain, to be decreased by the diluted connectivity, and still to be significant in biologically large networks with thousands of synapses onto each neuron. The stability of these systems is shown to be influenced in different ways by glutamatergic and GABAergic efficacy, leading to a new field of dynamical neuropsychiatry with applications to understanding schizophrenia and obsessive-compulsive disorder. The noise in these systems is shown to be advantageous, and to apply to similar attractor networks involved in short-term memory, long-term memory, attention, and associative thought processes. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Children's judgments about ownership rights and body rights: Evidence for a common basis.

Science.gov (United States)

Van de Vondervoort, Julia W; Meinz, Paul; Friedman, Ori

2017-03-01

We report two experiments supporting the theory that children's understanding of ownership rights is related to their notions of body rights. Experiment 1 investigated 4- to 7-year-olds' (N=123) developing sensitivity to physical contact in their judgments about the acceptability of behaving in relation to owned objects and body parts. Experiment 2 used a simpler design to investigate this in 3- and 4-year-olds (N=112). Findings confirmed two predictions of the theory. First, in both experiments, children's judgments about ownership and body rights were similarly affected by physical contact. Second, judgments about both kinds of rights were yoked in development; age-related changes in judgments about ownership rights were paralleled by changes in judgments about body rights. Our findings have additional import for theories of ownership rights because they suggest that physical contact may be a crucial factor in whether behaviors targeting property are judged to be permissible. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Ultrasound in evaluating ovarian reserve

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eman Ahmaed Shawky Sabek

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The objective of this study was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of transvaginal ultrasound (TVS, as a less invasive technique instead of hormonal assay to evaluate the ovarian reserve. This study included fifty-five females with breast cancer and we compared the ovarian reserve for these patients by hormonal assay through measuring the serum AntiMullerian Hormone (AMH level and follicular stimulating hormone (FSH level before and after chemotherapy, and by transvaginal ultrasound through the ovarian volume (OV calculation and counting the Antral follicles (AFC before and after chemotherapy treatment. There was decline in the AntiMullerian Hormone level after chemotherapy by 27 ± 11.19% and decrease in the Antral follicle counts by 21 ± 13.43%. In conclusion there was strong relation between AMH level and AFC which makes the use of transvaginal ultrasound is a reliable alternative method to the hormonal assay to detect the ovarian reserve.

Sourdough microbial community dynamics: An analysis during French organic bread-making processes.

Science.gov (United States)

Lhomme, Emilie; Urien, Charlotte; Legrand, Judith; Dousset, Xavier; Onno, Bernard; Sicard, Delphine

2016-02-01

Natural sourdoughs are commonly used in bread-making processes, especially for organic bread. Despite its role in bread flavor and dough rise, the stability of the sourdough microbial community during and between bread-making processes is debated. We investigated the dynamics of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and yeast communities in traditional organic sourdoughs of five French bakeries during the bread-making process and several months apart using classical and molecular microbiology techniques. Sourdoughs were sampled at four steps of the bread-making process with repetition. The analysis of microbial density over 68 sourdough/dough samples revealed that both LAB and yeast counts changed along the bread-making process and between bread-making runs. The species composition was less variable. A total of six LAB and nine yeast species was identified from 520 and 1675 isolates, respectively. The dominant LAB species was Lactobacillus sanfranciscensis, found for all bakeries and each bread-making run. The dominant yeast species changed only once between bread-making processes but differed between bakeries. They mostly belonged to the Kazachstania clade. Overall, this study highlights the change of population density within the bread-making process and between bread-making runs and the relative stability of the sourdough species community during bread-making process. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

HIPAA's Individual Right of Access to Genomic Data: Reconciling Safety and Civil Rights.

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Barbara J

2018-01-04

In 2014, the United States granted individuals a right of access to their own laboratory test results, including genomic data. Many observers feel that this right is in tension with regulatory and bioethical standards designed to protect the safety of people who undergo genomic testing. This commentary attributes this tension to growing pains within an expanding federal regulatory program for genetic and genomic testing. The Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act of 2008 expanded the regulatory agenda to encompass civil rights and consumer safety. The individual access right, as it applies to genomic data, is best understood as a civil-rights regulation. Competing regulatory objectives-safety and civil rights-were not successfully integrated during the initial rollout of genomic civil-rights regulations after 2008. Federal law clarifies how to prioritize safety and civil rights when the two come into conflict, although with careful policy design, the two need not collide. This commentary opens a dialog about possible solutions to advance safety and civil rights together. Copyright © 2017 American Society of Human Genetics. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

[Why and how to promote decision-making autonomy of cancer patients?

Science.gov (United States)

Mancini, Julien

2018-02-01

Involvement of patients in decision-making about their health has been promoted nationally and internationally since several years. Despite this, patient (and their relatives) participation remains insufficient and one of the objectives of the current French national cancer policy (Plan cancer 2014-2019) is to give everyone the possibility to play an active role in the management of their care. This overview focuses on decision-making autonomy of cancer patients through two main questions: why and how to promote it? After a brief review of the decision-making models described in the literature in the past decades insisting on the major role of the decisional context and the dynamic character of this context, this article presents a selection of published works which aimed to respond to those 2 questions. Copyright © 2017 Société Française du Cancer. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Making Michigan Right-to-Work: Implementation Problems in Public Schools

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Spalding, Audrey

2014-01-01

This paper examines how public school districts responded to Michigan's 2012 "right-to-work" law. It describes the key findings from reviews of more than 500 teacher collective bargaining agreements. It also raises several questions about the legality of some union contracts with regard to this new law. Approximately 75 percent of…

Petroleum reserves in West Africa: an overview

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Copinschi, Ph.; Favennec, J.P.

1999-01-01

The Gulf of Guinea region in West Africa is one in which production and reserves have increased the most during the last few years, essentially due to offshore operation. It is also there that the most spectacular discoveries have been made in recent years, particularly with deep-sea drilling. The low production costs and enthusiastic welcome for foreign investors make the region a favoured destination for large international companies, even if uncertainties and political tensions remain to make the situation delicate. In these conditions, the relationship between the host State and the foreign petrol companies are changing. Beyond the purely formal aspects of these new contacts, the whole former system of 'reserved markets' is being threatened by the increasing tendency to open the sector to competition. Eight countries are examined in detail: Nigeria, Angola, Gabon, Congo, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, the Ivory Coast and Chad. (authors)

Transparent doesn't always make it right

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Frishman, S.

1999-01-01

The increasing drive for transparency in risk assessment, performance assessment, and decision-making in the controversial area of nuclear waste management has its foundation in the desire to foster the assumption that, if the outcome of the process is a clear result of the fully exposed contributory elements, then that outcome must be accepted as correct. This is in stark contrast to the general need for transparency in any analysis or decision process - to give the outcome credibility. Transparency in the nuclear waste decision arena is being cast as an end in itself, rather than as a tool to shape the product of the assessment or decision process. It is not enough to permit knowledge of exactly what was done to arrive at a particular result, since at best, this only leads to reproducibility. The challenge is to expose why certain steps or assumptions were chosen for pursuit, and what suites of relevant steps or assumptions were rejected and why. It is also important to demonstrate that the trail to the product - the assessment or decision - is complete. In the nuclear waste management field, the complete scope of the assessment or decision process is not always fully exposed because it does not include the assumptions that initiated the process or the possible consequences of the product. In both instances, this failure can serve to limit the steps or assumptions pursued in the process. This paper will describe and discuss examples from the nuclear waste management field and the U.S. high-level nuclear waste program that illustrate the need for transparency, but also demonstrate that transparency does not always lead to an acceptable product

Cultural influences on the neural correlate of moral decision making processes.

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Han, Hyemin; Glover, Gary H; Jeong, Changwoo

2014-02-01

This study compares the neural substrate of moral decision making processes between Korean and American participants. By comparison with Americans, Korean participants showed increased activity in the right putamen associated with socio-intuitive processes and right superior frontal gyrus associated with cognitive control processes under a moral-personal condition, and in the right postcentral sulcus associated with mental calculation in familiar contexts under a moral-impersonal condition. On the other hand, American participants showed a significantly higher degree of activity in the bilateral anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) associated with conflict resolution under the moral-personal condition, and in the right medial frontal gyrus (MFG) associated with simple cognitive branching in non-familiar contexts under the moral-impersonal condition when a more lenient threshold was applied, than Korean participants. These findings support the ideas of the interactions between the cultural background, education, and brain development, proposed in the field of cultural psychology and educational psychology. The study introduces educational implications relevant to moral psychologists and educators. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Antidepressants: Selecting One That's Right for You

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Antidepressants: Selecting one that's right for you Confused by the choice in antidepressants? With persistence, you and your doctor should find one that works so ... Foundation for Medical Education and Research (MFMER). All rights reserved.

Historical aspects of the nuclear right development

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Puig, Diva E.

1999-01-01

This paper analyses the historical aspects of the nuclear right development. It makes the evolution of the fundamental principles of nuclear right, in special, the civil responsibility for nuclear damages. (author)

Comparativism and the Grounds for Person-Centered Care and Shared Decision Making.

Science.gov (United States)

Herlitz, Anders

2017-01-01

This article provides a new argument and a new value-theoretical ground for person-centered care and shared decision making that ascribes to it the role of enabling rational choice in situations involving clinical choice. Rather than referring to good health outcomes and/or ethical grounds such as patient autonomy, it argues that a plausible justification and ground for person-centered care and shared decision making is preservation of rationality in the face of comparative non-determinacy in clinical settings. Often, no alternative treatment will be better than or equal to every other alternative. In the face of such comparative non-determinacy, Ruth Chang has argued that we can make rational decisions by invoking reasons that are created through acts of willing. This article transfers this view to clinical decision making and argues that shared decision making provides a solution to non-determinacy problems in clinical settings. This view of the role of shared decision making provides a new understanding of its nature, and it also allows us to better understand when caregivers should engage in shared decision making and when they should not. Copyright 2017 The Journal of Clinical Ethics. All rights reserved.

Emotion regulation and decision making under risk and uncertainty.

Science.gov (United States)

Heilman, Renata M; Crişan, Liviu G; Houser, Daniel; Miclea, Mircea; Miu, Andrei C

2010-04-01

It is well established that emotion plays a key role in human social and economic decision making. The recent literature on emotion regulation (ER), however, highlights that humans typically make efforts to control emotion experiences. This leaves open the possibility that decision effects previously attributed to acute emotion may be a consequence of acute ER strategies such as cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression. In Study 1, we manipulated ER of laboratory-induced fear and disgust, and found that the cognitive reappraisal of these negative emotions promotes risky decisions (reduces risk aversion) in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task and is associated with increased performance in the prehunch/hunch period of the Iowa Gambling Task. In Study 2, we found that naturally occurring negative emotions also increase risk aversion in Balloon Analogue Risk Task, but the incidental use of cognitive reappraisal of emotions impedes this effect. We offer evidence that the increased effectiveness of cognitive reappraisal in reducing the experience of emotions underlies its beneficial effects on decision making. Copyright 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

[Elective abortions, a right to defend].

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Zaccabri, Annie

2015-12-01

Every year in France, almost 210 000 women request a termination of an unwanted pregnancy. Two thirds of them were however using a form of contraception, hence the importance, for caregivers, of encouraging women to find the method which works best for them. The right to abortion is the fruit of a long fight for a woman's right to control her own body. It is a right which must be protected. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Forest rights

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Balooni, Kulbhushan; Lund, Jens Friis

2014-01-01

One of the proposed strategies for implementation of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation plus (REDD+) is to incentivize conservation of forests managed by communities under decentralized forest management. Yet, we argue that this is a challenging road to REDD+ because...... conservation of forests under existing decentralized management arrangements toward a push for extending the coverage of forests under decentralized management, making forest rights the hard currency of REDD+....

RESTAURANT RESERVATION MANAGEMENT CONSIDERING TABLE COMBINATION

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qing Miao

Full Text Available ABSTRACT This paper presents a case study of table reservation practice for restaurant business within Walt Disney World. A unique feature here is to consider table combination to capture revenue potentials from different party sizes and at different time periods. For example, a party of large size can be served by combining two or more small tables. A mixed integer programming (MIP model is developed to make the reservation recommendation. We propose a rolling horizon reservation policy such that the value of a particular table is periodically evaluated and updated. This is a typical revenue management method in the airlines and other industries, the essence of which is to compare the future expected revenue with a currently offered price. Using historical data, numerical test shows a significant revenue improvement potential from our proposed model.

Decision-making in schizophrenia: A predictive-coding perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Sterzer, Philipp; Voss, Martin; Schlagenhauf, Florian; Heinz, Andreas

2018-05-31

Dysfunctional decision-making has been implicated in the positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia. Decision-making can be conceptualized within the framework of hierarchical predictive coding as the result of a Bayesian inference process that uses prior beliefs to infer states of the world. According to this idea, prior beliefs encoded at higher levels in the brain are fed back as predictive signals to lower levels. Whenever these predictions are violated by the incoming sensory data, a prediction error is generated and fed forward to update beliefs encoded at higher levels. Well-documented impairments in cognitive decision-making support the view that these neural inference mechanisms are altered in schizophrenia. There is also extensive evidence relating the symptoms of schizophrenia to aberrant signaling of prediction errors, especially in the domain of reward and value-based decision-making. Moreover, the idea of altered predictive coding is supported by evidence for impaired low-level sensory mechanisms and motor processes. We review behavioral and neural findings from these research areas and provide an integrated view suggesting that schizophrenia may be related to a pervasive alteration in predictive coding at multiple hierarchical levels, including cognitive and value-based decision-making processes as well as sensory and motor systems. We relate these findings to decision-making processes and propose that varying degrees of impairment in the implicated brain areas contribute to the variety of psychotic experiences. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Philosophical foundations of human rights

CERN Document Server

Liao, Matthew S

2015-01-01

What makes something a human right? What is the relationship between the moral foundations of human rights and human rights law? What are the difficulties of appealing to human rights? This book offers the first comprehensive survey of current thinking on the philosophical foundations of human rights. Divided into four parts, this book focusses firstly on the moral grounds of human rights, for example in our dignity, agency, interests or needs. 'Secondly, it looks at the implications that different moral perspectives on human rights bear for human rights law and politics. Thirdly, it discusses specific and topical human rights including freedom of expression and religion, security, health and more controversial rights such as a human right to subsistence. The final part discusses nuanced critical and reformative views on human rights from feminist, Kantian and relativist perspectives among others. The essays represent new and canonical research by leading scholars in the field. Each part is comprised of a set...

From global discourse to local action: the makings of a sexual rights movement?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jonathan Garcia

2006-12-01

Full Text Available This paper focuses on the development of discourses around sexual rights, linking tendencies in official global dialogues with national and local realities. Recognizing some of the factors that have facilitated or impeded discourses and action to promote sexual rights around the world, we explore the principles and processes of framing sexual rights and sexual citizenship. We consider political opportunity and the mobilization of resources as important as cultural and emotional interpretations of sexual rights in conceptualizing a "sexual rights movement". Throughout the paper we question whether a movement based on solidarity can be forged between different social movements (i.e., feminist movements, HIV/AIDS movements, LGBT movements, etc. that are advocating for distinct sexual rights. While theoretically sexual rights range from protection from sexual violation to the celebration of sexual pleasure, in reality the agendas of sexual rights movements are still largely fragmented, heteronormative, and focused on negative rights.Este artigo enfoca o desenvolvimento de discursos que circundam os direitos sexuais juntando tendências em diálogos globais oficiais com realidades nacionais e locais. Reconhecendo alguns fatores que têm facilitado ou impedido discursos e ações que promovam direitos sexuais ao redor do mundo, nós exploramos os princípios e processos onde se enquadram os direitos sexuais e a cidadania sexual. Nós consideramos que as oportunidades políticas e a mobilização de recursos são tão importantes para a conceitualização de um movimento pelos direitos sexuais quanto as interpretações culturais e emocionais dos direitos sexuais. Ao longo deste artigo, nós questionamos se um movimento baseado na solidariedade pode ser forjado entre movimentos diferentes (por exemplo, movimentos feministas, HIV/Aids, movimentos GLBT, etc. que estão reivindicando direitos sexuais distintos. Enquanto teoricamente os direitos sexuais v

Toward a Child Rights Theory in Pediatric Bioethics.

Science.gov (United States)

Goldhagen, Jeffrey; Mercer, Raul; Webb, Elspeth; Nathawad, Rita; Shenoda, Sherry; Lansdown, Gerison

2016-01-01

This article offers a child rights theory in pediatric bioethics, applying the principles, standards, and norms of child rights, health equity, and social justice to medical and ethical decision-making. We argue that a child rights theory in pediatric bioethics will help pediatricians and pediatric bioethicists analyze and address the complex interplay of biomedical and social determinants of child health. These core principles, standards and norms, grounded in the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), provide the foundational elements for the theory and a means for better understanding the complex determinants of children's health and well-being. Rights-based approaches to medical and ethical decision-making provide strategies for applying and translating these elements into the practice of pediatrics and pediatric bioethics by establishing a coherent, consistent, and contextual theory that is relevant to contemporary practice. The proposed child rights theory extends evolving perspectives on the relationship between human rights and bioethics to both child rights and pediatric bioethics.

Consumer Rights in Counseling: Duty to Disclose.

Science.gov (United States)

Paradise, Louis V.

1990-01-01

Contends counselors should give potential clients enough information in the initial session to make a decision about whether they are right for their counselor and whether their counselor is right for them. Claims using a brochure detailing consumer rights and responsibilities, qualifications of the counselor, and general grievance procedures is…

[The reasonable use of right ventricular protection strategy in right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction].

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Y; Yuan, H Y; Liu, X B; Wen, S S; Xu, G; Cui, H J; Zhuang, J; Chen, J M

2018-06-01

As a result of right ventricular outflow tract reconstruction, which is the important and basic step of complex cardiac surgery, the blood flow of right ventricular outflow tract is unobstructed, while pulmonary valve regurgitation and right heart dysfunction could be happened. These problems are often ignored in early days, more and more cases of right heart dysfunction need clinical intervention, which is quite difficult and less effective. How to protect effectively the right ventricular function is the focus. At present main methods to protect the right ventricular function include trying to avoid or reduce length of right ventricular incision, reserving or rebuilding the function of the pulmonary valve, using growth potential material for surgery. The protection of the right ventricular function is a systemic project, it involves many aspects, single measures is difficult to provide complete protection, only the comprehensive use of various protection strategy, can help to improve the long-term prognosis.

Linking dynamic patterns of neural activity in orbitofrontal cortex with decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Rich, Erin L; Stoll, Frederic M; Rudebeck, Peter H

2018-04-01

Humans and animals demonstrate extraordinary flexibility in choice behavior, particularly when deciding based on subjective preferences. We evaluate options on different scales, deliberate, and often change our minds. Little is known about the neural mechanisms that underlie these dynamic aspects of decision-making, although neural activity in orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) likely plays a central role. Recent evidence from studies in macaques shows that attention modulates value responses in OFC, and that ensembles of OFC neurons dynamically signal different options during choices. When contexts change, these ensembles flexibly remap to encode the new task. Determining how these dynamic patterns emerge and relate to choices will inform models of decision-making and OFC function. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

(Public) Health and Human Rights in Practice.

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Annas, George J; Mariner, Wendy K

2016-02-01

Public health's reliance on law to define and carry out public activities makes it impossible to define a set of ethical principles unique to public health. Public health ethics must be encompassed within--and consistent with--a broader set of principles that define the power and limits of governmental institutions. These include human rights, health law, and even medical ethics. The human right to health requires governments not only to respect individual human rights and personal freedoms, but also, importantly, to protect people from harm from external sources and third parties, and to fulfill the health needs of the population. Even if human rights are the natural language for public health, not all public health professionals are comfortable with the language of human rights. Some argue that individual human rights--such as autonomy and privacy--unfairly limit the permissible means to achieve the goal of health protection. We argue that public health should welcome and promote the human rights framework. In almost every instance, this will make public health more effective in the long run, because the goals of public health and human rights are the same: to promote human flourishing. Copyright © 2016 by Duke University Press.

Copyright Policy and Practice in Electronic Reserves among ARL Libraries

Science.gov (United States)

Hansen, David R.; Cross, William M.; Edwards, Phillip M.

2013-01-01

This paper presents the results of a survey of 110 ARL institutions regarding their copyright policies for providing electronic reserves. It compiles descriptive statistics on library practice as well as coding responses to reveal trends and shared practices. Finally, it presents conclusions about policy making, decision making and risk aversion…

On-line confidence monitoring during decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Dotan, Dror; Meyniel, Florent; Dehaene, Stanislas

2018-02-01

Humans can readily assess their degree of confidence in their decisions. Two models of confidence computation have been proposed: post hoc computation using post-decision variables and heuristics, versus online computation using continuous assessment of evidence throughout the decision-making process. Here, we arbitrate between these theories by continuously monitoring finger movements during a manual sequential decision-making task. Analysis of finger kinematics indicated that subjects kept separate online records of evidence and confidence: finger deviation continuously reflected the ongoing accumulation of evidence, whereas finger speed continuously reflected the momentary degree of confidence. Furthermore, end-of-trial finger speed predicted the post-decisional subjective confidence rating. These data indicate that confidence is computed on-line, throughout the decision process. Speed-confidence correlations were previously interpreted as a post-decision heuristics, whereby slow decisions decrease subjective confidence, but our results suggest an adaptive mechanism that involves the opposite causality: by slowing down when unconfident, participants gain time to improve their decisions. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

FROM ENFORCEMENT TO INTEGRATION: INFUSING ADMINISTRATIVE DECISION-MAKING WITH HUMAN RIGHTS VALUES

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jennifer Raso

2015-02-01

Full Text Available This article proposes an integration approach to realize human rights values within administrative agencies.  Using social assistance as a factual context, it examines how rights enforcement has become the dominant mechanism for reforming government benefits programs.  Rights enforcement is ineffective at achieving the values underlying human rights codes, however, even where enforcement occurs at administrative tribunals.  Attention must therefore be directed towards efforts to infuse individual and institutional discretion with human rights values.  Given their quasi-constitutional status, such values have a key role to play in shaping the design of administrative agencies and the everyday decisions of front-line workers.    Dans ce document, l’auteur propose une approche axée sur l’intégration des droits afin d’assurer le respect des valeurs qui sous-tendent les droits de la personne à l’intérieur des organismes administratifs. En se servant de l’aide sociale comme toile de fond, l’auteur explique que la plupart des décisions discrétionnaires prises dans le cadre de l’exécution des droits ne sont pas contestées.  Les mécanismes d’exécution des droits ne permettent pas d’assurer le respect des valeurs qui sous-tendent les droits de la personne, notamment en ce qui concerne les programmes d’avantages sociaux du gouvernement. En conséquence, il faut tenter d’intégrer ces valeurs aux décisions administratives discrétionnaires prises au niveau tant personnel qu’institutionnel. En raison de leur statut quasi constitutionnel, ces valeurs ont un rôle clé à jouer pour façonner la conception des organismes administratifs et les décisions que les travailleurs de première ligne sont appelés à prendre tous les jours.

Framing matters: Effects of framing on older adults' exploratory decision-making.

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Cooper, Jessica A; Blanco, Nathaniel J; Maddox, W Todd

2017-02-01

We examined framing effects on exploratory decision-making. In Experiment 1 we tested older and younger adults in two decision-making tasks separated by one week, finding that older adults' decision-making performance was preserved when maximizing gains, but it declined when minimizing losses. Computational modeling indicates that younger adults in both conditions, and older adults in gains maximization, utilized a decreasing threshold strategy (which is optimal), but older adults in losses were better fit by a fixed-probability model of exploration. In Experiment 2 we examined within-subject behavior in older and younger adults in the same exploratory decision-making task, but without a time separation between tasks. We replicated the older adult disadvantage in loss minimization from Experiment 1 and found that the older adult deficit was significantly reduced when the loss-minimization task immediately followed the gains-maximization task. We conclude that older adults' performance in exploratory decision-making is hindered when framed as loss minimization, but that this deficit is attenuated when older adults can first develop a strategy in a gains-framed task. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Decision making and coping in healthcare: the Coping in Deliberation (CODE) framework.

Science.gov (United States)

Witt, Jana; Elwyn, Glyn; Wood, Fiona; Brain, Kate

2012-08-01

To develop a framework of decision making and coping in healthcare that describes the twin processes of appraisal and coping faced by patients making preference-sensitive healthcare decisions. We briefly review the literature for decision making theories and coping theories applicable to preference-sensitive decisions in healthcare settings. We describe first decision making, then coping and finally attempt to integrate these processes by building on current theory. Deliberation in healthcare may be described as a six step process, comprised of the presentation of a health threat, choice, options, preference construction, the decision itself and consolidation post-decision. Coping can be depicted in three stages, beginning with a threat, followed by primary and secondary appraisal and ultimately resulting in a coping effort. Drawing together concepts from prominent decision making theories and coping theories, we propose a multidimensional, interactive framework which integrates both processes and describes coping in deliberation. The proposed framework offers an insight into the complexity of decision making in preference-sensitive healthcare contexts from a patient perspective and may act as theoretical basis for decision support. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Making the School Uniform Decision: Is It Right for "Your" School?

Science.gov (United States)

McDaniel, Thomas R.

2013-01-01

Do school uniforms make a difference in student academic performance, school spirit, discipline, and safety? What are the legal restrictions that bear on the school uniform decision in public schools? Do uniform policies lead to less school violence? Do they impose an economic hardship, outweighing the advantages, on low-income families? The…

Realizing right to health through universal health coverage

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

ANJALI Singh

2014-07-01

Full Text Available Recognition of right to health is an essential step to work towards improvement of public health and to attain highest standard of physical and mental health of the people. Right to health in India is implicit part of right to life under Article 19 mentioned in the Constitution of India but is not recognized per se. Universal Health Coverage adopts rights based approach and principles of universality, equity, empowerment and comprehensiveness of care. The Universal Coverage Report of India makes recommendations in six identified areas to revamp the health systems in order to ensure right to health of Indians. These areas are: health financing and financial protection; health service norms; human resources for health; community participation and citizen engagement; access to medicines, vaccines and techno- logy; management and institutional reforms. This paper attempts to determine the ways inwhich Universal Health Coverage can make a contribution in realizing right to health and thus human rights in developing countries.

Promoting the rights and responsibilities of children: a South Australian example.

Science.gov (United States)

George, Emma; Schmidt, Casey; Vella, Grace; McDonagh, Imelda

2017-03-01

In 2014, the Parafield Gardens Children's Centre for Early Childhood Development and Parenting was recognised as a Global Peace School - Early Years (GPSEY). During the recognition process, a project promoting the rights and responsibilities of children and families was facilitated. Partnering with children and families in decision making was a project priority. Young children had an active role in decision making. Through age-appropriate activities and discussions, children and families developed deeper understanding of child rights, peace building, global awareness and social inclusion. Educational staff were supported to enhance this child rights focus. A GPSEY recognition celebration acknowledged child rights and the community's cultural diversity. The outcome of GPSEY recognition is significant but the process that fostered community ownership, participation and social inclusion is worth noting. Involving children in decision making and development promotes their rights and responsibilities; this can make a positive difference for children locally, and globally.

Disappearance of endangered turtles within China's nature reserves.

Science.gov (United States)

Gong, Shi-Ping; Shi, Hai-Tao; Jiang, Ai-Wu; Fong, Jonathan J; Gaillard, Daniel; Wang, Ji-Chao

2017-03-06

China ranks first among Northern hemisphere countries for species richness, but approximately 43% of its species are threatened [1], with harvesting being the major threat to vertebrates [2]. To protect its biodiversity, China has established about 2,700 nature reserves covering 1.46 million km 2 ( about 15% of China's territory, a percentage higher than the world average [3]). With increasing habitat destruction and harvesting, nature reserves are the final refugia for threatened species. However, many Chinese nature reserves are poorly managed, leaving them vulnerable to poaching and other human encroachment [4]. In this study, we conducted a 12-year (2002-2013) case study on turtles to illustrate the damaging impacts China's nature reserves have on wildlife conservation. We discovered that poaching occurred in all of the 56 reserves surveyed, resulting in dramatically reduced turtle populations. In a majority of the reserves, the reserve staff themselves were involved in poaching. Although nature reserves were created to protect plants and animals, they have become part of the problem due to weak enforcement of rules. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Patient Preferences regarding Shared Decision-making in the Emergency Department: Findings from a multi-site survey.

Science.gov (United States)

Schoenfeld, Elizabeth M; Kanzaria, Hemal K; Quigley, Denise D; Marie, Peter St; Nayyar, Nikita; Sabbagh, Sarah H; Gress, Kyle L; Probst, Marc A

2018-06-13

' desired level of involvement in decision-making. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

How modifiable factors influence parental decision-making about organ donation.

Science.gov (United States)

Luberda, Kamila; Cleaver, Karen

2017-11-07

A global shortage of organs from children and adults available for transplantation is compounded by the failure of next of kin to consent for organs to be donated after death. Non-modifiable and modifiable factors influence decision-making in this area. Modifiable factors are of interest when examining families' decision-making about the donation of organs from their deceased child. A scoping review was undertaken to determine how modifiable factors influence parental decision-making about organ donation. Thematic analysis identified two themes: interactions with healthcare professionals and pre-disposition to organ donation. Satisfaction with experiences of hospital care, the information provided and the way it was communicated, as well as interactions pertaining to emotional support were all found to be modifiable factors that influenced decision making. Likewise, a predisposition to organ donation and knowing the deceased's wishes were associated with the consent decision. Nurses working in critical care environments need to be able to support parents during this difficult time. This article aims to raise awareness of modifiable factors that influence parental decision-making, highlighting their relevance for children's nursing practice. ©2017 RCN Publishing Company Ltd. All rights reserved. Not to be copied, transmitted or recorded in any way, in whole or part, without prior permission of the publishers.

THE RESALE RIGHT

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ana-Maria MARINESCU

2017-05-01

Full Text Available The article analyses one of the most important rights of the authors of original works of art namely: the resale right. It will be analyzed the subject matter of the resale right, the works of art to which the resale right relates, the rates applicable to the resale right, the persons entitled to receive royalties, the term of protection of the resale right, third-country nationals entitled to receive royalties and the right to obtain information. Also, the article will refer to the EU Directive in the field: Directive 2001/84/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 September 2001 on the resale right for the benefit of the author of an original work of art. It will be the subject of the article, also, the European Court of Justice jurisprudence related to the resale right, for example the judgment in the case C-518/08 (VEGAP vs. ADAGP, underlying that, in the light of the objectives pursued by Directive 2001/84, Member States may make their own legislative choice in determining the categories of persons capable of benefiting from the resale right after the death of the author of a work of art. One of parts of the article, will analyses the collective management for the resale right, especially: the terms of the collective management, forms of the collective management and examples. For all the above mentioned reasons, the article will refer to the main aspects of the resale right in a comprehensive manner and will analyses in a scientifically manner this very important right of the authors of original works of art.

Business and Human Rights

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buhmann, Karin

2015-01-01

This article analyses the United Nations (UN) Guidelines on Business and Human Rights adopted in 2011 by the UN Human Rights Council from the perspective of transnational business governance interactions (TBGI) analytical framework.1 The article identifies and discusses dimensions of interaction...... and components of regulatory governance which characterize the Guiding Principles, focusing in particular on rule formation and implementation. The article notes that the Guiding Principles actively enrolled other actors for the rule-making process, ensuring support in a politically and legally volatile field...

[Adequacy of clinical interventions in patients with advanced and complex disease. Proposal of a decision making algorithm].

Science.gov (United States)

Ameneiros-Lago, E; Carballada-Rico, C; Garrido-Sanjuán, J A; García Martínez, A

2015-01-01

Decision making in the patient with chronic advanced disease is especially complex. Health professionals are obliged to prevent avoidable suffering and not to add any more damage to that of the disease itself. The adequacy of the clinical interventions consists of only offering those diagnostic and therapeutic procedures appropriate to the clinical situation of the patient and to perform only those allowed by the patient or representative. In this article, the use of an algorithm is proposed that should serve to help health professionals in this decision making process. Copyright © 2014 SECA. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Why Workers’ Rights Are Not Women’s Rights

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Heidi Gottfried

2015-04-01

Full Text Available “Why workers’ rights are not women’s rights” is an argument whose purpose is to make clear why workers’ rights rest on a masculine embodiment of the labor subject and it is this masculine embodiment which is at the center of employment contracts and employment relations systems. By excavating the gender subjects implicit to and explicit in regulations of labor, the paper reveals the opposition of paired terms, masculinity and femininity privileging production over reproduction and naturalizing gender-based power relations. The paper identifies various laboring activities associated with differential rights and responsibilities. An examination of the treatment of part-time employment and waged caring labor, framed in labor, welfare, immigration, and citizenship policies and practices, locates exclusions from labor standards and exemptions from entitlements due to eligibility requirements and thresholds that assume the masculine embodiment of the worker-citizen. Gendering the analysis illustrates how contemporary labor laws and conventions grant rights on the basis of, and to, a rather abstract conception of the prototypical worker-citizen. Its origins lie in what classical political economy labeled a capitalist logic, as well as the historical practices in which free class agents entered into contracts for continuous, full-time work free of care responsibilities outside of the wage/labor nexus. Thus, it is this particular abstract construction of the proto-typical worker which instantiates the separation of “rights to” from “responsibilities for”, and it is this separation that allows the masculine embodiment of the labor subject. Modes of regulation privileging rights over responsibilities will valorize the masculine worker-citizen whose rights derive from their participation in wage labor and simultaneously devalue the feminine worker who is directly connected to caring labor.

Whole mind and shared mind in clinical decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Epstein, Ronald Mark

2013-02-01

To review the theory, research evidence and ethical implications regarding "whole mind" and "shared mind" in clinical practice in the context of chronic and serious illnesses. Selective critical review of the intersection of classical and naturalistic decision-making theories, cognitive neuroscience, communication research and ethics as they apply to decision-making and autonomy. Decision-making involves analytic thinking as well as affect and intuition ("whole mind") and sharing cognitive and affective schemas of two or more individuals ("shared mind"). Social relationships can help processing of complex information that otherwise would overwhelm individuals' cognitive capacities. Medical decision-making research, teaching and practice should consider both analytic and non-analytic cognitive processes. Further, research should consider that decisions emerge not only from the individual perspectives of patients, their families and clinicians, but also the perspectives that emerge from the interactions among them. Social interactions have the potential to enhance individual autonomy, as well as to promote relational autonomy based on shared frames of reference. Shared mind has the potential to result in wiser decisions, greater autonomy and self-determination; yet, clinicians and patients should be vigilant for the potential of hierarchical relationships to foster coercion or silencing of the patient's voice. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Establishing a compulsory drug treatment prison: Therapeutic policy, principles, and practices in addressing offender rights and rehabilitation.

Science.gov (United States)

Birgden, Astrid; Grant, Luke

2010-01-01

A Compulsory Drug Treatment Correctional Center (CDTCC) was established in Australia in 2006 for repeat drug-related male offenders. Compulsory treatment law is inconsistent with a therapeutic jurisprudence approach. Despite the compulsory law, a normative offender rehabilitation framework has been established based on offender moral rights. Within moral rights, the offender rehabilitation framework addresses the core values of freedom (supporting autonomous decision-making) and well-being (supporting support physical, social, and psychological needs). Moral rights are underpinned by a theory or principle which, in this instance, is a humane approach to offender rehabilitation. While a law that permits offenders to choose drug treatment and rehabilitation is preferable, the article discusses the establishment of a prison based on therapeutic policy, principles, and practices that respond to participants as both rights-violators and rights-holders. The opportunity for accelerated community access and a therapeutic alliance with staff has resulted in offenders actively seeking to be ordered into compulsory drug treatment and rehabilitation. Crown Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Charlie Gard and the weight of parental rights to seek experimental treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Birchley, Giles

2018-05-17

The case of Charlie Gard, an infant with a genetic illness whose parents sought experimental treatment in the USA, brought important debates about the moral status of parents and children to the public eye. After setting out the facts of the case, this article considers some of these debates through the lens of parental rights. Parental rights are most commonly based on the promotion of a child's welfare; however, in Charlie's case, promotion of Charlie's welfare cannot explain every fact of the case. Indeed, some seem most logically to extend from intrinsic parental rights, that is, parental rights that exist independent of welfare promotion. I observe that a strong claim for intrinsic parental rights can be built on arguments for genetic propriety and children's limited personhood. Critique of these arguments suggests the scope of parental rights remains limited: property rights entail proper use; non-personhood includes only a small cohort of very young or seriously intellectually disabled children and the uniqueness of parental genetic connection is limited. Moreover, there are cogent arguments about parents' competence to make judgements, and public interest arguments against allowing access to experimental treatment. Nevertheless, while arguments based on propriety may raise concerns about the attitude involved in envisioning children as property, I conclude that these arguments do appear to offer a prima facie case for a parental right to seek experimental treatment in certain limited circumstances. © Article author(s) (or their employer(s) unless otherwise stated in the text of the article) 2018. All rights reserved. No commercial use is permitted unless otherwise expressly granted.

Wind offering in energy and reserve markets

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Soares, Tiago; Pinson, Pierre; Morais, Hugo

2016-01-01

The increasing penetration of wind generation in power systems to fulfil the ambitious European targets will make wind power producers to play an even more important role in the future power system. Wind power producers are being incentivized to participate in reserve markets to increase...... their revenue, since currently wind turbine/farm technologies allow them to provide ancillary services. Thus, wind power producers are to develop offering strategies for participation in both energy and reserve markets, accounting for market rules, while ensuring optimal revenue. We consider a proportional...... offering strategy to optimally decide upon participation in both markets by maximizing expected revenue from day-ahead decisions while accounting for estimated regulation costs for failing to provide the services. An evaluation of considering the same proportional splitting of energy and reserve in both...

Re-Envisioning Human Rights in the Light of Arendt and Rancière: Towards an Agonistic Account of Human Rights Education

Science.gov (United States)

Zembylas, Michalinos

2017-01-01

This article takes up Arendt's "aporetic" framing of human rights as well as Rancière's critique and suggests that reading them together may offer a way to re-envision human rights and human rights education (HRE)--not only because they make visible the perplexities of human rights, but also in that they call for an agonistic…

Assessing an Adolescent's Capacity for Autonomous Decision-Making in Clinical Care.

Science.gov (United States)

Michaud, Pierre-André; Blum, Robert Wm; Benaroyo, Lazare; Zermatten, Jean; Baltag, Valentina

2015-10-01

The purpose of this article is to provide policy guidance on how to assess the capacity of minor adolescents for autonomous decision-making without a third party authorization, in the field of clinical care. In June 2014, a two-day meeting gathered 20 professionals from all continents, working in the field of adolescent medicine, neurosciences, developmental and clinical psychology, sociology, ethics, and law. Formal presentations and discussions were based on a literature search and the participants' experience. The assessment of adolescent decision-making capacity includes the following: (1) a review of the legal context consistent with the principles of the Convention on the Rights of the Child; (2) an empathetic relationship between the adolescent and the health care professional/team; (3) the respect of the adolescent's developmental stage and capacities; (4) the inclusion, if relevant, of relatives, peers, teachers, or social and mental health providers with the adolescent's consent; (5) the control of coercion and other social forces that influence decision-making; and (6) a deliberative stepwise appraisal of the adolescent's decision-making process. This stepwise approach, already used among adults with psychiatric disorders, includes understanding the different facets of the given situation, reasoning on the involved issues, appreciating the outcomes linked with the decision(s), and expressing a choice. Contextual and psychosocial factors play pivotal roles in the assessment of adolescents' decision-making capacity. The evaluation must be guided by a well-established procedure, and health professionals should be trained accordingly. These proposals are the first to have been developed by a multicultural, multidisciplinary expert panel. Copyright © 2015 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Health Rights and Realization Comment on "Rights Language in the Sustainable Development Agenda: Has Right to Health Discourse and Norms Shaped Health Goals?".

Science.gov (United States)

Rushton, Simon

2016-02-29

In their hypothesis published in IJHPM, Lisa Forman and colleagues examined the prominence of the right to health and sexual and reproductive health rights (as well as related language) in four of the key reports that fed into the process of negotiating the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Now that the SDGs have been formally adopted, this comment builds on some of the insights of Forman and colleagues to examine the extent to which those rights have been incorporated in SDGs 3 and 5. I argue that sexual and reproductive health rights are relatively well-covered within the SDGs. In terms of the right to health, however, the picture is much less clear. Some of the elements that make up that right are present and correct, but the SDGs have delivered no coherent vision of how a 'right to health' might actually be realized. An important task facing global health and human rights advocates is to continue pushing human rights framings so that progress is made both on meeting the SDGs and on realizing the right to health. © 2016 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

What is adaptive about adaptive decision making? A parallel constraint satisfaction account.

Science.gov (United States)

Glöckner, Andreas; Hilbig, Benjamin E; Jekel, Marc

2014-12-01

There is broad consensus that human cognition is adaptive. However, the vital question of how exactly this adaptivity is achieved has remained largely open. Herein, we contrast two frameworks which account for adaptive decision making, namely broad and general single-mechanism accounts vs. multi-strategy accounts. We propose and fully specify a single-mechanism model for decision making based on parallel constraint satisfaction processes (PCS-DM) and contrast it theoretically and empirically against a multi-strategy account. To achieve sufficiently sensitive tests, we rely on a multiple-measure methodology including choice, reaction time, and confidence data as well as eye-tracking. Results show that manipulating the environmental structure produces clear adaptive shifts in choice patterns - as both frameworks would predict. However, results on the process level (reaction time, confidence), in information acquisition (eye-tracking), and from cross-predicting choice consistently corroborate single-mechanisms accounts in general, and the proposed parallel constraint satisfaction model for decision making in particular. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

When will fossil fuel reserves be diminished?

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shafiee, Shahriar; Topal, Erkan

2009-01-01

Crude oil, coal and gas are the main resources for world energy supply. The size of fossil fuel reserves and the dilemma that 'when non-renewable energy will be diminished' is a fundamental and doubtful question that needs to be answered. This paper presents a new formula for calculating when fossil fuel reserves are likely to be depleted and develops an econometrics model to demonstrate the relationship between fossil fuel reserves and some main variables. The new formula is modified from the Klass model and thus assumes a continuous compound rate and computes fossil fuel reserve depletion times for oil, coal and gas of approximately 35, 107 and 37 years, respectively. This means that coal reserves are available up to 2112, and will be the only fossil fuel remaining after 2042. In the Econometrics model, the main exogenous variables affecting oil, coal and gas reserve trends are their consumption and respective prices between 1980 and 2006. The models for oil and gas reserves unexpectedly show a positive and significant relationship with consumption, while presenting a negative and significant relationship with price. The econometrics model for coal reserves, however, expectedly illustrates a negative and significant relationship with consumption and a positive and significant relationship with price. Consequently, huge reserves of coal and low-level coal prices in comparison to oil and gas make coal one of the main energy substitutions for oil and gas in the future, under the assumption of coal as a clean energy source

Clinical decision-making: heuristics and cognitive biases for the ophthalmologist.

Science.gov (United States)

Hussain, Ahsen; Oestreicher, James

Diagnostic errors have a significant impact on health care outcomes and patient care. The underlying causes and development of diagnostic error are complex with flaws in health care systems, as well as human error, playing a role. Cognitive biases and a failure of decision-making shortcuts (heuristics) are human factors that can compromise the diagnostic process. We describe these mechanisms, their role with the clinician, and provide clinical scenarios to highlight the various points at which biases may emerge. We discuss strategies to modify the development and influence of these processes and the vulnerability of heuristics to provide insight and improve clinical outcomes. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

What makes ecological systems reactive?

Science.gov (United States)

Snyder, Robin E

2010-06-01

Although perturbations from a stable equilibrium must ultimately vanish, they can grow initially, and the maximum initial growth rate is called reactivity. Reactivity thus identifies systems that may undergo transient population surges or drops in response to perturbations; however, we lack biological and mathematical intuition about what makes a system reactive. This paper presents upper and lower bounds on reactivity for an arbitrary linearized model, explores their strictness, and discusses their biological implications. I find that less stable systems (i.e. systems with long transients) have a smaller possible range of reactivities for which no perturbations grow. Systems with more species have a higher capacity to be reactive, assuming species interactions do not weaken too rapidly as the number of species increases. Finally, I find that in discrete time, reactivity is determined largely by mean interaction strength and neither discrete nor continuous time reactivity are sensitive to food web topology. 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Microfinance participation and contraceptive decision-making: results from a national sample of women in Bangladesh.

Science.gov (United States)

Murshid, N S; Ely, G E

2016-10-01

Our objective was to assess whether microfinance participation affords greater contraceptive decision-making power to women. Population based secondary data analysis. In this cross-sectional study using nationally representative data from the Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey 2011 we conducted multinomial logistic regression to estimate the odds of contraceptive decision-making by respondents and their husbands based on microfinance participation. Microfinance participation was measured as a dichotomous variable and contraceptive decision-making was conceptualized based on who made decisions about contraceptive use: respondents only; their partners or husbands only; or both. The odds of decision-making by the respondent, with the reference case being joint decision-making, were higher for microfinance participants, but they were not significant. The odds of decision-making by the husband, with the reference case again being joint decision-making, were significantly lower among men who were partnered with women who participated in microfinance (RRR = 0.70, P participation by women allowed men to share decision-making power with their wives that resulted in higher odds of joint decision-making. Copyright © 2016 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Risky decision making in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A meta-regression analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Dekkers, Tycho J; Popma, Arne; Agelink van Rentergem, Joost A; Bexkens, Anika; Huizenga, Hilde M

2016-04-01

ADHD has been associated with various forms of risky real life decision making, for example risky driving, unsafe sex and substance abuse. However, results from laboratory studies on decision making deficits in ADHD have been inconsistent, probably because of between study differences. We therefore performed a meta-regression analysis in which 37 studies (n ADHD=1175; n Control=1222) were included, containing 52 effect sizes. The overall analysis yielded a small to medium effect size (standardized mean difference=.36, pdecision making than control groups. There was a trend for a moderating influence of co-morbid Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBD): studies including more participants with co-morbid DBD had larger effect sizes. No moderating influence of co-morbid internalizing disorders, age or task explicitness was found. These results indicate that ADHD is related to increased risky decision making in laboratory settings, which tended to be more pronounced if ADHD is accompanied by DBD. We therefore argue that risky decision making should have a more prominent role in research on the neuropsychological and -biological mechanisms of ADHD, which can be useful in ADHD assessment and intervention. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The role of technical progress in the process of recalculating oil reserves

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Boulard, J.N.

1999-01-01

Contrary to the concept of resources (which is essentially a geological one), the notion of reserves designates the quantities that are technically and economically recoverable. Beyond the production-related effect, the reserves therefore evolve over time in accordance with numerous technical and economic parameters. Among these parameters, it can be seen that technical progress plays a considerable role throughout the process of converting resources into reserves, including progress in the identification, accessibility and processing of the resources, and improvements in economic viability. After having tackled the problem of measuring the 'technical progress effects' and citing examples, we demonstrate that the evolution in oil reserves is subject to three types of impact. These are a quantitative impact by significantly improving the recovery rates or making it possible to identify hitherto undetectable oil fields, a qualitative impact by widening the resource base thanks to the adoption of new categories of oil (in particular the so-called 'unconventional' oils) and by carrying out the gradual substitution between these resources of differing qualities. There is also a dynamic impact, through the acceleration of resource availability. Through these three approaches, technical progress makes makes it possible to ensure continuity in oil supply and contributes significantly to the recalculation of reserves. It therefore acts as a compensating factor, counterbalancing the progressive depletion of resources. (author)

Decision-making in Swiss home-like childbirth: A grounded theory study.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Yvonne; Frank, Franziska; Schläppy Muntwyler, Franziska; Fleming, Valerie; Pehlke-Milde, Jessica

2017-12-01

Decision-making in midwifery, including a claim for shared decision-making between midwives and women, is of major significance for the health of mother and child. Midwives have little information about how to share decision-making responsibilities with women, especially when complications arise during birth. To increase understanding of decision-making in complex home-like birth settings by exploring midwives' and women's perspectives and to develop a dynamic model integrating participatory processes for making shared decisions. The study, based on grounded theory methodology, analysed 20 interviews of midwives and 20 women who had experienced complications in home-like births. The central phenomenon that arose from the data was "defining/redefining decision as a joint commitment to healthy childbirth". The sub-indicators that make up this phenomenon were safety, responsibility, mutual and personal commitments. These sub-indicators were also identified to influence temporal conditions of decision-making and to apply different strategies for shared decision-making. Women adopted strategies such as delegating a decision, making the midwife's decision her own, challenging a decision or taking a decision driven by the dynamics of childbirth. Midwives employed strategies such as remaining indecisive, approving a woman's decision, making an informed decision or taking the necessary decision. To respond to recommendations for shared responsibility for care, midwives need to strengthen their shared decision-making skills. The visual model of decision-making in childbirth derived from the data provides a framework for transferring clinical reasoning into practice. Copyright © 2017 Australian College of Midwives. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Rational decision-making about treatment and care in dementia: a contradiction in terms?

Science.gov (United States)

Wolfs, Claire A G; de Vugt, Marjolein E; Verkaaik, Mike; Haufe, Marc; Verkade, Paul-Jeroen; Verhey, Frans R J; Stevens, Fred

2012-04-01

To gain caregivers' insights into the decision-making process in dementia patients with regard to treatment and care. Four focus group interviews (n=29). The decision-making process consists of three elementary components: (1) identifying an individual's needs; (2) exploring options; and (3) making a choice. The most important phase is the exploration phase as it is crucial for the acceptance of the disease. Furthermore, the decision is experienced more as an emotional choice than a rational one. It is influenced by personal preferences whereas practical aspects do not seem to play a substantial role. Several aspects make decision-making in dementia different from decision-making in the context of other chronic diseases: (1) the difficulty accepting dementia; (2) the progressive nature of dementia; (3) patient's reliance on surrogate decision-making; and (4) strong emotions. Due to these aspects, the decision-making process is very time-consuming, especially the crucial exploration phase. A more active role is required of both the caregiver and the health care professional especially in the exploration phase, enabling easier acceptance and adjustment to the disease. Acceptance is an important condition for reducing anxiety and resistance to care that may offer significant benefits in the future. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Delayed recovery of right ventricular systolic function after repair of long-standing tricuspid regurgitation associated with severe right ventricular failure.

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Jong Hun; Kim, Kyung Hwa; Choi, Jong Bum; Kuh, Ja Hong

2016-03-01

After tricuspid valve surgery for long-standing tricuspid regurgitation associated with right ventricular failure, reverse remodelling of the enlarged right ventricle, including recovery of right ventricular systolic function, is unpredictable. We present the case of a 31-year old man with early reduction of dilated right ventricular dimensions and delayed recovery of impaired right ventricular systolic function after valve repair for traumatic tricuspid regurgitation lasting 16 years. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. All rights reserved.

Mental Reservation and Military Testimony before Congress

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Roberts, Gordon R

2008-01-01

.... The cause for this apparent mental reservation on the part of military leaders can be found in their organizational bias and environmental influences, but the solution can be found in history. It is vital for the military to understand that a currency of truth is the most important contribution it can make to the civilian-military relationship.

29 CFR 452.10 - Retaliation for exercising rights.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 29 Labor 2 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Retaliation for exercising rights. 452.10 Section 452.10... exercising rights. Section 609, which prohibits labor organizations or their officials from disciplining members for exercising their rights under the Act, and section 610, which makes it a crime for any person...

Deuteronomy and Human Rights

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Braulik

1998-08-01

Full Text Available If one compares the articles of the "Universal Declaration of Human Rights" dated December 10th, 1948, with the regulations of the book of Deuteronomy, one detects a surprising abundance of correspondences, or at least of similar tendencies, between them. As the social theorists of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the architects of the catalogue of Human Rights, knew the Scripture very well. References to Deuteronomy are historically well probable and factually hardly coincidental. Deuteronomy rightly boasts about its social laws (4:8 that are unique in the Ancient Near East. The paper orientates itself to the short formula of Human Rights and at the same time to the normative basic character of each human right, as it is formulated in the first article of the declaration: "liberty", "equality", "fraternity". Each of these basic categories are concretised in terms of several Deuteronomic regulations and prove themselves to be central matters of concern within the YHWH religion. Finally, it is outlined how the connection between Deuteronomy and modem expressions of human rights might be explained, and further it is shown what actually makes up the peculiarity of biblical thinking on human rights.

Microplastic ingestion decreases energy reserves in marine worms.

Science.gov (United States)

Wright, Stephanie L; Rowe, Darren; Thompson, Richard C; Galloway, Tamara S

2013-12-02

The indiscriminate disposal of plastic to the environment is of concern. Microscopic plastic litter (environment, originating from the fragmentation of plastic items and from industry and personal-care products [1]. On highly impacted beaches, microplastic concentrations (impacts remain understudied [1]. Here, we show that deposit-feeding marine worms maintained in sediments spiked with microscopic unplasticised polyvinylchloride (UPVC) at concentrations overlapping those in the environment had significantly depleted energy reserves by up to 50% (Figure 1). Our results suggest that depleted energy reserves arise from a combination of reduced feeding activity, longer gut residence times of ingested material and inflammation. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Regenerative Medicine Will Make Orthopaedic Implants Obsolete In Our Time Orthopaedic Research Society First Annual Meeting Debate, San Diego, March 21st , 2017.

Science.gov (United States)

Johnstone, Brian; Jacobs, Joshua J; Sandell, Linda J; Wilkinson, J Mark

2018-05-10

The mission of the Orthopaedic Research Society is to promote and advance musculoskeletal research worldwide. With this in mind, the Annual Meeting Program Committee sought to establish a debate as a key component of the meeting. Our purpose was to provoke discussion on topics that are core to our mission and to engage all constituencies within the society by examining questions of broad relevance. To this end, the topic "Regenerative medicine will make orthopaedic implants obsolete in our time" was selected as the title of the inaugural debate. The arguments for and against the motion are presented in this perspectives article. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.

Remembering a sociology of Human Rights

OpenAIRE

Levy, Daniel; Sznaider, Natan

2014-01-01

A sociology of human rights sounds almost like a contradiction in terms. Sociology is about social groups, about particular experiences, about how people, embedded in space and time, make sense of their lives and give meaning to their world. It deals with power and interest and the social bases of our experiences. On the other hand, human rights are about human beings in general, without temporal or spatial references, not about groups and their boundaries. Human rights are about humanity, lo...

Chronic work stress and decreased vagal tone impairs decision making and reaction time in jockeys.

Science.gov (United States)

Landolt, Kathleen; Maruff, Paul; Horan, Ben; Kingsley, Michael; Kinsella, Glynda; O'Halloran, Paul D; Hale, Matthew W; Wright, Bradley J

2017-10-01

The inverse relationship between acute stress and decision-making is well documented, but few studies have investigated the impact of chronic stress. Jockeys work exhaustive schedules and have extremely dangerous occupations, with safe performance requiring quick reaction time and accurate decision-making. We used the effort reward imbalance (ERI) occupational stress model to assess the relationship of work stress with indices of stress physiology and decision-making and reaction time. Jockeys (N=32) completed computerised cognitive tasks (Cogstate) on two occasions; September and November (naturally occurring lower and higher stress periods), either side of an acute stress test. Higher ERI was correlated with the cortisol awakening responses (high stress r=-0.37; low stress r=0.36), and with decrements in decision-making comparable to having a blood alcohol concentration of 0.08 in the high stress period (pdecision-making. Potentially, this may be attributed to a 'tipping point' whereby the higher ERI reported by jockeys in the high stress period decreases vagal tone, which may contribute to reduced decision-making abilities. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Right to Information and Communication between Government and Citizens: Identifying Continuities and Discontinuities in the Practices of Turkey at the 10th Anniversary of the Law on Right to Information

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tuğba ASRAK HASDEMİR

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The right to information as a form of right to petition is one of the cornerstones in the formation of the modern constitutional state and has important ties with the freedom of thought and expression as well as citizens’ right to ask their administration to be accountable.In Turkey, the practices related with the right to information, as the instrument of making the acts and actions of the government “public”, came to the agenda on the eve of 2000s, became part of the national legislation, and as of 2015, we commemorated its 10th anniversary.In the article, the right to information practices will be analyzed by considering the first ten-year period of the practices in Turkey, and also regarding the worldwide experiences and discussions around the issue. The main aim of the study is to elaborate certain practices of the right to information, regulated in the legislation related with the Right to Information in Turkey, and problems encountered in the application process. Also this article will focus on the applications to the Council of Cassation of Right to Information in Turkey since this Council, like European Ombudsman, is the final authority to review the decisions related with partial or full refusal of the access to the information and documents. The last part of the article is reserved for the evaluations and recommendations on how the practices of right to information contributes to the interaction between citizens and the government and to revive public sphere in the case of Turkey.

Hypothesis driven drug design: improving quality and effectiveness of the design-make-test-analyse cycle.

Science.gov (United States)

Plowright, Alleyn T; Johnstone, Craig; Kihlberg, Jan; Pettersson, Jonas; Robb, Graeme; Thompson, Richard A

2012-01-01

In drug discovery, the central process of constructing and testing hypotheses, carefully conducting experiments and analysing the associated data for new findings and information is known as the design-make-test-analyse cycle. Each step relies heavily on the inputs and outputs of the other three components. In this article we report our efforts to improve and integrate all parts to enable smooth and rapid flow of high quality ideas. Key improvements include enhancing multi-disciplinary input into 'Design', increasing the use of knowledge and reducing cycle times in 'Make', providing parallel sets of relevant data within ten working days in 'Test' and maximising the learning in 'Analyse'. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Combining computer modelling and cardiac imaging to understand right ventricular pump function.

Science.gov (United States)

Walmsley, John; van Everdingen, Wouter; Cramer, Maarten J; Prinzen, Frits W; Delhaas, Tammo; Lumens, Joost

2017-10-01

Right ventricular (RV) dysfunction is a strong predictor of outcome in heart failure and is a key determinant of exercise capacity. Despite these crucial findings, the RV remains understudied in the clinical, experimental, and computer modelling literature. This review outlines how recent advances in using computer modelling and cardiac imaging synergistically help to understand RV function in health and disease. We begin by highlighting the complexity of interactions that make modelling the RV both challenging and necessary, and then summarize the multiscale modelling approaches used to date to simulate RV pump function in the context of these interactions. We go on to demonstrate how these modelling approaches in combination with cardiac imaging have improved understanding of RV pump function in pulmonary arterial hypertension, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, dyssynchronous heart failure and cardiac resynchronization therapy, hypoplastic left heart syndrome, and repaired tetralogy of Fallot. We conclude with a perspective on key issues to be addressed by computational models of the RV in the near future. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2017. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Age differences in right-wing authoritarianism and their relation to emotion recognition.

Science.gov (United States)

Ruffman, Ted; Wilson, Marc; Henry, Julie D; Dawson, Abigail; Chen, Yan; Kladnitski, Natalie; Myftari, Ella; Murray, Janice; Halberstadt, Jamin; Hunter, John A

2016-03-01

This study examined the correlates of right-wing authoritarianism (RWA) in older adults. Participants were given tasks measuring emotion recognition, executive functions and fluid IQ and questionnaires measuring RWA, perceived threat and social dominance orientation. Study 1 established higher age-related RWA across the age span in more than 2,600 New Zealanders. Studies 2 to 4 found that threat, education, social dominance and age all predicted unique variance in older adults' RWA, but the most consistent predictor was emotion recognition, predicting unique variance in older adults' RWA independent of all other variables. We argue that older adults' worse emotion recognition is associated with a more general change in social judgment. Expression of extreme attitudes (right- or left-wing) has the potential to antagonize others, but worse emotion recognition means that subtle signals will not be perceived, making the expression of extreme attitudes more likely. Our findings are consistent with other studies showing that worsening emotion recognition underlies age-related declines in verbosity, understanding of social gaffes, and ability to detect lies. Such results indicate that emotion recognition is a core social insight linked to many aspects of social cognition. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Theory of mind and decision-making processes are impaired in Parkinson's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Xi, Chunhua; Zhu, Youling; Mu, Yanfang; Chen, Bing; Dong, Bin; Cheng, Huaidong; Hu, Panpan; Zhu, Chunyan; Wang, Kai

2015-02-15

Prefrontal cortex plays a vital role in the theory of mind (ToM) and decision making, as shown in functional brain imaging and lesion studies. Considering the primary neuropathology of Parkinson's disease (PD) involving the frontal lobe system, patients with PD are expected to exhibit deficits in ToM and social decision making. The aim of this study was to investigate affective ToM and decision making in patients with PD and healthy controls (HC) in a task assessing affective ToM (Reading the Mind in the Eyes, RME) and two decision-making tasks (Iowa Gambling Task, IGT; Game of Dice Task, GDT). Consistent with previous findings, patients with PD were impaired in the affective ToM task, and when making decisions under ambiguity and in risk situations. The score of emotion recognition in the RME task was negatively correlated with the severity of the disease and positively correlated with the total number of advantageous cards chosen in the IGT. However, the final capital in the GDT was correlated with memory impairment. The present study implies that affective ToM and decision making under ambiguity may share similar neural mechanisms, while decision making under ambiguity and decision making under risk may involve processing within different neural networks. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Property Rights, Finance, and Entrepreneurship

OpenAIRE

Simon Johnson; John McMillan; Christopher Woodruff

1999-01-01

Is investment constrained more by insecure property rights or by limited external finance? For five transition economies in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union we find that weak property rights limit the reinvestment of profits in startup ma nufacturing firms. Access to credit does not appear to explain differences in investment. At least in the early stages of post-communist reform, retained earnings appear to have been enough to finance the investments that managers wanted to make.

Using Option Grids: steps toward shared decision-making for neonatal circumcision.

Science.gov (United States)

Fay, Mary; Grande, Stuart W; Donnelly, Kyla; Elwyn, Glyn

2016-02-01

To assess the impact, acceptability and feasibility of a short encounter tool designed to enhance the process of shared decision-making and parental engagement. We analyzed video-recordings of clinical encounters, half undertaken before and half after a brief intervention that trained four clinicians how to use Option Grids, using an observer-based measure of shared decision-making. We also analyzed semi-structured interviews conducted with the clinicians four weeks after their exposure to the intervention. Observer OPTION(5) scores were higher at post-intervention, with a mean of 33.9 (SD=23.5) compared to a mean of 16.1 (SD=7.1) for pre-intervention, a significant difference of 17.8 (95% CI: 2.4, 33.2). Prior to using the intervention, clinicians used a consent document to frame circumcision as a default practice. Encounters with the Option Grid conferred agency to both parents and clinicians, and facilitated shared decision-making. Clinician reported recognizing the tool's positive effect on their communication process. Tools such as Option Grids have the potential to make it easier for clinicians to achieve shared decision-making. Encounter tools have the potential to change practice. More research is needed to test their feasibility in routine practice. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Judicialization of Health Policy in the Definition of Access to Public Goods: Individual Rights versus Collective Rights

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Telma Maria Gonçalves Menicucci

2010-06-01

Full Text Available The article analyses a form of judicialization of public policies in the health field. It has as its object lawsuits initiated against Belo Horizonte Municipality arguing for the provision of services or the acquisition of inputs not obtained in the public system via institutional access routes. The argument is that the individualized quest for the guarantee of the right to healthcare via the judicial path is a form of reproduction of the tensions produced in democratic societies between the social and the individual conceptions of citizenship. By ensuring access to goods by means of individual suits, the Judiciary interferes in the making of public choices taken on by public-sector managers, thus regulating opportunities for consumption according to a concentrating logic. And so the assertion of a constitutional right superposes the political right of the majority, represented by the Executive, to make choices as to the goods that are the object of public policies, with a relatively significant financial and budgetary impact.

The psychology of defendant plea decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Redlich, Allison D; Bibas, Stephanos; Edkins, Vanessa A; Madon, Stephanie

2017-01-01

Every day, thousands of defendants, prosecutors, and defense attorneys must make guilty plea decisions, such as whether to accept a plea offer or proceed to trial. Most defendants opt to plead guilty; approximately 95% of state and federal convictions result from guilty pleas. In light of a newly emerging body of research and recent Supreme Court decisions on guilty pleas, this article asks and answers 2 questions: First, who pleads guilty and why? We describe the characteristics of those who are more or less likely to plead guilty, and examine the reasons why individuals plead guilty instead of proceeding to trial, exploring the cognitive, social influence, and developmental factors that underlie decision making. Second, are defendants' plea decisions valid, in that the decisions are made knowingly, intelligently, voluntarily, and with a factual basis of guilt? That is, do defendants who plead guilty understand and appreciate the conditions and consequences of their pleas, as required by law? Are innocent people induced to plead guilty to crimes they did not commit? We conclude with suggestions to move the field of plea research forward. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

Neuropsychological correlates of decision making in patients with bulimia nervosa.

Science.gov (United States)

Brand, Matthias; Franke-Sievert, Christiane; Jacoby, Georg E; Markowitsch, Hans J; Tuschen-Caffier, Brunna

2007-11-01

In addition to the core psychopathology of bulimia nervosa (BN), patients with BN often show impulsive behavior that has been related to decision making deficits in other patient groups, such as individuals with anorexia nervosa and pathological gamblers. However, it remains unclear whether BN patients also show difficulties in decision making. In this study, 14 patients with BN and 14 healthy comparison subjects, matched for age, gender, education, body mass index, and intelligence, were examined with the Game of Dice Task (M. Brand, E. Fujiwara, et al., 2005), a gambling task that has fixed winning probabilities and explicit rules for gains and losses, as well as with a neuropsychological test battery and personality questionnaires. On the task, the patients with BN chose the disadvantageous alternatives more frequently than did the comparison subjects. Performance on the Game of Dice Task was related to executive functioning but not to other neuropsychological functions, personality, or disease-specific variables in the BN group. Thus, in patients with BN, decision making abnormalities and executive reductions can be demonstrated and might be neuropsychological correlates of the patients' dysfunctional everyday-life decision making behavior. Neurocognitive functions should be considered in the treatment of BN. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2007 APA, all rights reserved.

Influence of BDNF and COMT polymorphisms on emotional decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, Jee In; Namkoong, Kee; Ha, Ra Yeon; Jhung, Kyungun; Kim, Yang Tae; Kim, Se Joo

2010-06-01

Decision making is an important brain function. Although little is known about the genetic basis of decision making, it has been suggested that it is mediated by the modulation of neurotransmitter systems. We investigated how the BDNF Val66Met and COMT Val158Met polymorphisms affect emotional decision making using the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). One hundred sixty-eight healthy Korean college students (93 males, 75 females) with a complete dataset were included in the data analysis. The IGT and genotyping for the polymorphisms of BDNF Val66Met and COMT Val158Met were performed. Both Met/Met and Val/Met of the BDNF Val66Met polymorphism were significantly associated with a lower mean score of blocks 3-5 of the IGT and with less improvement from block 1 to block 3-5 than the Val/Val. However, the BDNF was not significantly associated with the score of block 1, and the COMT Val158Met polymorphism produced no significant effect on IGT performance. No interaction effect was observed between the BDNF and the COMT for the IGT. These findings suggest the BDNF Val66Met may affect the emotional decision making performance. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Wind offering in energy and reserve markets

Science.gov (United States)

Soares, T.; Pinson, P.; Morais, H.

2016-09-01

The increasing penetration of wind generation in power systems to fulfil the ambitious European targets will make wind power producers to play an even more important role in the future power system. Wind power producers are being incentivized to participate in reserve markets to increase their revenue, since currently wind turbine/farm technologies allow them to provide ancillary services. Thus, wind power producers are to develop offering strategies for participation in both energy and reserve markets, accounting for market rules, while ensuring optimal revenue. We consider a proportional offering strategy to optimally decide upon participation in both markets by maximizing expected revenue from day-ahead decisions while accounting for estimated regulation costs for failing to provide the services. An evaluation of considering the same proportional splitting of energy and reserve in both day- ahead and balancing market is performed. A set of numerical examples illustrate the behavior of such strategy. An important conclusion is that the optimal split of the available wind power between energy and reserve strongly depends upon prices and penalties on both market trading floors.

In Visible Hands: The Matter and Making of Music Therapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Gilbertson, Simon

2015-01-01

This study explores the topics of matter and making in music therapy through embodied reflexive retrospection with six music therapists. The participants were asked to re-enact a hand position from their memory of a significant moment in therapy. In individual research meetings, they shared their thoughts about this moment while the researcher made a body cast of their chosen hand pose. A thematic analysis of the participant narratives, the hand casts, and existing literature was used to generate the following themes: The biographic hand, The body, space, place, and time, The plural hand, Matter of the hand, and The method in hand. The research procedure facilitated an exploration of epistemological, ontological, and phenomenological perspectives in understanding music therapy practitioner experiences. The study highlights the inseparability and multiplicity of matter, making, and narrating music therapy that transcends context or therapeutic approach. © the American Music Therapy Association 2015. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Making sense of root cause analysis investigations of surgery-related adverse events.

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Cassin, Bryce R; Barach, Paul R

2012-02-01

This article discusses the limitations of root cause analysis (RCA) for surgical adverse events. Making sense of adverse events involves an appreciation of the unique features in a problematic situation, which resist generalization to other contexts. The top priority of adverse event investigations must be to inform the design of systems that help clinicians to adapt and respond effectively in real time to undesirable combinations of design, performance, and circumstance. RCAs can create opportunities in the clinical workplace for clinicians to reflect on local barriers and identify enablers of safe and reliable outcomes. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The role of sports in making sense of the process of growing old.

Science.gov (United States)

Eman, Josefin

2012-12-01

Drawing on interviews with 22 athletically active old men and women, the study explores whether and how the practice of sports can affect old adults' processes of sense-making about old age and the process of growing old in ways that challenge dominant constructions about old age. Thereto, the study will explore the possible impact of gender in this process. The results show that men and women who continue to practice competitive sports into old age make sense of the process of growing old by focusing primarily on their physical abilities, at least in the context of sports. This focus on capability age allows them partly, although not completely, to challenge the usual thinking about old age and the process of growing old. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The interaction between state and dispositional emotions in decision making: An ERP study.

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yingying; Gu, Ruolei; Luo, Yue-Jia; Zhou, Chenglin

2017-02-01

In this study, to investigate the influence of incidental emotions on decision making in high-anxious individuals, participants were required to perform a monetary gambling task. Behavioral and electroencephalography responses were recorded to explore the stages of option assessment and outcome evaluation during decision making, respectively. Incidental emotions were elicited by facial expression pictures presented on the background, which included four conditions (control, neutral, fearful, and happy). Results showed smaller feedback-related negativity (FRN) amplitudes in high-anxious participants than low-anxious participants in the control, neutral, and fearful conditions, but not in the happy condition, for small outcomes. The P3 amplitudes were larger in high-anxious participants compared to their counterparts in the fearful and happy conditions, but not in the other conditions. In short, the interaction effects between trait anxiety and facial emotions manifested on the outcome evaluation stage of decision making. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Parents: Avoid Kids Foot Problems with the Right Shoes

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... Print | Share Avoid Kids Foot Problems with the Right Shoes Before you head to the store to ... College of Foot and Ankle Surgeons (ACFAS), All Rights Reserved. Privacy Statement | Disclaimer | Terms and Conditions | Site ...

Complete genome sequence of Clostridium butyricum JKY6D1 isolated from the pit mud of a Chinese flavor liquor-making factory.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Changrun; Wang, Yansheng; Xie, Guopai; Peng, Bing; Zhang, Baonian; Chen, Wei; Huang, Xunduan; Wu, Hang; Zhang, Buchang

2016-02-20

Clostridium butyricum is an important fragrance-producing bacterium in the traditional Chinese flavor liquor-making industry. Here the complete genome sequence of C. butyricum JKY6D1 isolated from the pit mud of a Chinese flavor liquor-making factory is presented. The genome is 4,618,327bp with the GC content of 28.74% and a plasmid of 8060bp. This is the first complete genome sequence of C. butyricum strains available so far. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Transparent doesn't always make it right

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Frishman, S. [Nevada Agency for Nuclear Projects, Carson City, NV (United States)

1999-12-01

The increasing drive for transparency in risk assessment, performance assessment, and decision-making in the controversial area of nuclear waste management has its foundation in the desire to foster the assumption that, if the outcome of the process is a clear result of the fully exposed contributory elements, then that outcome must be accepted as correct. This is in stark contrast to the general need for transparency in any analysis or decision process - to give the outcome credibility. Transparency in the nuclear waste decision arena is being cast as an end in itself, rather than as a tool to shape the product of the assessment or decision process. It is not enough to permit knowledge of exactly what was done to arrive at a particular result, since at best, this only leads to reproducibility. The challenge is to expose why certain steps or assumptions were chosen for pursuit, and what suites of relevant steps or assumptions were rejected and why. It is also important to demonstrate that the trail to the product - the assessment or decision - is complete. In the nuclear waste management field, the complete scope of the assessment or decision process is not always fully exposed because it does not include the assumptions that initiated the process or the possible consequences of the product. In both instances, this failure can serve to limit the steps or assumptions pursued in the process. This paper will describe and discuss examples from the nuclear waste management field and the U.S. high-level nuclear waste program that illustrate the need for transparency, but also demonstrate that transparency does not always lead to an acceptable product.

Putting the value into biosimilar decision making: the judgment value criteria.

Science.gov (United States)

Mendes de Abreu, Mirhelen; Strand, Vibeke; Levy, Roger Abramino; Araujo, Denizar Vianna

2014-06-01

Uncertainties remain the key issue surrounding biosimilars, although decisions regarding their use must be made. The challenges for policymakers, doctors, patients and others seeking to navigate in the uncharted waters of biosimilars must be clarified. At the most basic level, scientific understanding of the issue remains limited and when making decisions, policymakers must consider all those affected by health policy decisions, particularly the ultimate recipients of these medicines: the patients. The biosimilar-value chain relies on measurement of comparabilities. The goal is to demonstrate how, from a molecular perspective, closely similar they are or are not and how potential small differences may be relevant to clinical outcomes. To critically understand these points, this conceptual paper will present a knowledge-value chain and discuss each dimension assigning value in the decision making process re-utilization of biosimilars. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Does Side Make a Difference? Anatomical Differences Between the Left and Right Ureter.

Science.gov (United States)

Odegard, Stephen E; Abernethy, Melinda G; Mueller, Elizabeth R

2015-01-01

Seventy to eighty percent of iatrogenic ureteral injuries involve the left ureter. We sought to evaluate potential anatomical differences between the left and right ureters that may contribute to this discrepancy. A retrospective image review was undertaken of women who underwent computed tomography urograms between 2012 and 2013. The distance to the ureters from the midline was measured at the level of the sacral promontory (S1) and the cervix. Cervical deviation from the midline was measured, and distance between the cervix and ureters was calculated. The anterior-posterior distance between ureters was also measured. Ninety-five computed tomography urograms were analyzed. The mean age was 56 years (range, 23-92 years). Mean cervical deviation was 2.9 mm left of the midline (P = 0.028). The left ureter was 4.2 mm more lateral than the right at S1 and 2.7 mm more lateral at the cervix (P = 0.000 and 0.001). There was no significant difference when accounting for cervical deviation (P = 0.220). The left ureter was 1.9 mm more anterior than the right at the cervix (P = 0.012). Age, body mass index, and ethnicity did not affect the ureteral position. Based on midline measurements, the left ureter courses 2 to 4 mm more lateral and anterior than does the right ureter. The cervix is also positioned 2 to 4 mm to the left side, and as a result, the ureters are actually symmetric to the cervix. Although seemingly small, 2 to 4 mm is the width range of a Heaney clamp. These anatomic differences may be a contributing factor to the increase in ureteral injuries on the left side compared with the right.

Child feeding and human rights

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kent George

2006-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background The human right to adequate food needs to be interpreted for the special case of young children because they are vulnerable, others make the choices for them, and their diets are not diverse. There are many public policy issues relating to child feeding. Discussion The core of the debate lies in differences in views on the merits of infant formula. In contexts in which there is strong evidence and a clear consensus that the use of formula would be seriously dangerous, it might be sensible to adopt rules limiting its use. However, until there is broad consensus on this point, the best universal rule would be to rely on informed choice by mothers, with their having a clearly recognized right to objective and consistent information on the risks of using different feeding methods in their particular local circumstances. Summary The obligation of the state to assure that mothers are well informed should be viewed as part of its broader obligation to establish social conditions that facilitate sound child feeding practices. This means that mothers should not be compelled to feed in particular ways by the state, but rather the state should assure that mothers are supported and enabled to make good feeding choices. Thus, children should be viewed as having the right to be breastfed, not in the sense that the mother is obligated to breastfeed the child, but in the sense that no one may interfere with the mother's right to breastfeed the child. Breastfeeding should be viewed as the right of the mother and child together.

Development of decision-making support tools for early right-of-way acquisitions.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-01-01

This report documents the work performed during phase two of Project 0-5534, Asset Management Texas : Style. This phase included gathering historical Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) right-of-way : acquisition information, analyzi...

The Kenyan national response to internationally agreed sexual and reproductive health and rights goals: a case study of three policies.

Science.gov (United States)

Oronje, Rose N

2013-11-01

While priorities for, and decision-making processes on, sexual and reproductive health and rights have been determined and led mainly at the international level, conflicting power dynamics and responses at the national level in some countries have continued to pose challenges for operationalising international agreements. This paper demonstrates how these conflicts have played out in Kenya through an analysis of three policy-making processes, which led to the Adolescent Reproductive Health and Development Policy (2003), the Sexual Offences Act (2006), and the National Reproductive Health Policy (2007). The paper is based on data from a broader study on the drivers and inhibitors of sexual and reproductive health policy reform in Kenya, using a qualitative, case study design. Information was gathered through 54 semi-structured, in-depth interviews with governmental and civil society policy actors and an extensive review of policy documents and media reports. The paper shows that the transformative human rights framing of access to sexual and reproductive health, supported by both a strong global women's rights movement and progressive governmental and inter-governmental actors to defeat opposition to sexual and reproductive health and rights at the international level, has not been as influential or successful at the national level in Kenya, and has made comprehensive national reforms difficult to achieve. Copyright © 2013 Reproductive Health Matters. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Human rights at work: Physical standards for employment and human rights law.

Science.gov (United States)

Adams, Eric M

2016-06-01

This review focuses on the human rights dimensions of creating and implementing physical standards for employment for prospective and incumbent employees. The review argues that physical standards for employment engage two fundamental legal concepts of employment law: freedom of contract and workplace human rights. While the former promotes an employer's right to set workplace standards and make decisions of whom to hire and terminate, the latter prevents employers from discriminating against individuals contrary to human rights legislation. With reference to applicable human rights legislative regimes and their judicial interpretation in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, this review demonstrates the judicial preference for criterion validation in testing mechanisms in the finding of bona fide occupational requirements. With particular attention to the Supreme Court of Canada decision in Meiorin, this review argues that an effective balance between workplace safety and human rights concerns can be found, not in applying different standards to different groups of individuals, but in an approach that holds employers to demonstrating a sufficient connection between a uniform physical standard of employment and the actual minimum requirements to perform the job safety and efficiently. Combined with an employer's duty to accommodate, such an approach to lawful physical standards for employment conceives of worker and public safety and workplace diversity as emanating from a shared concern for human rights.

African Hrts Regime on the Rights of Minorities

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Beza_D

accounting for more than half of the total population size of a given state. Many of ... As Appiagyei-Atua rightly notes, the policy of divide and rule by the colonial .... political decision making process, which govern the protection of its rights.34.

Altered moral decision-making in patients with idiopathic Parkinson's disease.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosen, Jan B; Rott, Elisa; Ebersbach, Georg; Kalbe, Elke

2015-10-01

Moral decision-making essentially contributes to social conduct. Although patients with Parkinson's disease (PD) show deficits in (non-moral) decision making and related neuropsychological functions, i.e. executive functions, theory of mind (ToM), and empathy, moral decision-making has rarely been examined in PD patients. We examined possible alterations of moral decision-making and associated functions in PD. Twenty non-demented PD patients and 23 age- and education-matched healthy control participants were examined with tests that assess reasoning, executive functions (set-shifting and planning), ToM and empathy, decision-making under risk, and moral intuitions. Moral decision-making was assessed with a close-to-everyday moral dilemma paradigm that opposes socially oriented "altruistic" choices to self-beneficial "egoistic" choices in 20 moral dilemma short stories (10 high and 10 low emotional). Concurrently, electrodermal activity was recorded. PD patients made more egoistic moral decisions than healthy controls. Remarkably, while reasoning, planning and empathy correlated with moral decision-making in the control group, in the PD group neuropsychological functions and dopaminergic medication did not correlate with moral decisions. No evidence for reduced skin conductance responses in PD patients and no relationships between skin conductance responses and moral decisions were observed. This study provides evidence for moral decision-making dysfunctions in PD patients who made more egoistic moral decisions. As a possible underlying mechanism, reduced exercise of attentional control due to a dysfunctional interplay between the prefrontal cortex and the basal ganglia is discussed. Future research will have to determine the impact of PD patients' moral decision-making dysfunctions on everyday life and further determine correlates of the deficits. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

45 CFR 7.4 - Option to acquire foreign rights.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 45 Public Welfare 1 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Option to acquire foreign rights. 7.4 Section 7.4... Option to acquire foreign rights. In any case where it is determined that all domestic rights should be...-wide regulations issued thereunder, that the Government shall reserve an option to require the...

The right to life

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dr.Sc. Stavri Sinjari

2013-06-01

Full Text Available The right to life constitutes one of the main human rights and freedoms, foreseen by article 21 of the Albanian Constitution and article 2 of European Human Rights Convention. No democratic or totalitarian society can function without guarantees and protection of the human right to life We intend to address these issues on our article: What is life. What we legally understand with life. When the life starts and finish. How this right has evolved. Which is the state interest on protecting the life. Should we consider that the life is the same for all. Should the state interfere at any cost to protect the life. Is there any criminal charge for responsible persons to the violation of this right. Is this issue treated by European Human Rights Court. What are the Albanian legal provisions on protection of this right. This research is performed mainly according to a comparative and analytical methodology. Comperative analysis will be present almost throughout the paper. Treatment of issues of this research will be achieved through a system comparable with international standards in particular and the most advanced legislation in this area. At the same time, this research is conducted by analytical and statistical data processing. We believe that our research will make a modest contribution, not only to the legal literature, but also to criminal policy makers, law makers, lawyers and attorneys.

The right to physical integrity and informed refusal: Just how far does a patient’s right to refuse medical treatment go?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Annelize Nienaber

2016-11-01

Full Text Available The article presents a legal analysis of the right to physical integrity as guaranteed by the South African Constitution, 1996, and the subsequent right of a competent adult person to refuse medical treatment under South African law. We consider whether the right to refuse treatment is an absolute right and very briefly reflect on the application of the constitutional limitations clause to this right. Instances in which patients’ right to physical integrity is limited by factors, which detract from (patient autonomy, are considered: these represent a limitation of their right to refuse medical treatment. We conclude that forced medical interventions, for the most part, are not desirable but, indeed, necessary in some narrowly defined circumstances. When a person makes a decision to refuse a medical intervention, which may seem unusual or may be perceived as irrational, it does not mean that person does not warrant the protection of the constitution and the courts. Provided that the patient makes an informed refusal while of sound mind, generally there is no reason to discredit his/her decision, difficult as it may be for others to accept. At all times the right to bodily integrity is pivotal in any health-related context and should not be lightly disregarded.

Dynamic adjustments of cognitive control during economic decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Soutschek, Alexander; Schubert, Torsten

2014-10-01

Decision making in the Ultimatum game requires the resolution of conflicts between economic self-interest and fairness intuitions. Since cognitive control processes play an important role in conflict resolution, the present study examined how control processes that are triggered by conflicts between fairness and self-interest in unfair offers affect subsequent decisions in the Ultimatum game. Our results revealed that more unfair offers were accepted following previously unfair, compared to previously fair offers. Interestingly, the magnitude of this conflict adaptation effect correlated with the individual subjects' focus on economic self-interest. We concluded that conflicts between fairness and self-interest trigger cognitive control processes, which reinforce the focus on the current task goal. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Stereotype threat in salary negotiations is mediated by reservation salary.

Science.gov (United States)

Tellhed, Una; Björklund, Fredrik

2011-04-01

Women are stereotypically perceived as worse negotiators than men, which may make them ask for less salary than men when under stereotype threat (Kray et al., 2001). However, the mechanisms of stereotype threat are not yet properly understood. The current study investigated whether stereotype threat effects in salary negotiations can be explained by motivational factors. A total of 116 business students negotiated salary with a confederate and were either told that this was diagnostic of negotiating ability (threat manipulation) or not. Measures of minimum (reservation) and ideal (aspiration) salary goals and regulatory focus were collected. The finding (Kray et al., 2001) that women make lower salary requests than men when under stereotype threat was replicated. Women in the threat condition further reported lower aspiration salary, marginally significantly lower reservation salary and less eagerness/more vigilance than men. Reservation salary mediated the stereotype threat effect, and there was a trend for regulatory focus to mediate the effect. Thus, reservation salary partly explains why women ask for less salary than men under stereotype threat. Female negotiators may benefit from learning that stereotype threat causes sex-differences in motivation. © 2010 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology © 2010 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.

"Piensa" twice: on the foreign language effect in decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Costa, Albert; Foucart, Alice; Arnon, Inbal; Aparici, Melina; Apesteguia, Jose

2014-02-01

In this article, we assess to what extent decision making is affected by the language in which a given problem is presented (native vs. foreign). In particular, we aim to ask whether the impact of various heuristic biases in decision making is diminished when the problems are presented in a foreign language. To this end, we report four main studies in which more than 700 participants were tested on different types of individual decision making problems. In the first study, we replicated Keysar et al.'s (2012) recent observation regarding the foreign language effect on framing effects related to loss aversion. In the second section, we assessed whether the foreign language effect is present in other types of framing problems that involve psychological accounting biases rather than gain/loss dichotomies. In the third section, we studied the foreign language effect in several key aspects of the theory of decision making under risk and uncertainty. In the fourth study, we assessed the presence of a foreign language effect in the cognitive reflection test, a test that includes logical problems that do not carry emotional connotations. The absence of such an effect in this test suggests that foreign language leads to a reduction of heuristic biases in decision making across a range of decision making situations and provide also some evidence about the boundaries of the phenomenon. We explore several potential factors that may underlie the foreign language effect in decision making. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Failure to utilize feedback causes decision-making deficits among excessive Internet gamers.

Science.gov (United States)

Yao, Yuan-Wei; Chen, Pin-Ru; Chen, Chang; Wang, Ling-Jiao; Zhang, Jin-Tao; Xue, Gui; Deng, Lin-Yuan; Liu, Qin-Xue; Yip, Sarah W; Fang, Xiao-Yi

2014-11-30

Internet gaming addiction (IGA) is an increasing mental health issue worldwide. Previous studies have revealed decision-making impairments in excessive Internet gamers (EIGs) with high symptoms of IGA. However, the role of feedback processing in decision-making deficits among EIGs remains unknown. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of feedback processing on decision-making deficits under risk among EIGs, using the Game of Dice Task (GDT) and a modified version of the GDT in which no feedback was provided. Twenty-six EIGs and 26 matched occasional Internet gamers (OIGs) were recruited. The results showed: (a) OIGs performed better on the original GDT than on the modified GDT (no feedback condition); however, EIGs performed similarly on both tasks; (b) EIGs and OIGs performed equally on the modified GDT; however, EIGs chose more disadvantageous options than OIGs on the original GDT; (c) EIGs utilized feedback less frequently on the original GDT relative to OIGs. These results suggest that EIGs are not able to utilize feedback to optimize their decisions, which could underlie their poor decision-making under risk. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Correlates of healthcare and financial decision making among older adults without dementia.

Science.gov (United States)

Stewart, Christopher C; Yu, Lei; Wilson, Robert S; Bennett, David A; Boyle, Patricia A

2018-03-22

Healthcare and financial decision making among older persons has been previously associated with cognition, health and financial literacy, and risk aversion; however, the manner by which these resources support decision making remains unclear, as past studies have not systematically investigated the pathways linking these resources with decision making. In the current study, we use path analysis to examine the direct and indirect pathways linking age, education, cognition, literacy, and risk aversion with decision making. We also decomposed literacy into its subcomponents, conceptual knowledge and numeracy, in order to examine their associations with decision making. Participants were 937 community-based older adults without dementia from the Rush Memory and Aging Project who completed a battery of cognitive tests and assessments of healthcare and financial decision making, health and financial literacy, and risk aversion. Age and education exerted effects on decision making, but nearly two thirds of their effects were indirect, working mostly through cognition and literacy. Cognition exerted a strong direct effect on decision making and a robust indirect effect working primarily through literacy. Literacy also exerted a powerful direct effect on decision making, as did its subcomponents, conceptual knowledge and numeracy. The direct effect of risk aversion was comparatively weak. In addition to cognition, health and financial literacy emerged as independent and primary correlates of healthcare and financial decision making. These findings suggest specific actions that might be taken to optimize healthcare and financial decision making and, by extension, improve health and well-being in advanced age. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Environmental performance of straw-based pulp making: A life cycle perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Sun, Mingxing; Wang, Yutao; Shi, Lei

2018-03-01

Agricultural straw-based pulp making plays a vital role in pulp and paper industry, especially in forest deficient countries such as China. However, the environmental performance of straw-based pulp has scarcely been studied. A life cycle assessment on wheat straw-based pulp making in China was conducted to fill of the gaps in comprehensive environmental assessments of agricultural straw-based pulp making. On average, the global warming potential (GWP), GWP excluding biogenic carbon, acidification potential and eutrophication potential of wheat straw based pulp making are 2299kg CO 2 -eq, 4550kg CO 2 -eq, 16.43kg SO 2 -eq and 2.56kg Phosphate-eq respectively. The dominant factors contributing to environmental impacts are coal consumption, electricity consumption, and chemical (NaOH, ClO 2 ) input. Chemical input decrease and energy recovery increase reduce the total environmental impacts dramatically. Compared with wood-based and recycled pulp making, wheat straw-based pulp making has higher environmental impacts, which are mainly due to higher energy and chemical requirements. However, the environmental impacts of wheat straw-based pulp making are lower than hemp and flax based pulp making from previous studies. It is also noteworthy that biogenic carbon emission is significant in bio industries. If carbon sequestration is taken into account in pulp making industry, wheat straw-based pulp making is a net emitter rather than a net absorber of carbon dioxide. Since wheat straw-based pulp making provides an alternative for agricultural residue management, its evaluation framework should be expanded to further reveal its environmental benefits. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Dysfunctional decision-making in pathological gambling: pattern specificity and the role of impulsivity.

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Kräplin, Anja; Dshemuchadse, Maja; Behrendt, Silke; Scherbaum, Stefan; Goschke, Thomas; Bühringer, Gerhard

2014-03-30

Dysfunctional decision-making in individuals with pathological gambling (PGs) may result from dominating reward-driven processes, indicated by higher impulsivity. In the current study we examined (1) if PGs show specific decision-making impairments related to dominating reward-driven processes rather than to strategic planning deficits and (2) whether these impairments are related to impulsivity. Nineteen PGs according to DSM-IV and 19 matched control subjects undertook the Cambridge Gambling Task (CGT) to assess decision-making. The delay discounting paradigm (DDP) as well as the UPPS Impulsive Behavior Scale (measuring urgency, premeditation, perseverance and sensation seeking) were administered as multidimensional measures of impulsivity. Results revealed that (1) PGs exhibited higher risk seeking and an immediate reward focus in the CGT and, in contrast, comparable strategic planning to the control group. (2) Decision-making impairments were related to more severe delay discounting and, specifically, to increased urgency and less premeditation. Our findings suggest (1) the necessity to disentangle decision-making components in order to improve etiological models of PGs, and (2) that urgency and premeditation are specifically related to disadvantageous decision-making and should be tackled in intervention strategies focusing on emotion tolerance and control strategies. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Ovarian reserve after treatment with alkylating agents during childhood.

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Thomas-Teinturier, Cécile; Allodji, Rodrigue Sétchéou; Svetlova, Ekaterina; Frey, Marie-Alix; Oberlin, Odile; Millischer, Anne-Elodie; Epelboin, Sylvie; Decanter, Christine; Pacquement, Helene; Tabone, Marie-Dominique; Sudour-Bonnange, Helene; Baruchel, André; Lahlou, Najiba; De Vathaire, Florent

2015-06-01

What is the effect of different alkylating agents used without pelvic radiation to treat childhood cancer in girls on the ovarian reserve in survivors? Ovarian reserve seems to be particularly reduced in survivors who received procarbazine (in most cases for Hodgkin lymphoma) or high-dose chemotherapy; procarbazine but not cyclophosphamide dose is associated with diminished ovarian reserve. A few studies have demonstrated diminished ovarian reserve in survivors after various combination therapies, but the individual role of each treatment is difficult to assess. Prospective cross-sectional study, involving 105 survivors and 20 controls. One hundred and five survivors aged 17-40 years and 20 controls investigated on Days 2-5 of a menstrual cycle or Day 7 of an oral contraceptive pill-free interval. ovarian surface area (OS), total number of antral follicles (AFC), serum levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), estradiol and anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH). Survivors had a lower OS than controls: 3.5 versus 4.4 cm(2) per ovary (P = 0.0004), and lower AMH levels: 10.7 versus 22 pmol/l (P = 0.003). Ovarian markers (OS, AMH, AFC) were worse in patients who received high-dose compared with conventional-dose alkylating agents (P = 0.01 for OS, P = 0.002 for AMH, P < 0.0001 for AFC). Hodgkin lymphoma survivors seemed to have a greater reduction in ovarian reserve than survivors of leukaemia (P = 0.04 for AMH, P = 0.01 for AFC), sarcoma (P = 0.04 for AMH, P = 0.04 for AFC) and other lymphomas (P = 0.04 for AFC). A multiple linear regression analysis showed that procarbazine but not cyclophosphamide nor ifosfamide dose was associated with reduced OS (P = 0.0003), AFC (P = 0.0007), AMH (P < 0.0001) and higher FSH levels (P < 0.0001). The small percentage of participating survivors (28%) from the total cohort does not allow conclusion on fertility issues because of possible response bias. The association between procarbazine and HL makes it

Why orphan drug coverage reimbursement decision-making needs patient and public involvement.

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Douglas, Conor M W; Wilcox, Elizabeth; Burgess, Michael; Lynd, Larry D

2015-05-01

Recently there has been an increase in the active involvement of publics and patients in healthcare and research, which is extending their roles beyond the passive recipients of medicines. However, there has been noticeably less work engaging them into decision-making for healthcare rationing exercises, priority setting, health technology assessment, and coverage decision-making. This is particularly evident in reimbursement decision-making for 'orphan drugs' or drugs for rare diseases. Medicinal products for rare disease offer particular challenges in coverage decision-making because they often lack the 'evidence of efficacy' profiles of common drugs that have been trialed on larger populations. Furthermore, many of these drugs are priced in the high range, and with limited health care budgets the prospective opportunity costs of funding them means that those resources cannot be allocated elsewhere. Here we outline why decision-making for drugs for rare diseases could benefit from increased levels of publics and patients involvement, suggest some possible forms that involvement could take, and advocate for empirical experimentation in this area to evaluate the effects of such involvement. Focus is given to the Canadian context in which we are based; however, potentialities and challenges relating to involvement in this area are likely to be similar elsewhere. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Interpersonal relationship modulates the behavioral and neural responses during moral decision-making.

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Zhan, Youlong; Xiao, Xiao; Li, Jin; Liu, Lei; Chen, Jie; Fan, Wei; Zhong, Yiping

2018-04-13

Interpersonal relationship (IR) may play an important role in moral decision-making. However, it is little known about how IR influences neural and behavioral responses during moral decision-making. The present study utilized the dilemma scenario-priming paradigm to examine the time course of the different intimate IR (friend, acquaintance, or stranger) impacts on the emotional and cognitive processes during moral decision-making. Results showed that participants made less altruistic decisions with increased decision times and experienced more unpleasure for strangers versus friends and acquaintances. Moreover, at the early moral intuitional process, there was no significance difference observed at N1 under different intimate IR; however, at the emotional process, larger P260 which reflects the dilemma conflicts and negative emotional responses, was elicited when moral decision-making for strangers; at the later cognitive process, such difference was also observed at LPP (300-450 ms) which indexes the later top-down cognitive appraisal and reasoning processes. However, such differences were not observed between friends and acquaintances. Results indicate that IR modulates the emotional and cognitive processes during moral decision-making, suggesting that the closer the IR is, the weaker the dilemma conflicts and emotional responses are, and the more efficient this conflicts are solved. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Coasian and Modern Property Rights Economics

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Foss, Kirsten; Foss, Nicolai

2015-01-01

Laying the foundations of property rights economics stands out among Ronald Coase's many seminal contributions. This approach had an impact on a number of fields in economics in, particularly, the 1960s and 1970s. The modern body of property rights economics mainly originates in the work Oliver...... Hart and is quite different in style, scope, and implications from the original property rights economics of Coase, Demsetz, Alchian, Cheung, Umbeck, Barzel, etc. Based on our earlier work on the subject (Foss and Foss, 2001), we argue that the change from Mark I to Mark II property rights economics...... led to a substantial narrowing of the scope of property rights economics, somewhat akin to a Kuhnian loss of content. In particular, Mark II property rights economics make strong assumptions concerning the definition and enforcement of ownership rights made which lead to many real life institutions...

Love as a regulative ideal in surrogate decision making.

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Stonestreet, Erica Lucast

2014-10-01

This discussion aims to give a normative theoretical basis for a "best judgment" model of surrogate decision making rooted in a regulative ideal of love. Currently, there are two basic models of surrogate decision making for incompetent patients: the "substituted judgment" model and the "best interests" model. The former draws on the value of autonomy and responds with respect; the latter draws on the value of welfare and responds with beneficence. It can be difficult to determine which of these two models is more appropriate for a given patient, and both approaches may seem inadequate for a surrogate who loves the patient. The proposed "best judgment" model effectively draws on the values incorporated in each of the traditional standards, but does so because these values are important to someone who loves a patient, since love responds to the patient as the specific person she is. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press, on behalf of the Journal of Medicine and Philosophy Inc. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Disadvantageous decision-making in borderline personality disorder: Partial support from a meta-analytic review.

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Paret, Christian; Jennen-Steinmetz, Christine; Schmahl, Christian

2017-01-01

To achieve long-term goals, organisms evaluate outcomes and expected consequences of their behaviors. Unfavorable decisions maintain many symptoms of borderline personality disorder (BPD); therefore, a better understanding of the mechanisms underlying decision-making in BPD is needed. In this review, the current literature comparing decision-making in patients with BPD versus healthy controls is analyzed. Twenty-eight empirical studies were identified through a structured literature search. The effect sizes from studies applying comparable experimental tasks were analyzed. It was found that (1) BPD patients discounted delayed rewards more strongly; (2) reversal learning was not significantly altered in BPD; and (3) BPD patients achieved lower net gains in the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Current psychotropic medication, sex and differences in age between the patient and control group moderated the IGT outcome. Altered decision-making in a variety of other tasks was supported by a qualitative review. In summary, current evidence supports the altered valuation of outcomes in BPD. A multifaceted influence on decision-making and adaptive learning is reflected in this literature. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chronic motivational state interacts with task reward structure in dynamic decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Cooper, Jessica A; Worthy, Darrell A; Maddox, W Todd

2015-12-01

Research distinguishes between a habitual, model-free system motivated toward immediately rewarding actions, and a goal-directed, model-based system motivated toward actions that improve future state. We examined the balance of processing in these two systems during state-based decision-making. We tested a regulatory fit hypothesis (Maddox & Markman, 2010) that predicts that global trait motivation affects the balance of habitual- vs. goal-directed processing but only through its interaction with the task framing as gain-maximization or loss-minimization. We found support for the hypothesis that a match between an individual's chronic motivational state and the task framing enhances goal-directed processing, and thus state-based decision-making. Specifically, chronic promotion-focused individuals under gain-maximization and chronic prevention-focused individuals under loss-minimization both showed enhanced state-based decision-making. Computational modeling indicates that individuals in a match between global chronic motivational state and local task reward structure engaged more goal-directed processing, whereas those in a mismatch engaged more habitual processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Right colon cancer: Left behind.

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Gervaz, P; Usel, M; Rapiti, E; Chappuis, P; Neyroud-Kaspar, I; Bouchardy, C

2016-09-01

Prognosis of colon cancer (CC) has steadily improved during the past three decades. This trend, however, may vary according to proximal (right) or distal (left) tumor location. We studied if improvement in survival was greater for left than for right CC. We included all CC recorded at the Geneva population-based registry between 1980 and 2006. We compared patients, tumor and treatment characteristics between left and right CC by logistic regression and compared CC specific survival by Cox models taking into account putative confounders. We also compared changes in survival between CC location in early and late years of observation. Among the 3396 CC patients, 1334 (39%) had right-sided and 2062 (61%) left-sided tumors. In the early 1980s, 5-year specific survival was identical for right and left CCs (49% vs. 48%). During the study period, a dramatic improvement in survival was observed for patients with left-sided cancers (Hazard ratio [HR]: 0.42, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.29-0.62, p colon cancer patients, those with right-sided lesions have by far the worse prognosis. Change of strategic management in this subgroup is warranted. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE ON DYNAMICS OF CREDIT GROWTH AND FOREIGN RESERVE

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Satrugan Sinah

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The paper presents a model for looking into the nature of change in foreign reserve from movements in domestic credit. This model is relevant to foreign reserve targeting, small and open economies. The model denotes that measures undertaken by central banks to constraint domestic credit growth with the view of controlling capital outflows will also be detrimental to foreign reserves level. The empirical studies with application of Fourier Transformation technique have been used to build a model, which shows that growth in domestic credit is more biased towards positive swings in foreign reserves, rather than being unfavorable. The small and open economies, particularly, the Pacific Island nations, have the right set up for application of this model to safeguard foreign reserves level.

The impact of making vaccines thermostable in Niger's vaccine supply chain.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Bruce Y; Cakouros, Brigid E; Assi, Tina-Marie; Connor, Diana L; Welling, Joel; Kone, Souleymane; Djibo, Ali; Wateska, Angela R; Pierre, Lionel; Brown, Shawn T

2012-08-17

Determine the effects on the vaccine cold chain of making different types of World Health Organization (WHO) Expanded Program on Immunizations (EPI) vaccines thermostable. Utilizing a detailed computational, discrete-event simulation model of the Niger vaccine supply chain, we simulated the impact of making different combinations of the six current EPI vaccines thermostable. Making any EPI vaccine thermostable relieved existing supply chain bottlenecks (especially at the lowest levels), increased vaccine availability of all EPI vaccines, and decreased cold storage and transport capacity utilization. By far, the most substantial impact came from making the pentavalent vaccine thermostable, increasing its own vaccine availability from 87% to 97% and the vaccine availabilities of all other remaining non-thermostable EPI vaccines to over 93%. By contrast, making each of the other vaccines thermostable had considerably less effect on the remaining vaccines, failing to increase the vaccine availabilities of other vaccines to more than 89%. Making tetanus toxoid vaccine along with the pentavalent thermostable further increased the vaccine availability of all EPI vaccines by at least 1-2%. Our study shows the potential benefits of making any of Niger's EPI vaccines thermostable and therefore supports further development of thermostable vaccines. Eliminating the need for refrigerators and freezers should not necessarily be the only benefit and goal of vaccine thermostability. Rather, making even a single vaccine (or some subset of the vaccines) thermostable could free up significant cold storage space for other vaccines, and thereby help alleviate supply chain bottlenecks that occur throughout the world. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Holy See on sexual and reproductive health rights: conservative in position, dynamic in response.

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Coates, Amy L; Hill, Peter S; Rushton, Simon; Balen, Julie

2014-11-01

The Holy See has engaged extensively in United Nations negotiations on issues concerning sexual and reproductive health rights as they have emerged and evolved in a dynamic global agenda over the past two decades. A meta-narrative review of the mission's official statements was conducted to examine the positions, discourses and tensions across the broad range of agendas. The Holy See represents a fundamentally conservative and stable position on a range of sexual and reproductive health rights concerns. However, the mission has been dynamic in the ways in which it has forwarded its arguments, increasingly relying upon secularised technical claims and empirical evidence; strategically interpreting human rights norms in ways consistent with its own position; and framing sexuality and reproduction in the context of "the family". Seen in the broader context of a "religious resurgence" in international relations, and in light of the fact that the Holy See has frequently sought to form alliances with conservative State and non-State actors, these findings make an important contribution to understanding the slow progress as well as the potential obstacles that lie ahead in the battle to realise sexual and reproductive health rights in a changing global political environment. Copyright © 2014 Reproductive Health Matters. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Thinking like an expert: surgical decision making as a cyclical process of being aware.

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Cristancho, Sayra M; Apramian, Tavis; Vanstone, Meredith; Lingard, Lorelei; Ott, Michael; Forbes, Thomas; Novick, Richard

2016-01-01

Education researchers are studying the practices of high-stake professionals as they learn how to better train for flexibility under uncertainty. This study explores the "Reconciliation Cycle" as the core element of an intraoperative decision-making model of how experienced surgeons assess and respond to challenges. We analyzed 32 semistructured interviews using constructivist grounded theory to develop a model of intraoperative decision making. Using constant comparison analysis, we built on this model with 9 follow-up interviews about the most challenging cases described in our dataset. The Reconciliation Cycle constituted an iterative process of "gaining" and "transforming information." The cyclical nature of surgeons' decision making suggested that transforming information requires a higher degree of awareness, not yet accounted by current conceptualizations of situation awareness. This study advances the notion of situation awareness in surgery. This characterization will support further investigations on how expert and nonexpert surgeons implement strategies to cope with unexpected events. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Seclusion, decision-making power, and gender disparities in adult health: Examining hypertension in India.

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Stroope, Samuel

2015-09-01

Research on the social determinants of health in developing countries is increasingly focusing on the importance of gender. Cardiovascular conditions such as hypertension are a growing concern in developing countries, where they are now the leading cause of death. Researchers have documented differences in hypertension between men and women, but the importance of gendered practices in shaping these differences has been left unexamined. Using national data from the India Human Development Survey 2005 (N=101,593), this study assesses the moderating role of two salient and widespread gendered practices-women's seclusion and decision-making power-on hypertension disparities between women and men. Both seclusion and low decision-making power are associated with increased odds of hypertension for women, but in the case of seclusion reduced hypertension for men. Results also show the gender gap in hypertension is exacerbated with women's seclusion and low decision-making power. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The adolescent patient: parental responsibility, the right to be informed and the right to be heard.

Science.gov (United States)

Delbon, P; Dianiskova, S; Laffranchi, L; Conti, A

2015-12-01

The increasing emphasis placed on patients' rights, in dentistry as well as in other areas, is also having repercussions on the structure of the relationship between health care staff, the under-age patient and his /her parents. The authors reflect about the decision-making process when the patient is a minor in the field of dentistry and underline the role of the parties involved (dentist, parents, under-age patient) in different circumstances (e.g. ordinary care or non-routine care; urgent situations; conflict between parents; refusal of the parents; disagreement between the parents and the child, refusal of the under-age patient; etc.). The Law must first ensure that the minors' needs for protection are met by awarding their parents the power and duty to care for them and, thus, also to take health care decisions in their interest. At the same time, domestic legislation and international legislation supports the need to give greater weight to minors' opinions as they approach the age of majority and, therefore, as they acquire a certain degree of maturity. The rights of under-age patients are safeguarded by actively involving them in the decision-making process, with particular reference to their right to information and right to be heard, to the extent that their age and understanding allow, with due consideration to the specific situation.

Minor's rights versus parental rights: review of legal issues in adolescent health care.

Science.gov (United States)

Maradiegue, Ann

2003-01-01

The right of adolescents to access confidential health care is sensitive and controversial. Recent challenges in the court system to adolescents' right to access abortion and contraception are eroding current law, including the Roe v Wade decision. The prospect of more than a million pregnancies in individuals under the age of 20 years in the United States with increasingly fewer alternatives to pregnancy is concerning. New regulations under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act are adding yet another layer of complexity to the care of adolescents. Understanding legal issues surrounding adolescent rights to care can help the health care provider make appropriate care available to this age group. Keywords previously identified in CINAHL and MEDLINE were used to perform the literature search. LexisNexis was the search engine used to identify the laws and statutes.

Influence of prior information on pain involves biased perceptual decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Wiech, Katja; Vandekerckhove, Joachim; Zaman, Jonas; Tuerlinckx, Francis; Vlaeyen, Johan W S; Tracey, Irene

2014-08-04

Prior information about features of a stimulus is a strong modulator of perception. For instance, the prospect of more intense pain leads to an increased perception of pain, whereas the expectation of analgesia reduces pain, as shown in placebo analgesia and expectancy modulations during drug administration. This influence is commonly assumed to be rooted in altered sensory processing and expectancy-related modulations in the spinal cord, are often taken as evidence for this notion. Contemporary models of perception, however, suggest that prior information can also modulate perception by biasing perceptual decision-making - the inferential process underlying perception in which prior information is used to interpret sensory information. In this type of bias, the information is already present in the system before the stimulus is observed. Computational models can distinguish between changes in sensory processing and altered decision-making as they result in different response times for incorrect choices in a perceptual decision-making task (Figure S1A,B). Using a drift-diffusion model, we investigated the influence of both processes in two independent experiments. The results of both experiments strongly suggest that these changes in pain perception are predominantly based on altered perceptual decision-making. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Advance reservation access control using software-defined networking and tokens

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Chung, Joaquin; Jung, Eun-Sung; Kettimuthu, Rajkumar; Rao, Nageswara S. V.; Foster, Ian T.; Clark, Russ; Owen, Henry

2018-02-01

Advance reservation systems allow users to reserve dedicated bandwidth connection resources from advanced high-speed networks. A common use case for such systems is data transfers in distributed science environments in which a user wants exclusive access to the reservation. However, current advance network reservation methods cannot ensure exclusive access of a network reservation to the specific flow for which the user made the reservation. We present here a novel network architecture that addresses this limitation and ensures that a reservation is used only by the intended flow. We achieve this by leveraging software-defined networking (SDN) and token-based authorization. We use SDN to orchestrate and automate the reservation of networking resources, end-to-end and across multiple administrative domains, and tokens to create a strong binding between the user or application that requested the reservation and the flows provisioned by SDN. We conducted experiments on the ESNet 100G SDN testbed, and demonstrated that our system effectively protects authorized flows from competing traffic in the network. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Cue-based decision making. A new framework for understanding the uninvolved food consumer.

Science.gov (United States)

Hamlin, Robert P

2010-08-01

This article examines the processes that occur within the consumer's head as they make a choice between alternative market offers at a low level of involvement. It discusses recent research that indicates that the Theory of Planned Behaviour and its derivatives have restricted validity as a predictor of food consumers' evaluations and purchase patterns. This has significant implications as Planned Behaviour is the dominant paradigm within food industry research. The article demonstrates that Planned Behaviour has acquired this status more by default than by proven merit. The specific reasons for the failure of Planned Behaviour are discussed. An alternative paradigm, Cue-Based Decision Making is developed from an existing literature, and is proposed as a basis for increasing our understanding of the uninvolved food consumer in order to predict and influence their behaviour. 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Evaluation of the capacity of elderly patients to make decisions about their health].

Science.gov (United States)

Atienza-Martín, F J; Garrido-Lozano, M; Losada-Ruiz, C; Rodríguez-Fernández, L M; Revuelta-Pérez, F; Marín-Andrés, G

2013-09-01

To assess the decision-making capacity and variables related to this, in elderly patients in a home care program. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 130 patients assigned to home care program or in social welfare residences of an urban health centre. Demographic variables, as well as comorbidities, social support, institutionalisation, number of drugs used, degree of dependence (Barthel Index), cognitive function (Pfeiffer) were collected. The primary endpoint was the capacity for decision-making about their health assessed using the Aid to Capacity Evaluation (ACE) tool. There was a prevalence of 58.5% capacity. There was an association between ability and independence for activities of daily living (odds ratio (OR): 12.214; Confidence interval 95% (95% CI): 3.90 to 32.29, P de Médicos de Atención Primaria (SEMERGEN). Publicado por Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

Inconsistency and social decision making in patients with Borderline Personality Disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Preuss, Nora; Brändle, Laura S; Hager, Oliver M; Haynes, Melanie; Fischbacher, Urs; Hasler, Gregor

2016-09-30

Inconsistent social behavior is a core psychopathological feature of borderline personality disorder. The goal of the present study was to examine inconsistency in social decision-making using simple economic social experiments. We investigated the decisions of 17 female patients with BPD, 24 patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), and 36 healthy controls in three single shot economic experiments measuring trust, cooperation, and punishment. BPD severity was assessed using the Zanarini Rating Scale for BPD. Investments across identical one-shot trust and punishment games were significantly more inconsistent in BPD patients than in controls. Such inconsistencies were only found in the social risk conditions of the trust and punishment conditions but not in the non-social control conditions. MDD patients did not show such inconsistencies. Furthermore, social support was negatively correlated with inconsistent decision-making in the trust and punishment game, which underscores the clinical relevance of this finding. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The role of medial prefrontal cortex in memory and decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Euston, David R; Gruber, Aaron J; McNaughton, Bruce L

2012-12-20

Some have claimed that the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) mediates decision making. Others suggest mPFC is selectively involved in the retrieval of remote long-term memory. Yet others suggests mPFC supports memory and consolidation on time scales ranging from seconds to days. How can all these roles be reconciled? We propose that the function of the mPFC is to learn associations between context, locations, events, and corresponding adaptive responses, particularly emotional responses. Thus, the ubiquitous involvement of mPFC in both memory and decision making may be due to the fact that almost all such tasks entail the ability to recall the best action or emotional response to specific events in a particular place and time. An interaction between multiple memory systems may explain the changing importance of mPFC to different types of memories over time. In particular, mPFC likely relies on the hippocampus to support rapid learning and memory consolidation. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Anticipatory stress restores decision-making deficits in heavy drinkers by increasing sensitivity to losses.

Science.gov (United States)

Gullo, Matthew J; Stieger, Adam A

2011-09-01

Substance abusers are characterized by hypersensitivity to reward. This leads to maladaptive decisions generally, as well as those on laboratory-based decision-making tasks, such as the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Negative affect has also been shown to disrupt the decision-making of healthy individuals, particularly decisions made under uncertainty. Neuropsychological theories of learning, including the Somatic Marker Hypothesis (SMH), argue this occurs by amplifying affective responses to punishment. In substance abusers, this might serve to rebalance their sensitivity to reward with punishment, and improve decision-making. Before completing the IGT, 45 heavy and 47 light drinkers were randomly assigned to a control condition, or led to believe they had to give a stressful public speech. IGT performance was analyzed with the Expectancy-Valence (EV) learning model. Working memory and IQ were also assessed. Heavy drinkers made more disadvantageous decisions than light drinkers, due to higher attention to gains (versus losses) on the IGT. Anticipatory stress increased participants' attention to losses, significantly improving heavy drinkers' decision-making. Anticipatory stress increased attention to losses, effectively restoring decision-making deficits in heavy drinkers by rebalancing their reward sensitivity with punishment sensitivity. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

The roles of social stress and decision-making in non-suicidal self-injury.

Science.gov (United States)

Schatten, Heather T; Andover, Margaret S; Armey, Michael F

2015-10-30

Research suggests that individuals with a history of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) do not have difficulty generating alternatives to social problems but choose more negative solutions, suggesting a deficit in decision-making. However, studies report no significant differences in risky decision-making on a performance-based task among individuals with and without NSSI histories. A limitation of these studies is that decision-making was only assessed at baseline. As individuals with a history of NSSI typically self-injure when experiencing negative emotions, decision-making ability may become impaired specifically in the presence of these emotions. The aim of the current study was to investigate decision-making ability among individuals with and without NSSI histories both at baseline and following a distressing social exclusion task. We compared individuals with (n=48) and without (n=72) NSSI histories on the Iowa Gambling Task, a behavioral measure of risky decision-making, before and after exclusion or inclusion on the Cyberball task. Results indicated no significant group differences in performance regardless of condition. When participants were grouped by racial/ethnic minority status, results indicated that non-Hispanic White individuals with a history of NSSI exhibited deterioration in risky decision-making ability following social exclusion. Potential explanations for these findings and clinical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Repeated causal decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Hagmayer, York; Meder, Björn

2013-01-01

Many of our decisions refer to actions that have a causal impact on the external environment. Such actions may not only allow for the mere learning of expected values or utilities but also for acquiring knowledge about the causal structure of our world. We used a repeated decision-making paradigm to examine what kind of knowledge people acquire in such situations and how they use their knowledge to adapt to changes in the decision context. Our studies show that decision makers' behavior is strongly contingent on their causal beliefs and that people exploit their causal knowledge to assess the consequences of changes in the decision problem. A high consistency between hypotheses about causal structure, causally expected values, and actual choices was observed. The experiments show that (a) existing causal hypotheses guide the interpretation of decision feedback, (b) consequences of decisions are used to revise existing causal beliefs, and (c) decision makers use the experienced feedback to induce a causal model of the choice situation even when they have no initial causal hypotheses, which (d) enables them to adapt their choices to changes of the decision problem. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved).

Regret and adaptive decision making in young children.

Science.gov (United States)

O'Connor, Eimear; McCormack, Teresa; Beck, Sarah R; Feeney, Aidan

2015-07-01

In line with the claim that regret plays a role in decision making, O'Connor, McCormack, and Feeney (Child Development, 85 (2014) 1995-2010) found that children who reported feeling sadder on discovering they had made a non-optimal choice were more likely to make a different choice the next time around. We examined two issues of interpretation regarding this finding: whether the emotion measured was indeed regret and whether it was the experience of this emotion, rather than the ability to anticipate it, that affected decision making. To address the first issue, we varied the degree to which children aged 6 or 7 years were responsible for an outcome, assuming that responsibility is a necessary condition for regret. The second issue was addressed by examining whether children could accurately anticipate that they would feel worse on discovering they had made a non-optimal choice. Children were more likely to feel sad if they were responsible for the outcome; however, even if they were not responsible, children were more likely than chance to report feeling sadder. Moreover, across all conditions, feeling sadder was associated with making a better subsequent choice. In a separate task, we demonstrated that children of this age cannot accurately anticipate feeling sadder on discovering that they had not made the best choice. These findings suggest that although children may feel regret following a non-optimal choice, even if they were not responsible for an outcome, they may experience another negative emotion such as frustration. Experiencing either of these emotions seems to be sufficient to support better decision making. Copyright © 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Decision sidestepping: How the motivation for closure prompts individuals to bypass decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Otto, Ashley S; Clarkson, Joshua J; Kardes, Frank R

2016-07-01

We all too often have to make decisions-from the mundane (e.g., what to eat for breakfast) to the complex (e.g., what to buy a loved one)-and yet there exists a multitude of strategies that allows us to make a decision. This work focuses on a subset of decision strategies that allows individuals to make decisions by bypassing the decision-making process-a phenomenon we term decision sidestepping. Critical to the present manuscript, however, we contend that decision sidestepping stems from the motivation to achieve closure. We link this proposition back to the fundamental nature of closure and how those seeking closure are highly bothered by decision making. As such, we argue that the motivation to achieve closure prompts a reliance on sidestepping strategies (e.g., default bias, choice delegation, status quo bias, inaction inertia, option fixation) to reduce the bothersome nature of decision making. In support of this framework, five experiments demonstrate that (a) those seeking closure are more likely to engage in decision sidestepping, (b) the effect of closure on sidestepping stems from the bothersome nature of decision making, and (c) the reliance on sidestepping results in downstream consequences for subsequent choice. Taken together, these findings offer unique insight into the cognitive motivations stimulating a reliance on decision sidestepping and thus a novel framework by which to understand how individuals make decisions while bypassing the decision-making process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Assessment of Body Reserves in Camels

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

B. Faye

2002-01-01

Full Text Available Herbivores manage their body reserves in a way that helps them respond to variations in the quality and accessibility of feed resources. Assessing these reserves provides farmers with a decision-making tool. Almost no data are available on these aspects of the camel. The present article summarizes several works on weight estimations that are used to assess the volume and weight of the hump (main location of fat reserves, relationships between hump measurements and carcass weight, and between hump weight and perirenal fat weight. Assessing the number and size of adipocytes is a means to test the relevance of these types of fat storage. There is in particular a positive relationship between the size and number of adipocytes in the hump and those in the perirenal fat. The age and sex effects were very pronounced for some of the criteria. A body condition score was established for this species based on the assessment of selected body parts. Results however showed that the hump was not a good bodycondition indicator because of variations in its weight as well as in the size of its adipocytes.

When Organizational Identification Elicits Moral Decision-Making: A Matter of the Right Climate

NARCIS (Netherlands)

S. van Gils (Suzanne); M.A. Hogg (Michael A.); N. van Quaquebeke (Niels); D.L. van Knippenberg (Daan)

2017-01-01

textabstractTo advance current knowledge on ethical decision-making in organizations, we integrate two perspectives that have thus far developed independently: the organizational identification perspective and the ethical climate perspective. We illustrate the interaction between these perspectives

Understanding antibiotic decision making in surgery-a qualitative analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Charani, E; Tarrant, C; Moorthy, K; Sevdalis, N; Brennan, L; Holmes, A H

2017-10-01

To investigate the characteristics and culture of antibiotic decision making in the surgical specialty. A qualitative study including ethnographic observation and face-to-face interviews with participants from six surgical teams at a teaching hospital in London was conducted. Over a 3-month period: (a) 30 ward rounds (WRs) (100 h) were observed, (b) face-to-face follow-up interviews took place with 13 key informants, (c) multidisciplinary meetings on the management of surgical patients and daily practice on wards were observed. Applying these methods provided rich data for characterizing the antibiotic decision making in surgery and enabled cross-validation and triangulation of the findings. Data from the interview transcripts and the observational notes were coded and analysed iteratively until saturation was reached. The surgical team is in a state of constant flux with individuals having to adjust to the context in which they work. The demands placed on the team to be in the operating room, and to address the surgical needs of the patient mean that the responsibility for antibiotic decision making is uncoordinated and diffuse. Antibiotic decision making is considered by surgeons as a secondary task, commonly delegated to junior members of their team and occurs in the context of disjointed communication. There is lack of clarity around medical decision making for treating infections in surgical patients. The result is sub-optimal and uncoordinated antimicrobial management. Developing the role of a perioperative clinician may help to improve patient-level outcomes and optimize decision making. Copyright © 2017 European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

[Single coronary artery and right aortic arch].

Science.gov (United States)

Martínez-Quintana, Efrén; Rodríguez-González, Fayna

2015-01-01

Coronary anomalies are mostly asymptomatic and diagnosed incidentally during coronary angiography or echocardiography. However, they must be taken into account in the differential diagnosis of angina, dyspnea, syncope, acute myocardial infarction or sudden death in young patients. The case is presented of two rare anomalies, single coronary artery originating from right sinus of Valsalva and right aortic arch, in a 65 year-old patient with atherosclerotic coronary artery disease treated percutaneously. Copyright © 2014 Sociedad Española de Arteriosclerosis. Published by Elsevier España. All rights reserved.

Frontostriatal Dysfunction During Decision Making in Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Norman, Luke J; Carlisi, Christina O; Christakou, Anastasia; Murphy, Clodagh M; Chantiluke, Kaylita; Giampietro, Vincent; Simmons, Andrew; Brammer, Michael; Mataix-Cols, David; Rubia, Katya

2018-03-24

The aim of the current paper is to provide the first comparison of computational mechanisms and neurofunctional substrates in adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) during decision making under ambiguity. Sixteen boys with ADHD, 20 boys with OCD, and 20 matched control subjects (12-18 years of age) completed a functional magnetic resonance imaging version of the Iowa Gambling Task. Brain activation was compared between groups using three-way analysis of covariance. Hierarchical Bayesian analysis was used to compare computational modeling parameters between groups. Patient groups shared reduced choice consistency and relied less on reinforcement learning during decision making relative to control subjects, while adolescents with ADHD alone demonstrated increased reward sensitivity. During advantageous choices, both disorders shared underactivation in ventral striatum, while OCD patients showed disorder-specific underactivation in the ventromedial orbitofrontal cortex. During outcome evaluation, shared underactivation to losses in patients relative to control subjects was found in the medial prefrontal cortex and shared underactivation to wins was found in the left putamen/caudate. ADHD boys showed disorder-specific dysfunction in the right putamen/caudate, which was activated more to losses in patients with ADHD but more to wins in control subjects. The findings suggest shared deficits in using learned reward expectancies to guide decision making, as well as shared dysfunction in medio-fronto-striato-limbic brain regions. However, findings of unique dysfunction in the ventromedial orbitofrontal cortex in OCD and in the right putamen in ADHD indicate additional, disorder-specific abnormalities and extend similar findings from inhibitory control tasks in the disorders to the domain of decision making under ambiguity. Copyright © 2018 Society of Biological Psychiatry. Published by

A Stronger Reason for the Right to Sign Languages

Science.gov (United States)

Trovato, Sara

2013-01-01

Is the right to sign language only the right to a minority language? Holding a capability (not a disability) approach, and building on the psycholinguistic literature on sign language acquisition, I make the point that this right is of a stronger nature, since only sign languages can guarantee that each deaf child will properly develop the…

Classification of uranium reserves/resources

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

1998-08-01

Projections of future availability of uranium to meet present and future nuclear power requirements depend on the reliability of uranium resource estimates. Lack of harmony of the definition of the different classes of uranium reserves and resources between countries makes the compilation and analysis of such information difficult. The problem was accentuated in the early 1990s with the entry of uranium producing countries from the former Soviet Union, eastern Europe and China into the world uranium supply market. The need for an internationally acceptable reserve/resource classification system and terminology using market based criteria is therefore obvious. This publication was compiled from participant's contributions and findings of the Consultants Meetings on Harmonization of Uranium Resource Assessment Concepts held in Vienna from 22 to 25 June 1992, and two Consultants Meetings on the Development of a More Meaningful Classification of Uranium Resources held in Kiev, Ukraine on 24-26 April 1995 and 20-23 August 1996. This document includes 11 contributions, summary, list of participants of the Consultants Meetings. Each contribution has been indexed and provided with an abstract

VAr reserve concept applied to a wind power plant

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Martinez, Jorge; Kjær, Philip C.; Rodriguez, Pedro

2011-01-01

to wind power plants. This paper proposes two different VAr reserve control strategies for a wind power plant. The amount of dynamic VAr available most of the operation time, makes the wind power plant (WPP) a good candidate to include a VAr reserve management system. Two different ways of implementing...... a VAr management system are proposed and analyzed. Such a reactive power reserve may be provided by the wind power plant since the amount of reactive power installed for most active power working points exceeds the demand required by the grid operator. Basically, this overrated reactive power capacity...... is a consequence of sizing wind turbine facilities for maximum active power level. The reactive power losses, due to active power transportation inside the plant (normally two transformers), and P-Q wind turbine characteristics define the P-Q reserve chart. By utilizing the intrinsic overrated reactive power...

Midwives׳ decision making about transfers for 'slow' labour in rural New Zealand.

Science.gov (United States)

Patterson, Jean; Skinner, Joan; Foureur, Maralyn

2015-06-01

Midwives who provided Lead Maternity Care (LMC) to women in rural areas were invited to share their experiences of decision making around transfer in labour. Ethics approval was obtained from the NZ National Ethics Committee. to explore midwives׳ decision making processes when making transfer decisions for slow labour progress from rural areas to specialist care. individual and group interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of rural midwives. The recalled decision processes of the midwives were subjected to a content and thematic analysis to expose experiences in common and to highlight aspects of probabilistic (normative), heuristic (behavioural), and group decision making theory within the rural context. New Zealand. 15 midwives who provided LMC services to women in their rural areas. 'making the mind shift', 'sitting on the boundary', 'timing the transfer' and 'the community interest' emerged as key themes. The decision processes were also influenced by the woman׳s preferences and the distance and time involved in the transfer. the findings contribute insights into the challenge of making transfer decisions in rural units; particularly for otherwise well women who were experiencing slow labour progress. Knowledge of the fallibility of our heuristic decision making strategies may encourage the practitioner to step back and take a more deliberative, probabilistic view of the situation. In addition to the clinical picture, this process should include the relational and aspirational aspects for the woman, and any logistical challenges of the particular rural context. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Familiarity and recollection in heuristic decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwikert, Shane R; Curran, Tim

2014-12-01

Heuristics involve the ability to utilize memory to make quick judgments by exploiting fundamental cognitive abilities. In the current study we investigated the memory processes that contribute to the recognition heuristic and the fluency heuristic, which are both presumed to capitalize on the byproducts of memory to make quick decisions. In Experiment 1, we used a city-size comparison task while recording event-related potentials (ERPs) to investigate the potential contributions of familiarity and recollection to the 2 heuristics. ERPs were markedly different for recognition heuristic-based decisions and fluency heuristic-based decisions, suggesting a role for familiarity in the recognition heuristic and recollection in the fluency heuristic. In Experiment 2, we coupled the same city-size comparison task with measures of subjective preexperimental memory for each stimulus in the task. Although previous literature suggests the fluency heuristic relies on recognition speed alone, our results suggest differential contributions of recognition speed and recollected knowledge to these decisions, whereas the recognition heuristic relies on familiarity. Based on these results, we created a new theoretical framework that explains decisions attributed to both heuristics based on the underlying memory associated with the choice options. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

Adoption and the European Court of Human Rights: from laissez-faire to judicial law-making

OpenAIRE

Draghici, C.

2011-01-01

1. The absence of a right to adopt under the European Convention on Human Rights. 2. Eligibility to adopt, civil status and sexual orientation. 3. Rights of the natural parents with regards to adoption proceedings. 4. Dispensing with parental consent to further the best interests of the child. 5. The (almost) equal standing of biological and adoptive families under Article 8. 6. Recognition of foreign adoptions. 7. Conclusions: the demise of the margin of appreciation doctrine?

Why the Federal Reserve Failed to See the Financial Crisis of 2008: The Role of “Macroeconomics†as a Sense making and Cultural Frame

OpenAIRE

Fligstein, Neil; Brundage, Jonah S; Schultz, Michael

2014-01-01

One of the puzzles about the financial crisis of 2008 is why the regulators were so slow to recognize the impending collapse of the financial system. In this paper, we propose a novel account of what happened. We analyze the meeting transcripts of the Federal Reserve’s main decision-making body, the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC), to show that they had surprisingly little recognition that a serious economic meltdown was underway even after the collapse of Lehman Brothers on September ...

Characteristics of individuals who make impulsive suicide attempts.

Science.gov (United States)

Spokas, Megan; Wenzel, Amy; Brown, Gregory K; Beck, Aaron T

2012-02-01

Previous research has identified only a few variables that have been associated with making an impulsive suicide attempt. The aim of the current study was to compare individuals who made an impulsive suicide attempt with those who made a premeditated attempt on both previously examined and novel characteristics. Participants were classified as making an impulsive or premeditated attempt based on the Suicide Intent Scale (Beck et al., 1974a) and were compared on a number of characteristics relevant to suicidality, psychiatric history, and demographics. Individuals who made an impulsive attempt expected that their attempts would be less lethal; yet the actual lethality of both groups' attempts was similar. Those who made an impulsive attempt were less depressed and hopeless than those who made a premeditated attempt. Participants who made an impulsive attempt were less likely to report a history of childhood sexual abuse and more likely to be diagnosed with an alcohol use disorder than those who made a premeditated attempt. Although the sample size was adequate for bivariate statistics, future studies using larger sample sizes will allow for multivariate analyses of characteristics that differentiate individuals who make impulsive and premeditated attempts. Clinicians should not minimize the significance of impulsive attempts, as they are associated with a similar level of lethality as premeditated attempts. Focusing mainly on depression and hopelessness as indicators of suicide risk has the potential to under-identify those who are at risk for making impulsive attempts. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

The Drug Reimbursement Decision-Making System in Iran.

Science.gov (United States)

Ansaripour, Amir; Uyl-de Groot, Carin A; Steenhoek, Adri; Redekop, William K

2014-05-01

Previous studies of health policies in Iran have not focused exclusively on the drug reimbursement process. The aim of this study was to describe the entire drug reimbursement process and the stakeholders, and discuss issues faced by policymakers. Review of documents describing the administrative rules and directives of stakeholders, supplemented by published statistics and interviews with experts and policymakers. Iran has a systematic process for the assessment, appraisal, and judgment of drug reimbursements. The two most important organizations in this process are the Food and Drug Organization, which considers clinical effectiveness, safety, and economic issues, and the Supreme Council of Health Insurance, which considers various criteria, including budget impact and cost-effectiveness. Ultimately, the Iranian Cabinet approves a drug and recommends its use to all health insurance organizations. Reimbursed drugs account for about 53.5% of all available drugs and 77.3% of drug expenditures. Despite its strengths, the system faces various issues, including conflicting stakeholder aims, lengthy decision-making duration, limited access to decision-making details, and rigidity in the assessment process. The Iranian drug reimbursement system uses decision-making criteria and a structured approach similar to those in other countries. Important shortcomings in the system include out-of-pocket contributions due to lengthy decision making, lack of transparency, and conflicting interests among stakeholders. Iranian policymakers should consider a number of ways to remedy these problems, such as case studies of individual drugs and closer examination of experiences in other countries. Copyright © 2014 International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR). Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Do neonatologists limit parental decision-making authority? A Canadian perspective.

Science.gov (United States)

Albersheim, Susan G; Lavoie, Pascal M; Keidar, Yaron D

2010-12-01

According to the principles of family-centered care, fully informed parents and health care professionals are partners in the care of sick neonates. The aim of this study was to assess the attitudes of Canadian neonatologists towards the authority of parents to make life-and-death decisions for their babies. We interviewed 121 (74%) of the 164 practicing neonatologists in Canada (June 2004-March 2005), using scripted open-ended questions and common clinical scenarios. Data analysis employed interpretive description methodology. The main outcome measure was the intention of neonatologists to limit parental life-and-death decision-making authority, when they disagree with parental decisions. Neonatologists' self-rated respect for parental decision-making authority was 8/10. Most neonatologists thought that parents should be either primary decision-makers or part of the decision-making team. Fifty-six percent of neonatologists would limit parental decision-making authority if the parents' decision is not in the baby's "best interest". In response to common neonatal severe illness scenarios, up to 18% of neonatologists said they would limit parental decision-making, even if the chance of intact survival is very poor. For clinical scenarios with equally poor long-term outcomes, neonatologists were more likely to comply with parental wishes early in the life of a baby, particularly with documented brain injury. Canadian neonatologists espouse high regard for parental decision-making authority, but are prepared to limit parental authority if the parents' decision is not thought to be in the baby's best interest. Although neonatologists advise parents that treatment can be started at birth, and stopped later, this was only for early severe brain injury. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve and light pollution issues in New Zealand

Science.gov (United States)

Hearnshaw, John

2015-08-01

I will discuss the Aoraki Mackenzie International Dark Sky Reserve, recognized by IDA in 2012, and how the reserve is managed and promoted to the public to make them aware of light pollution issues and in order to promote star-gazing and astro-tourism. AMIDSR is the world's largest Dark Sky Reserve recognized by IDA and has gold tier status. We will have a Starlight festival in October to promote the Reserve to the public.

Upholding pregnant women's right to life.

Science.gov (United States)

Cook, Rebecca J; Dickens, Bernard M

2012-04-01

Recent decisions of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, and the High Court of Delhi have shown how the pregnancy-related deaths of individual women have been bases on which these authoritative tribunals have held Brazil, Paraguay, and India respectively accountable for avoidable maternal mortality not only in these cases, but also among their populations more generally. The right to life is the most fundamental of women's human rights, recognized in international human rights treaties and national laws. Failure of governments to apply their resources adequately to address, respect, and protect this right violates the law of human rights. These cases show, however, that governments may fail to allocate adequate resources to women's survival of pregnancy. Tribunals can build on the failures in individual cases to set standards of performance to which governments will legally be held to achieve safe motherhood. Copyright © 2012 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Choosing the right amount of healthcare information technologies investments.

Science.gov (United States)

Meyer, Rodolphe; Degoulet, Patrice

2010-04-01

Choosing and justifying the right amount of investment in healthcare information technologies (HITECH or HIT) in hospitals is an ever increasing challenge. Our objectives are to assess the financial impact of HIT on hospital outcome, and propose decision-helping tools that could be used to rationalize the distribution of hospital finances. We used a production function and microeconomic tools on data of 21 Paris university hospitals recorded from 1998 to 2006 to compute the elasticity coefficients of HIT versus non-HIT capital and labor as regards to hospital financial outcome and optimize the distribution of investments according to the productivity associated with each input. HIT inputs and non-HIT inputs both have a positive and significant impact on hospital production (elasticity coefficients respectively of 0.106 and 0.893; R(2) of 0.92). We forecast 2006 results from the 1998 to 2005 dataset with an accuracy of +0.61%. With the model used, the best proportion of HIT investments was estimated to be 10.6% of total input and this was predicted to lead to a total saving of 388 million Euros for the 2006 dataset. Considering HIT investment from the point of view of a global portfolio and applying econometric and microeconomic tools allow the required confidence level to be attained for choosing the right amount of HIT investments. It could also allow hospitals using these tools to make substantial savings, and help them forecast their choices for the following year for better HITECH governance in the current stimulation context. (c) 2010 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

ONE SIZE FITS ALL? ON PATIENT AUTONOMY, MEDICAL DECISION-MAKING, AND THE IMPACT OF CULTURE.

Science.gov (United States)

Gilbar, Roy; Miola, José

2015-01-01

While both medical law and medical ethics have developed in a way that has sought to prioritise patient autonomy, it is less clear whether it has done so in a way that enhances the self-determination of patients from non-western backgrounds. In this article, we consider the desire of some patients from non-western backgrounds for family involvement in decision-making and argue that this desire is not catered for effectively in either medical law or medical ethics. We examine an alternative approach based on relational autonomy that might serve both to allow such patients to exercise their self-determination while still allowing them to include family members in the decision-making process. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press; all rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Echocardiography for Intraoperative Decision Making in Mitral Valve Surgery-A Pilot Simulation-Based Training Module.

Science.gov (United States)

Morais, Rex Joseph; Ashokka, Balakrishnan; Paranjothy, Suresh; Siau, Chiang; Ti, Lian Kah

2017-10-01

Echocardiographic assessment of the repaired or replaced mitral valve intraoperatively involves making a high-impact joint decision with the surgeon, in a time-sensitive manner, in a dynamic clinical situation. These decisions have to take into account the degree of imperfection if any, the likelihood of obtaining a better result, the underlying condition of the patient, and the impact of a longer cardiopulmonary bypass period if the decision is made to reintervene. Traditional echocardiography teaching is limited in its ability to provide this training. The authors report the development and implementation of a training module simulating the dynamic clinical environment of a mitral valve surgery in progress and the critical echo-based intraoperative decision making involved in the assessment of the acceptability of the surgical result. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Longitudinal associations between mothers' perceptions of nonresidential fathers' investment of resources and influence in decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Fagan, Jay; Palkovitz, Rob

2018-02-01

Nonresidential fathers are challenged to remain involved with their children across time in both direct and indirect ways, including influencing decision-making around important issues such as school attendance and medical care. An analytic sample of 1,350 families with residential mothers and nonresidential fathers was selected from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Survey-Birth Cohort (ECLS-B) to examine the longitudinal relationships between mothers' reports of nonresidential fathers' influence in decision-making and their provision of resources to their children. Findings indicate that fathers' voluntary contribution of tangible resources (informal child support, caregiving time) when children are 2 years old positively predict fathers' influence in decision-making regarding the care of their 4-year-old children. Fathers' early formal child support is not related to later decision-making. Fathers' communication with mother about the child at 24 months is related to later decision-making among daughters but not sons. Fathers' early decision-making is longitudinally related to later informal child support, caregiving time, and coparenting communication. The findings support the utility of a resource theory of fathering for understanding and predicting observed patterns of father involvement. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

Working memory deficits affect risky decision-making in methamphetamine users with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Science.gov (United States)

Duarte, Nichole A; Woods, Steven Paul; Rooney, Alexandra; Atkinson, J Hampton; Grant, Igor

2012-04-01

Methamphetamine (MA) use and Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) commonly co-occur and are independently associated with dysregulation of frontostriatal loops and risky decision-making; however, whether their comorbidity exacerbates risky decision-making is not known. This study evaluated 23 participants with histories of MA dependence and ADHD (MA+ADHD+), 25 subjects with MA dependence alone (MA+ADHD-), and 22 healthy adults (MA-ADHD-), who completed the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) as part of a larger neuropsychiatric research evaluation. Results showed a significant interaction between ADHD, MA, and working memory, such that individuals with working memory deficits in the MA+ADHD+ cohort demonstrated the strongest propensity to select cards from "disadvantageous" versus "advantageous" decks on the IGT. This effect was not better explained by other psychiatric, substance use, neuromedical, or cognitive factors. Findings suggest that working memory deficits may moderate the expression of risky decision-making in MA users with ADHD. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Nurses' decision making in heart failure management based on heart failure certification status.

Science.gov (United States)

Albert, Nancy M; Bena, James F; Buxbaum, Denise; Martensen, Linda; Morrison, Shannon L; Prasun, Marilyn A; Stamp, Kelly D

Research findings on the value of nurse certification were based on subjective perceptions or biased by correlations of certification status and global clinical factors. In heart failure, the value of certification is unknown. Examine the value of certification based nurses' decision-making. Cross-sectional study of nurses who completed heart failure clinical vignettes that reflected decision-making in clinical heart failure scenarios. Statistical tests included multivariable linear, logistic and proportional odds logistic regression models. Of nurses (N = 605), 29.1% were heart failure certified, 35.0% were certified in another specialty/job role and 35.9% were not certified. In multivariable modeling, nurses certified in heart failure (versus not heart failure certified) had higher clinical vignette scores (p = 0.002), reflecting higher evidence-based decision making; nurses with another specialty/role certification (versus no certification) did not (p = 0.62). Heart failure certification, but not in other specialty/job roles was associated with decisions that reflected delivery of high-quality care. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Religion and human rights: mutually exclusive or supportive?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gaay Fortman, B. de

1996-01-01

The 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) makes no mention of religion as a possible basis for such fundamental rights. Although there was an attempt by the Dutch delegate Father De Beaufort OP to amend the pream¬ble with a reference to “Man's divine origin and his eternal des¬tiny,”

An international comparison of legal frameworks for supported and substitute decision-making in mental health services.

Science.gov (United States)

Davidson, Gavin; Brophy, Lisa; Campbell, Jim; Farrell, Susan J; Gooding, Piers; O'Brien, Ann-Marie

2016-01-01

There have been important recent developments in law, research, policy and practice relating to supporting people with decision-making impairments, in particular when a person's wishes and preferences are unclear or inaccessible. A driver in this respect is the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD); the implications of the CRPD for policy and professional practices are currently debated. This article reviews and compares four legal frameworks for supported and substitute decision-making for people whose decision-making ability is impaired. In particular, it explores how these frameworks may apply to people with mental health problems. The four jurisdictions are: Ontario, Canada; Victoria, Australia; England and Wales, United Kingdom (UK); and Northern Ireland, UK. Comparisons and contrasts are made in the key areas of: the legal framework for supported and substitute decision-making; the criteria for intervention; the assessment process; the safeguards; and issues in practice. Thus Ontario has developed a relatively comprehensive, progressive and influential legal framework over the past 30 years but there remain concerns about the standardisation of decision-making ability assessments and how the laws work together. In Australia, the Victorian Law Reform Commission (2012) has recommended that the six different types of substitute decision-making under the three laws in that jurisdiction, need to be simplified, and integrated into a spectrum that includes supported decision-making. In England and Wales the Mental Capacity Act 2005 has a complex interface with mental health law. In Northern Ireland it is proposed to introduce a new Mental Capacity (Health, Welfare and Finance) Bill that will provide a unified structure for all substitute decision-making. The discussion will consider the key strengths and limitations of the approaches in each jurisdiction and identify possible ways that further progress can be made in law, policy

Deciding on child maltreatment: A literature review on methods that improve decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Bartelink, Cora; van Yperen, Tom A; ten Berge, Ingrid J

2015-11-01

Assessment and decision-making in child maltreatment cases is difficult. Practitioners face many uncertainties and obstacles during their assessment and decision-making process. Research exhibits shortcomings in this decision-making process. The purpose of this literature review is to identify and discuss methods to overcome these shortcomings. We conducted a systematic review of the published literature on decision-making using PsychINFO and MEDLINE from 2000 through May 2014. We included reviews and quantitative research studies that investigated methods aimed at improving professional decision-making on child abuse and neglect in child welfare and child protection. Although many researchers have published articles on decision-making including ideas and theories to improve professional decision-making, empirical research on these improvements is scarce. Available studies have shown promising results. Structured decision-making has created a greater child-centred and holistic approach that takes the child's family and environment into account, which has made practitioners work more systematically and improved the analysis of complex situations. However, this approach has not improved inter-rater agreement on decisions made. Shared decision-making may improve the participation of parents and children and the quality of decisions by taking client treatment preferences into account in addition to scientific evidence and clinical experience. A number of interesting developments appear in recent research literature; however, child welfare and child protection must find additional inspiration from other areas, e.g., mental health services, because research on decision-making processes in child welfare and child protection is still rare. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A review of the literature: midwifery decision-making and birth.

Science.gov (United States)

Jefford, Elaine; Fahy, Kathleen; Sundin, Deborah

2010-12-01

particular birthing unit and the employment status of the midwife. The role of the woman as decision-maker in her own care during birth also needs careful research attention. Copyright © 2010 Australian College of Midwives. All rights reserved.

A retirement and a reservation: a retrospective autobiography.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Sok K

2012-01-01

A retirement is a rite of passage that requires careful planning, because it forces a retiree to make a shift in the paradigm in life. For 37 years, I was a healing professional, a breadwinner, and a working spouse. I am now a jobless loner, an inactive pensioner, and a homebound spouse. In this retrospective autobiography, I suggest a few points to help my younger colleagues to better their upcoming retirement: professional, financial, social, and familial. To overcome Erikson's identity crisis, I volunteered to be a wounded healer at Warm Springs Indian Reservation. My volunteer medical service at Warm Springs Indian Reservation was a good antidote to creatively overcome my postretirement blues.

One hand or the other? Effector selection biases in right and left handers.

Science.gov (United States)

Main, Julie C; Carey, David P

2014-11-01

Much debate in the handedness literature has centred on the relative merits of questionnaire-based measures assessing hand preference versus simple movement tasks such as peg moving or finger tapping, assessing hand performance. A third paradigm has grown in popularity, which assesses choices by participants when either hand could be used to execute movements. These newer measures may be useful in predicting possible "reversed" asymmetries in proportions of non-right handed ("adextral") people. In the current studies we examine hand choice in large samples of dextral (right handed) and adextral participants. Unlike in some previous experiments on choice, we found that left handers were as biased towards their dominant hand as were right handers, for grasping during a puzzle-making task (study 1). In a second study, participants had to point to either of two suddenly appearing targets with one hand or the other. In study 2, left handers were not significantly less one handed than their right-handed counterparts as in study 1. In a final study, we used random effects meta analysis to summarise the possible differences in hand choice between left handers and right handers across all hand choice studies published to date. The meta analysis suggests that right handers use their dominant hand 12.5% more than left handers favour their dominant hand (with 95% confidence that the real difference lies between 7% and 18%). These last results suggest that our two experiments reported here may represent statistical Type 2 errors. This mean difference may be related to greater left hemispheric language and praxic laterality in right handers. Nevertheless, more data are needed regarding the precise proportions of left and right handers who favour their preferred hands for different tasks. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Civil and Constitutional Rights of Adjudicated Youth.

Science.gov (United States)

Landess, Jacqueline

2016-01-01

Mental health clinicians serving child and adolescent patients are frequently asked to evaluate youth who have been arrested for various offenses or who are otherwise involved with the juvenile justice system. To help orient clinicians and other stakeholders involved with such cases, this article describes the evolution of the juvenile justice system and summarizes the history and current status of the civil and constitutional rights of youth involved in the adjudicatory process. This article also points out key areas in which due process rights are still evolving, particularly in the case of status offenders. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The manipulative skill: Cognitive devices and their neural correlates underlying Machiavellian's decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Bereczkei, Tamas

2015-10-01

Until now, Machiavellianism has mainly been studied in personality and social psychological framework, and little attention has been paid to the underlying cognitive and neural equipment. In light of recent findings, Machiavellian social skills are not limited to emotion regulation and "cold-mindedness" as many authors have recently stated, but linked to specific cognitive abilities. Although Machiavellians appear to have a relatively poor mindreading ability and emotional intelligence, they can efficiently exploit others which is likely to come from their flexible problem solving processes in changing environmental circumstances. The author proposed that Machiavellians have specialized cognitive domains of decision making, such as monitoring others' behavior, task orientation, reward seeking, inhibition of cooperative feelings, and choosing victims. He related the relevant aspects of cognitive functions to their neurological substrates, and argued why they make Machiavellians so successful in interpersonal relationships. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Knowledge translation is the use of knowledge in health care decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Straus, Sharon E; Tetroe, Jacqueline M; Graham, Ian D

2011-01-01

To provide an overview of the science and practice of knowledge translation. Narrative review outlining what knowledge translation is and a framework for its use. Knowledge translation is defined as the use of knowledge in practice and decision making by the public, patients, health care professionals, managers, and policy makers. Failures to use research evidence to inform decision making are apparent across all these key decision maker groups. There are several proposed theories and frameworks for achieving knowledge translation. A conceptual framework developed by Graham et al., termed the knowledge-to-action cycle, provides an approach that builds on the commonalities found in an assessment of planned action theories. Review of the evidence base for the science and practice of knowledge translation has identified several gaps including the need to develop valid strategies for assessing the determinants of knowledge use and for evaluating sustainability of knowledge translation interventions. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Now or not-now? The influence of alexithymia on intertemporal decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Scarpazza, Cristina; Sellitto, Manuela; di Pellegrino, Giuseppe

2017-06-01

Optimal intertemporal decisions arise from the balance between an emotional-visceral component, signaling the need for immediate gratification, and a rational, long-term oriented component. Alexithymia, a personality construct characterized by amplified sensitivity to internal bodily signals of arousal, may result in enhanced activation of the emotional-visceral component over the cognitive-rational one. To test this hypothesis, participants with high- and low-alexithymia level were compared at an intertemporal decision-making task, and their choice behavior correlated with their interoceptive sensitivity. We show that high-alexithymic tend to behave more impatiently than low-alexithymic in intertemporal decisions, particularly when the sooner reward is immediately available. Moreover, the greater their sensitivity to their own visceral sensations, the greater the impatience. Together, these results suggest a disproportionate valuation of reward available immediately in high alexithymia, possibly reflecting heightened perception of bodily physiological signals, which ultimately would bias their intertemporal decision-making. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Safety evaluation of driver cognitive failures and driving errors on right-turn filtering movement at signalized road intersections based on Fuzzy Cellular Automata (FCA) model.

Science.gov (United States)

Chai, Chen; Wong, Yiik Diew; Wang, Xuesong

2017-07-01

This paper proposes a simulation-based approach to estimate safety impact of driver cognitive failures and driving errors. Fuzzy Logic, which involves linguistic terms and uncertainty, is incorporated with Cellular Automata model to simulate decision-making process of right-turn filtering movement at signalized intersections. Simulation experiments are conducted to estimate the relationships between cognitive failures and driving errors with safety performance. Simulation results show Different types of cognitive failures are found to have varied relationship with driving errors and safety performance. For right-turn filtering movement, cognitive failures are more likely to result in driving errors with denser conflicting traffic stream. Moreover, different driving errors are found to have different safety impacts. The study serves to provide a novel approach to linguistically assess cognitions and replicate decision-making procedures of the individual driver. Compare to crash analysis, the proposed FCA model allows quantitative estimation of particular cognitive failures, and the impact of cognitions on driving errors and safety performance. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Neural mechanisms underlying human consensus decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Suzuki, Shinsuke; Adachi, Ryo; Dunne, Simon; Bossaerts, Peter; O'Doherty, John P

2015-04-22

Consensus building in a group is a hallmark of animal societies, yet little is known about its underlying computational and neural mechanisms. Here, we applied a computational framework to behavioral and fMRI data from human participants performing a consensus decision-making task with up to five other participants. We found that participants reached consensus decisions through integrating their own preferences with information about the majority group members' prior choices, as well as inferences about how much each option was stuck to by the other people. These distinct decision variables were separately encoded in distinct brain areas-the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, posterior superior temporal sulcus/temporoparietal junction, and intraparietal sulcus-and were integrated in the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. Our findings provide support for a theoretical account in which collective decisions are made through integrating multiple types of inference about oneself, others, and environments, processed in distinct brain modules. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The Economics of NASA Mission Cost Reserves

Science.gov (United States)

Whitley, Sally; Shinn, Stephen

2012-01-01

Increases in NASA mission costs are well-noted but not well-understood, and there is little evidence that they are decreasing in frequency or amount over time. The need to control spending has led to analysis of the causes and magnitude of historical mission overruns, and many program control efforts are being implemented to attempt to prevent or mitigate the problem (NPR 7120). However, cost overruns have not abated, and while some direct causes of increased spending may be obvious (requirements creep, launch delays, directed changes, etc.), the underlying impetus to spend past the original budget may be more subtle. Gaining better insight into the causes of cost overruns will help NASA and its contracting organizations to avoid .them. This paper hypothesizes that one cause of NASA mission cost overruns is that the availability of reserves gives project team members an incentive to make decisions and behave in ways that increase costs. We theorize that the presence of reserves is a contributing factor to cost overruns because it causes organizations to use their funds less efficiently or to control spending less effectively. We draw a comparison to the insurance industry concept of moral hazard, the phenomenon that the presence of insurance causes insureds to have more frequent and higher insurance losses, and we attempt to apply actuarial techniques to quantifY the increase in the expected cost of a mission due to the availability of reserves. We create a theoretical model of reserve spending motivation by defining a variable ReserveSpending as a function of total reserves. This function has a positive slope; for every dollar of reserves available, there is a positive probability of spending it. Finally, the function should be concave down; the probability of spending each incremental dollar of reserves decreases progressively. We test the model against available NASA CADRe data by examining missions with reserve dollars initially available and testing whether

rights reserved Geophysical Identification of Hydrothermally Altered

African Journals Online (AJOL)

ADOWIE PERE

Geophysical Identification of Hydrothermally Altered Structures That Favour .... aircraft. Total line kilometers of 36,500 were covered in the survey. Magnetic ... tie lines occur at about 2000 metres interval in the ... visual inspection of the map.

rights reserved Geophysical Identification of Hydrothermally Altered ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

ADOWIE PERE

the pole to the magnetic data aided in mapping of various hydrothermally altered structures that may favour gold mineralisation. The interpretation of the aero data set has enhanced a lot of ... water serves as a concentrating, transporting and depositing agent through faults (structures) to the earth's surface. Hydrothermal ...

Modelling of Data Warehouse on Food Distribution Center and Reserves in the Ministry of Agriculture

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Edi Purnomo Putra

2015-09-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this study is to perform database’s planning that supports Prototype Modeling Data Warehouse in the Ministry of Agriculture, especially in the Distribution Center and Reserves in the field of distribution, reserve and price. With the prototype of Data Warehouse, the process of data analysis anddecision-making process by the top management will be easier and more accurate. Research’s method used was data collection and design method. Data warehouse’s design method was done by using Kimball’s nine stepsmethodology. Database design was done by using the ERD (Entity Relationship Diagram and activity diagram. The data used for the analysis was obtained from an interview with the head of Distribution, Reserve and Food Price. The results obtained through the analysis incorporated into the Data Warehouse Prototype have been designed to support decision-making. To conclude, Prototype Data Warehouse facilitates the analysis of data, the searching of history data and decision-making by the top management.

Infection of male rats with Toxoplasma gondii induces effort-aversion in a T-maze decision-making task.

Science.gov (United States)

Tan, Donna; Vyas, Ajai

2016-03-01

Rats chronically infected with protozoan Toxoplasma gondii exhibit greater delay aversion in an inter-temporal task. Moreover T. gondii infection also results in dendritic atrophy of basolateral amygdala neurons. Basolateral amygdala is reported to bias decision making towards greater effortful alternatives. In this context, we report that T. gondii increases effort aversion in infected male rats. This host-parasite association has been widely studied in the context of loss of innate fear in the infected males. It is suggested that reduced fear towards predators reflects a parasitic behavioral manipulation to enhance trophic transmission of T. gondii. Observations reported here extend this paradigm away from a monolithic change in fear and towards a multi-dimensional change in decision making. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Participation in medical decision-making across Europe: An international longitudinal multicenter study.

Science.gov (United States)

Bär Deucher, A; Hengartner, M P; Kawohl, W; Konrad, J; Puschner, B; Clarke, E; Slade, M; Del Vecchio, V; Sampogna, G; Égerházi, A; Süveges, Á; Krogsgaard Bording, M; Munk-Jørgensen, P; Rössler, W

2016-05-01

The purpose of this paper was to examine national differences in the desire to participate in decision-making of people with severe mental illness in six European countries. The data was taken from a European longitudinal observational study (CEDAR; ISRCTN75841675). A sample of 514 patients with severe mental illness from the study centers in Ulm, Germany, London, England, Naples, Italy, Debrecen, Hungary, Aalborg, Denmark and Zurich, Switzerland were assessed as to desire to participate in medical decision-making. Associations between desire for participation in decision-making and center location were analyzed with generalized estimating equations. We found large cross-national differences in patients' desire to participate in decision-making, with the center explaining 47.2% of total variance in the desire for participation (Pparticipation, followed by Aalborg (mean=1.97), where scores were in turn significantly higher than in Debrecen (mean=1.56). The lowest scores were reported in Naples (mean=1.14). Over time, the desire for participation in decision-making increased significantly in Zurich (b=0.23) and decreased in Naples (b=-0.14). In all other centers, values remained stable. This study demonstrates that patients' desire for participation in decision-making varies by location. We suggest that more research attention be focused on identifying specific cultural and social factors in each country to further explain observed differences across Europe. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

[Does the right to die with dignity exist?].

Science.gov (United States)

Toro Flores, Rafael

2008-12-01

Death is one of the few certainties in human beings. This reality generates uneasiness regarding how death will occur especially in circumstances of loneliness or suffering which can become agony. In this report, the author first analyzes the existence of the right to die with dignity as a human right which takes on the nature of being a subjective right. In continuation, the author describes the existing problematic in the application of this right to die in relationship to the so-called double effect mechanism and euthanasia. The author concludes this article by proposing previous instructions or anticipated desires as ideal measures to make the right to die with dignity valid.

Decentralised water systems: emotional influences on resource decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Mankad, Aditi

2012-09-01

The study of emotion has gathered momentum in the field of environmental science, specifically in the context of community resource decision-making. Of particular interest in this review is the potential influence of emotion, risk and threat perception on individuals' decisions to acceptance and adopt decentralised water systems, such as rainwater tanks and greywater systems. The role of message framing is also considered in detail, as well as the influences that different types of framing can have on decision making. These factors are considered as possible predictors for analysing community acceptance of decentralised water in urban environments. Concepts believed to be influenced by emotion, such as trust and framing, are also discussed as potentially meaningful contributors to an overall model of community acceptance of decentralised water. Recommendations are made for how emotion-based concepts, such as risk and threat, can be targeted to facilitate widespread adoption of decentralised systems and how researchers can explore different types of emotions that influence decision making in distinct ways. This review is an important theoretical step in advancing the psycho-social understanding of acceptance and adoption of on-site water sources. Avenues for future research are recommended, including the need for greater theoretical development to encourage future social science research on decentralised systems. Crown Copyright © 2012. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Risk taking and adult attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder: A gap between real life behavior and experimental decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Pollak, Yehuda; Shalit, Reut; Aran, Adi

2018-01-01

Adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are prone to suboptimal decision making and risk taking. The aim of this study was to test performance on a theoretically-based probabilistic decision making task in well-characterized adults with and without ADHD, and examine the relation between experimental risk taking and history of real-life risk-taking behavior, defined as cigarette, alcohol, and street drug use. University students with and without ADHD completed a modified version of the Cambridge Gambling Test, in which they had to choose between alternatives varied by level of risk, and reported their history of substance use. Both groups showed similar patterns of risk taking on the experimental decision making task, suggesting that ADHD is not linked to low sensitivity to risk. Past and present substance use was more prevalent in adults with ADHD. These finding question the validity of experimental probabilistic decision making task as a valid model for ADHD-related risk-taking behavior. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Breaking the sound barrier: exploring parents' decision-making process of cochlear implants for their children.

Science.gov (United States)

Chang, Pamara F

2017-08-01

To understand the dynamic experiences of parents undergoing the decision-making process regarding cochlear implants for their child(ren). Thirty-three parents of d/Deaf children participated in semi-structured interviews. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and coded using iterative and thematic coding. The results from this study reveal four salient topics related to parents' decision-making process regarding cochlear implantation: 1) factors parents considered when making the decision to get the cochlear implant for their child (e.g., desire to acculturate child into one community), 2) the extent to which parents' communities influence their decision-making (e.g., norms), 3) information sources parents seek and value when decision-making (e.g., parents value other parent's experiences the most compared to medical or online sources), and 4) personal experiences with stigma affecting their decision to not get the cochlear implant for their child. This study provides insights into values and perspectives that can be utilized to improve informed decision-making, when making risky medical decisions with long-term implications. With thorough information provisions, delineation of addressing parents' concerns and encompassing all aspects of the decision (i.e., medical, social and cultural), health professional teams could reduce the uncertainty and anxiety for parents in this decision-making process for cochlear implantation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Affective and cognitive mechanisms of risky decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Shimp, Kristy G; Mitchell, Marci R; Beas, B Sofia; Bizon, Jennifer L; Setlow, Barry

2015-01-01

distinct components of executive function. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Intellectual Property Rights in Computer Science

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bujlow, Tomasz

of money spent on equipment, technology, and salaries. Therefore, it is very important to secure the outcome by restricting other people from copying and selling the invention. There are several ways of protecting our work: patents, design rights, copyrights, and trademarks. In software engineering...... the last two -- copyrights and trademarks -- are broadly used. Copyrighting computer programs is not only made for obtaining proper license fees in the future. Free software uses copyright to secure its freedom and to prohibit other users from making it proprietary and selling it for money. Making...

Considering patient values and treatment preferences enhances patient involvement in rectal cancer treatment decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Kunneman, Marleen; Marijnen, Corrie A M; Baas-Thijssen, Monique C M; van der Linden, Yvette M; Rozema, Tom; Muller, Karin; Geijsen, Elisabeth D; Stiggelbout, Anne M; Pieterse, Arwen H

2015-11-01

The shared decision making (SDM) model states that patients' values and preferences should be clarified to choose a strategy that best fits the patient. This study aimed to assess whether values and preferences of rectal cancer patients are voiced and considered in deciding about preoperative radiotherapy (PRT), and whether this makes patients feel more involved in treatment decision making. Pre-treatment consultations of radiation oncologists and patients eligible for PRT were audiotaped (N=90). Tapes were transcribed and coded to identify patients' values and treatment preferences. Patients filled in a post-consultation questionnaire on their perceived involvement in decision making (N=60). Patients' values were voiced for 62/611 of benefits/harms addressed (10%), in 38/90 consultations (42%; maximum 4 values per consultation), and most often related to major long-term treatment outcomes. Patients' treatment preferences were discussed in 20/90 consultations (22%). In 16/90 consultations (18%), the oncologists explicitly indicated to consider patients' values or preferences. Patients perceived a significantly more active role in decision making if their values or preferences had been voiced or considered. Patients' values and treatment preferences are voiced or considered in a minority of consultations. If they are, this increases patients' perceived involvement in the decision making process. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

A conceptual model of the role of communication in surrogate decision making for hospitalized adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Torke, Alexia M; Petronio, Sandra; Sachs, Greg A; Helft, Paul R; Purnell, Christianna

2012-04-01

To build a conceptual model of the role of communication in decision making, based on literature from medicine, communication studies and medical ethics. We proposed a model and described each construct in detail. We review what is known about interpersonal and patient-physician communication, described literature about surrogate-clinician communication, and discussed implications for our developing model. The communication literature proposes two major elements of interpersonal communication: information processing and relationship building. These elements are composed of constructs such as information disclosure and emotional support that are likely to be relevant to decision making. We propose these elements of communication impact decision making, which in turn affects outcomes for both patients and surrogates. Decision making quality may also mediate the relationship between communication and outcomes. Although many elements of the model have been studied in relation to patient-clinician communication, there is limited data about surrogate decision making. There is evidence of high surrogate distress associated with decision making that may be alleviated by communication-focused interventions. More research is needed to test the relationships proposed in the model. Good communication with surrogates may improve both the quality of medical decisions and outcomes for the patient and surrogate. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Do Moral Choices Make Us Feel Good? The Development of Adolescents' Emotions Following Moral Decision Making

Science.gov (United States)

Malti, Tina; Keller, Monika; Buchmann, Marlis

2013-01-01

Some people believe that making the morally right decision makes people feel good. However, until now, there has been no empirical evidence in support of this belief. In a representative two-wave longitudinal study of 995 15-year-old adolescents followed for 3 years (until the age of 18) in Switzerland, adolescents were asked about their decisions…

Decision-making Capacity for Treatment of Psychotic Patients on Long Acting Injectable Antipsychotic Treatment.

Science.gov (United States)

Nystazaki, Maria; Pikouli, Katerina; Tsapakis, Eva-Maria; Karanikola, Maria; Ploumpidis, Dimitrios; Alevizopoulos, Giorgos

2018-04-01

Providing informed, consent requires patients' Decision-Making Capacity for treatment. We evaluated the Decision Making Capacity of outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder on treatment with Long Acting Injectable Antipsychotic medication. This is a retrospective, cross-sectional, correlational study conducted at two Depot Clinics in Athens, Greece. Participants included 65 outpatients diagnosed with schizophrenia and schizoaffective disorder on treatment with Long Acting Injectable Antipsychotics. Over half of the participants showed poor understanding of the information given regarding their disease and treatment (Understanding subscale), however >70% seemed to comprehend the relevance of this information to their medical condition (Appreciation subscale). Moreover, half of the participants reported adequate reasoning ability (Reasoning subscale), whilst patients who gained >7% of their body weight scored statistically significantly higher in the subscales of Understanding and Appreciation. Our results suggest that there is a proportion of patients with significantly diminished Decision Making Capacity, hence a full assessment is recommended in order to track them down. Further research is needed to better interpret the association between antipsychotic induced weight gain and Decision Making Capacity in patients suffering from schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Twitter as a place where people meet to make suicide pacts.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, S Y; Kwon, Y

2018-06-01

To examine how Twitter is used as a place where people seek others to make suicide pacts. This is an exploratory quantitative study. We used Twitter application programming interfaces to collect all Korean tweets containing the term 'suicide pact' between October 16, 2017 and November 30, 2017. A Python program and human coders were employed to further identify tweets that aimed to seek others to make a suicide pact and analyze the content of each tweet. Poisson regression analysis was used to examine the characteristics of the tweets that attracted more replies. During the data collection period comprising 43 days, 1702 tweets posted by 551 users were aimed to find others to make suicide pacts. Many of the tweets contained detailed information such as the name of city, gender and age of the user, preferred contact method, and preferred gender of a partner. The number of replies to a tweet seeking a suicide pact varied according to the types of the information contained in the tweet. The results of this study indicate that Twitter might be an attractive place where people try to meet others to make a suicide pact. Thus, the government should try to prevent cases of suicides caused by suicide pacts made via Twitter. Copyright © 2018 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Linking Rights with Lives: The Micropolitics of Educational Decision Making in Urban Mexico

Science.gov (United States)

Blasco, Maribel

2009-01-01

This article uses life course theory and family bargaining theory to explore how decisions over schooling are negotiated in poorer Mexican families for whom compulsory basic education is a luxury. It explores educational decision making by conceptualizing education in terms of the way it meshes with other social relations and institutions across…

Food choice decision-making by women with gestational diabetes.

Science.gov (United States)

Hui, Amy Leung; Sevenhuysen, Gustaaf; Harvey, Dexter; Salamon, Elizabeth

2014-02-01

To enhance the dietary education presented to women with gestational diabetes (GDM) by exploring the reasons and experiences that women with GDM reported in making their food-choice decisions after receipt of dietary education from a healthcare professional. Food Choice Map (FCM) semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 30 women with GDM living in the Winnipeg area during their pregnancies. Verbatim transcripts were generated from the interviews. A constant comparative method was used to generate common themes to answer research inquiries. Personal food preferences, hunger and cravings were the main factors affecting food choice decision-making in women with GDM. Although the information from healthcare professionals was 1 factor that affected food choice decision-making for most of the participants, more than half of the women, including all the women who were on insulin, reported difficulties in quick adaptation to dietary management in a limited time period. Information from other sources such as family members, friends, and internet were used to cope with the adaptation. These difficulties led to a sense of decreased control of GDM and were accompanied by frustration, especially for women taking insulin. Food choice decision-making varied for this group of women with GDM. Knowledge and information aided in making healthy food choices and in portion control. However, balancing individual needs and blood glucose control in a short time period was felt to be difficult and created frustration. The findings suggested that dietary consultation needs to be personalized and to be time sensitive to promote confidence in self-control. Copyright © 2014 Canadian Diabetes Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Federal reservation of geothermal resources

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Silver, R.M.

1978-01-01

Union Oil had developed or was seeking to develop wells on the land in Sonoma County, California in order to produce geothermal steam for generating electricity. The US Attorney General brought a quiet title action pursuant to 21(b) of the Geothermal Steam Act of 1970 to determine whether geothermal resources are included in the mineral reservation under the Homestead Act. The US District Court granted Union Oil's motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted. On appeal, the Ninth Circuit reversed and remanded. In summary, the court concluded on the basis of the legislative history of the Stock-Raising Homestead Act that sources of energy are intended to remain in the government's possession, and the purposes of the Act will be best served by including geothermal resources in the reservation of mineral interests. Noting the strictly agricultural purpose of the Act, the subsurface estate reservation was broadly interpreted, even though title passed to all rights that were not expressly reserved. The court left open on remand the question of estoppel of the government from interfering with private lessees by developing subsurface resources compensation.This is a unique and intriguing decision, as it opens wide the definition of ''mineral interest,'' construing it in the timely terms of a valuable natural resource that may be in great demand for future energy needs. The decision is being appealed to the United States Supreme Court, and it will be interesting to observe whether this liberal interpretation of mineral interests will be upheld.

34 CFR 7.4 - Option to acquire foreign rights.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 34 Education 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Option to acquire foreign rights. 7.4 Section 7.4 Education Office of the Secretary, Department of Education EMPLOYEE INVENTIONS § 7.4 Option to acquire... issued thereunder, that the Government shall reserve an option to require the assignment of such rights...

Family involvement in medical decision-making: Perceptions of nursing and psychology students.

Science.gov (United States)

Itzhaki, Michal; Hildesheimer, Galya; Barnoy, Sivia; Katz, Michael

2016-05-01

Family members often rely on health care professionals to guide and support them through the decision-making process. Although family involvement in medical decisions should be included in the preservice curriculum for the health care professions, perceptions of students in caring professions on family involvement in medical decision-making have not yet been examined. To examine the perceptions of nursing and psychology students on family involvement in medical decision-making for seriously ill patients. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used. First year undergraduate nursing and psychology students studying for their Bachelor of Arts degree were recruited. Perceptions were assessed with a questionnaire constructed based on the Multi-Attribute Utility Theory (MAUT), which examines decision-maker preferences. The questionnaire consisted of two parts referring to the respondent once as the patient and then as the family caregiver. Questionnaires were completed by 116 nursing students and 156 psychology students. Most were of the opinion that family involvement in decision-making is appropriate, especially when the patient is incapable of making decisions. Nursing students were more inclined than psychology students to think that financial, emotional, and value-based considerations should be part of the family's involvement in decision-making. Both groups of students perceived the emotional consideration as most acceptable, whereas the financial consideration was considered the least acceptable. Nursing and psychology students perceive family involvement in medical decision-making as appropriate. In order to train students to support families in the process of decision-making, further research should examine Shared Decision-Making (SDM) programs, which involve patient and clinician collaboration in health care decisions. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Participation and the right to health: lessons from Indonesia.

Science.gov (United States)

Halabi, Sam Foster

2009-01-01

The right to participation is the "the right of rights"--the basic right of people to have a say in how decisions that affect their lives are made. All legally binding international human rights treaties explicitly recognize the essential role of participation in realizing fundamental human rights. While the substance of the human right to health has been extensively developed, the right to participation as one of its components has remained largely unexplored. Should rights-based health advocacy focus on participation because there is a relationship between an individual's or a community's active involvement in health care decision-making and the highest attainable standard of health? In the context of the human right to health, does participation mean primarily political participation, or should we take the right to participation to mean more specifically the right of persons, individually and as a group, to shape health care policy for society and for themselves as patients? Decentralization of health care decision-making promises greater participation through citizen involvement in setting priorities, monitoring service provision, and finding new and creative ways to finance public health programs. Between 1999 and 2008, Indonesia decentralized health care funding and delivery to regional governments, resulting in substantial exclusion of its poor and uneducated citizens from the health care system while simultaneously expanding the opportunities for political participation for educated elites. This article explores the tension between the right to participation as an underlying determinant of health and as a political right by reviewing the experience of Indonesia ten years after its decision to decentralize health care provision. It is ultimately argued that rights-based advocates must be vigilant in retaining a unified perspective on human rights, resisting the persistent tendency to separate and prioritize the civil and political aspects of participation

The priority heuristic: making choices without trade-offs.

Science.gov (United States)

Brandstätter, Eduard; Gigerenzer, Gerd; Hertwig, Ralph

2006-04-01

Bernoulli's framework of expected utility serves as a model for various psychological processes, including motivation, moral sense, attitudes, and decision making. To account for evidence at variance with expected utility, the authors generalize the framework of fast and frugal heuristics from inferences to preferences. The priority heuristic predicts (a) the Allais paradox, (b) risk aversion for gains if probabilities are high, (c) risk seeking for gains if probabilities are low (e.g., lottery tickets), (d) risk aversion for losses if probabilities are low (e.g., buying insurance), (e) risk seeking for losses if probabilities are high, (f) the certainty effect, (g) the possibility effect, and (h) intransitivities. The authors test how accurately the heuristic predicts people's choices, compared with previously proposed heuristics and 3 modifications of expected utility theory: security-potential/aspiration theory, transfer-of-attention-exchange model, and cumulative prospect theory. ((c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved).

Public policy-making and risk profiles: Scandinavian centre-right governments after the turn of the millennium

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Arndt, Christoph

2017-01-01

, the textbook risk profile of centre-right parties’ electorates allows them to cut back on labour market-related schemes since these parties get negligible support from workers and low income voters. Conducting a comparative case study of recent Danish and Swedish centre-right governments, this article analyses......Recent theoretical advances in the welfare state literature have outlined the differences between labour market- and life course-related schemes as centre-right parties have difficulties in enacting retrenchment on life course-related schemes because they concern every voter. In contrast...... the stylised assumptions on the party level by comparing two similar centre-right governments which differed in their voter coalitions’ risk profile. I first argue that centre-right governments are generally constrained by the popular entrenchment of the universal welfare state when it comes to life course-related...

Extending emotion and decision-making beyond the laboratory: The promise of palliative care contexts.

Science.gov (United States)

Ferrer, Rebecca A; Padgett, Lynne; Ellis, Erin M

2016-08-01

Although laboratory-based research on emotion and decision-making holds the distinct advantage of rigorous experimental control conditions that allow causal inferences, the question of how findings in a laboratory generalize to real-world settings remains. Identifying ecologically valid, real-world opportunities to extend laboratory findings is a valuable means of advancing this field. Palliative care-or care intended to provide relief from serious illness and aging-related complications during treatment or at the end of life-provides a particularly rich opportunity for such work. Here, we present an overview of palliative care, summarize existing research on emotion and palliative care decision-making, highlight challenges associated with conducting such research, outline examples of collaborative projects leveraging palliative care as a context for generating fundamental knowledge about emotion and decision-making, and describe the resources and collaborations necessary to conduct this type of research. In sum, palliative care holds unique promise as an emotionally laden context in which to answer fundamental questions about emotion and decision-making that extends our theoretical understanding of the role of emotion in high-stakes decision-making while simultaneously generating knowledge that can improve palliative care implementation. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Neural mechanisms regulating different forms of risk-related decision-making: Insights from animal models.

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Orsini, Caitlin A; Moorman, David E; Young, Jared W; Setlow, Barry; Floresco, Stan B

2015-11-01

Over the past 20 years there has been a growing interest in the neural underpinnings of cost/benefit decision-making. Recent studies with animal models have made considerable advances in our understanding of how different prefrontal, striatal, limbic and monoaminergic circuits interact to promote efficient risk/reward decision-making, and how dysfunction in these circuits underlies aberrant decision-making observed in numerous psychiatric disorders. This review will highlight recent findings from studies exploring these questions using a variety of behavioral assays, as well as molecular, pharmacological, neurophysiological, and translational approaches. We begin with a discussion of how neural systems related to decision subcomponents may interact to generate more complex decisions involving risk and uncertainty. This is followed by an overview of interactions between prefrontal-amygdala-dopamine and habenular circuits in regulating choice between certain and uncertain rewards and how different modes of dopamine transmission may contribute to these processes. These data will be compared with results from other studies investigating the contribution of some of these systems to guiding decision-making related to rewards vs. punishment. Lastly, we provide a brief summary of impairments in risk-related decision-making associated with psychiatric disorders, highlighting recent translational studies in laboratory animals. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Sunda Language Reservation in Cianjur on The Age to Learn

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Wati Kurniawati

2018-03-01

Full Text Available This study aims to gain an understanding of Sundanese language reservation in Kota Cianjur at the compulsory school age. The observations focused on the domains of Sundanese use that included the family and education sphere. The problem in this research is how the reservation of Sundanese language is viewed from the point of choice of language with the domain of its use? In this research used qualitative approach with ethnography method. The ethnographic research procedure in this study is 1 define sub focus, 2 observation and interview, 3 collect data, 4 make notes, 5, analyze data, and 6 make ethnographic reports. The research findings show that the form of speech is a statement, a question, a greeting, a thank-you note, a formula phrase, a solicitation, a request to do something, an apology, an order, and an agreement. Based on the Sundanese language reservation category in Cinajur city at the compulsory education age in the family realm is maintained (85--100%. The participants of Sundanese speech have a positive loyalty and attitude towards the language. Meanwhile, the education sphere is less maintained (51-74%. In the realm of education, there can be a shift in language because it is poorly maintained and the said participants have no balance in lending languages.

Losing a dime with a satisfied mind: positive affect predicts less search in sequential decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

von Helversen, Bettina; Mata, Rui

2012-12-01

We investigated the contribution of cognitive ability and affect to age differences in sequential decision making by asking younger and older adults to shop for items in a computerized sequential decision-making task. Older adults performed poorly compared to younger adults partly due to searching too few options. An analysis of the decision process with a formal model suggested that older adults set lower thresholds for accepting an option than younger participants. Further analyses suggested that positive affect, but not fluid abilities, was related to search in the sequential decision task. A second study that manipulated affect in younger adults supported the causal role of affect: Increased positive affect lowered the initial threshold for accepting an attractive option. In sum, our results suggest that positive affect is a key factor determining search in sequential decision making. Consequently, increased positive affect in older age may contribute to poorer sequential decisions by leading to insufficient search. 2013 APA, all rights reserved

The human factor: enhancing women's rights.

Science.gov (United States)

Steinzor, N

1995-01-01

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, adopted by the UN in 1948, declares that all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights, and that everyone has the right to life, liberty, and security of person. In practice, however, far from everyone has these rights, especially women. Many women worldwide have neither the awareness of nor access to family planning methods with which they could regulate their fertility and childbearing. Thus deprived of their reproductive freedom, these women cannot pursue education, employment, and other life options which would otherwise be readily available to them were they not saddled with poor reproductive health and too many children. Expanded choices enhance the status of women, which in turn helps them to reduce fertility rates and stabilize population growth. The author discusses how the wide range of cultural and social norms, and economic and political systems worldwide make it very difficult and complex to actually implement universal human rights.

The Good, the Right & the Fair

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Gjerris, Mickey; Nielsen, Morten Ebbe Juul; Sandøe, Peter

The Good, the Right, and the Fair is a comprehensive introduction to contemporary moral and political philosophy especially suited for undergraduate students in medicine and the life sciences. The book covers first questions concerning the good: What makes a life worth living? Is it only humans who...... matter morally? Is welfare all that matters? It then proceeds to a discussion of the right: How ought we to act? The major ethical theories of the western tradition are presented and their strengths and weaknesses discussed. Finally, key aspects of the philosophical discussion of the fair, including...

Risky decision-making under risk in schizophrenia: A deliberate choice?

Science.gov (United States)

Pedersen, Anya; Göder, Robert; Tomczyk, Samuel; Ohrmann, Patricia

2017-09-01

Patients with schizophrenia reveal impaired decision-making strategies causing social, financial and health care problems. The extent to which deficits in decision-making reflect intentional risky choices in schizophrenia is still under debate. Based on previous studies we expected patients with schizophrenia to reveal a riskier performance on the GDT and to make more disadvantageous decisions on the IGT. In the present study, we investigated 38 patients with schizophrenia and 38 matched healthy control subjects with two competing paradigms regarding feedback: (1) The Game of Dice Task (GDT), in which the probabilities of winning or losing are stable and explicitly disclosed to the subject, to assess decision-making under risk and (2) the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT), which requires subjects to infer the probabilities of winning or losing from feedback, to investigate decision-making under ambiguity. Patients with schizophrenia revealed an overall riskier performance on the GDT; although they adjusted their strategy over the course of the GDT, they still made significantly more disadvantageous choices than controls. More positive symptoms in patients with schizophrenia indicated by higher PANSS positive scores were associated with riskier choices and less use of negative feedback. Compared to healthy controls, they were not impaired in net score but chose more disadvantageous cards than controls on the first block of the IGT. Effects of medication at the time of testing cannot be ruled out. Our findings suggest that patients with schizophrenia make riskier decisions and are less able to regulate their decision-making to implement advantageous strategies, even when the probabilities of winning or losing are explicitly disclosed. The dissociation between performance on the GDT and IGT suggests a pronounced impairment of executive functions related to the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of cognitive and affective control networks and decision making.

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Kar, Bhoomika R; Vijay, Nivita; Mishra, Shreyasi

2013-01-01

of cognitive control and decision making from a developmental perspective. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Couples' reports of household decision-making and the utilization of maternal health services in Bangladesh.

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Story, William T; Burgard, Sarah A

2012-12-01

This study examines the association between maternal health service utilization and household decision-making in Bangladesh. Most studies of the predictors of reproductive health service utilization focus on women's reports; however, men are often involved in these decisions as well. Recently, studies have started to explore the association between health outcomes and reports of household decision-making from both husbands and wives as matched pairs. Many studies of household decision-making emphasize the importance of the wife alone making decisions; however, some have argued that joint decision-making between husbands and wives may yield better reproductive health outcomes than women making decisions without input or agreement from their partners. Husbands' involvement in decision-making is particularly important in Bangladesh because men often dominate household decisions related to large, health-related purchases. We use matched husband and wife reports about who makes common household decisions to predict use of antenatal and skilled delivery care, using data from the 2007 Bangladesh Demographic and Health Survey. Results from regression analyses suggest that it is important to consider whether husbands and wives give concordant responses about who makes household decisions since discordant reports about who makes these decisions are negatively associated with reproductive health care use. In addition, compared to joint decision-making, husband-only decision-making is negatively associated with antenatal care use and skilled delivery care. Finally, associations between household decision-making arrangements and health service utilization vary depending on whose report is used and the type of health service utilized. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Octopus movement: push right, go left.

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Hooper, Scott L

2015-05-04

Octopus arms have essentially infinite degrees of freedom. New research shows that, despite this potentially great complexity, to locomote octopuses simply elongate one or more arms, thus pushing the body in the opposite direction, and do so without activating the arms in an ordered pattern. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

the enforcement of social and economic rights in africa

African Journals Online (AJOL)

OLAWUYI

clear judicial approach to interpretation and enforcement of such rights.1 Besides .... Constitution is to make justiciability of such rights a matter of contingency and ... executive, legislative and judicial powers to conform to, observe and apply the provisions of Chapter ... In this case, the Plaintiff, a civil society organization, in a.

The state of the world's midwifery: making the invisible visible.

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Day-Stirk, Frances; Fauveau, Vincent

2012-10-01

This paper presents the evidence for maternal and newborn mortality and morbidity, and provides the background to the publication of the ground-breaking Global State of the World's Midwifery Report (SoWMy) in 2011. Supported by 30 agencies, the SoWMy provides data gathered from 58 countries on their maternity services, and makes recommendations for improving the care of and services for childbearing women by improving the status, education, and regulation of midwives globally. If governments, policy makers, professional associations, international organizations, donor agencies, and civil society take the recommended steps and invest accordingly, this will effectively lead to an improvement in access to quality midwifery services and maternal and newborn health globally. Copyright © 2012 International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Parental Decision-Making Preferences in Neonatal Intensive Care.

Science.gov (United States)

Weiss, Elliott Mark; Barg, Frances K; Cook, Noah; Black, Emily; Joffe, Steven

2016-12-01

To explore how characteristics of medical decisions influence parents' preferences for control over decisions for their seriously ill infants. In qualitative interviews, parents of infants in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) were asked to consider all medical decisions they could recall, and were prompted with decisions commonly encountered in the NICU. For each decision, parents were asked detailed questions about who made each decision, whom they would have preferred to make the decision, and why. Using standard qualitative methods, responses were coded and organized such that decision-level characteristics could be analyzed according to preferred decision-making role. Parents identified 2 factors that were associated with a preference to delegate decisions to the medical team (high degree of urgency, high level of required medical expertise) and 4 factors associated with a preference to retain parental control (high perceived risk, high personal experience with the decision, involvement of foreign bodily fluids, and similarity to decisions that they perceived as part of the normal parental role). Characteristics of decisions influence preferences for control over medical decisions among parents of patients in the NICU. These insights may guide improvements in physician-parent communication and consent. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The evolution of human rights in World Health Organization policy and the future of human rights through global health governance.

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Meier, B M; Onzivu, W

2014-02-01

The World Health Organization (WHO) was intended to serve at the forefront of efforts to realize human rights to advance global health, and yet this promise of a rights-based approach to health has long been threatened by political constraints in international relations, organizational resistance to legal discourses, and medical ambivalence toward human rights. Through legal research on international treaty obligations, historical research in the WHO organizational archives, and interview research with global health stakeholders, this research examines WHO's contributions to (and, in many cases, negligence of) the rights-based approach to health. Based upon such research, this article analyzes the evolving role of WHO in the development and implementation of human rights for global health, reviews the current state of human rights leadership in the WHO Secretariat, and looks to future institutions to reclaim the mantle of human rights as a normative framework for global health governance. Copyright © 2013 The Royal Society for Public Health. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Is decision-making ability related to food choice and facets of eating behaviour in adolescents?

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Macchi, Rosemarie; MacKew, Laura; Davis, Caroline

2017-09-01

To test the prediction that poor decision-making would predict poor eating-related behaviours, which in turn would relate to elevated body mass index (BMI) percentile. Associations among decision-making ability, eating behaviours, and BMI percentile were examined in a sample of 311 healthy male and female adolescents, aged 14-18 years. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed relationships. The predicted model was a good fit to the data and all paths between latent and indicator variables were significant. Impulsive responding significantly predicted poor food choice and overeating. No significant relationships emerged between eating-related variables and BMI percentile. Findings from this study extend the existing research in adults and offer a more comprehensive understanding of factors that may contribute to eating behaviours and weight status in teenagers. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

36 CFR 251.15 - Conditions, rules and regulations to govern exercise of mineral rights reserved in conveyances to...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... prospect for, mine and remove minerals, oil, gas, or other inorganic substances, said reservations shall be... repair, replacement or restoration. (iv) Failure to comply with the terms and conditions of the aforesaid...

Intelligent Information System to support decision making.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Kathrin Rodríguez Llanes

2010-06-01

Full Text Available Making decisions is complicated in a generalized way, the materials and humans resources of the entity we belong to depends on it, such as the fulfillment of its goals. But when the situations are complex, making decisions turns into a very difficult work, due to the great amount of aspects to consider when making the right choice. To make this efficiently the administration must to consult an important volume of information, which generally, is scattered and in any different formats. That’s why appears the need of developing software that crowd together all that information and be capable of, by using powerful search engines and process algorithms improve the good decisions making process. Considering previous explanation, a complete freeware developed product is proposed, this constitutes a generic and multi-platform solution, that using artificial intelligence techniques, specifically the cases based reasoning, gives the possibility to leaders of any institution or organism of making the right choice in any situation.With client-server architecture, this system is consumed from web as a service and it can be perfectly integrated with a management system or the geographic information system to facilitate the business process.

Searching for the Right to Health in the Sustainable Development Agenda Comment on "Rights Language in the Sustainable Development Agenda: Has Right to Health Discourse and Norms Shaped Health Goals?".

Science.gov (United States)

Hawkes, Sarah; Buse, Kent

2016-02-24

The United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Agenda offers an opportunity to realise the right to health for all. The Agenda's "interlinked and integrated" Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) provide the prospect of focusing attention and mobilising resources not just for the provision of health services through universal health coverage (UHC), but also for addressing the underlying social, structural, and political determinants of illness and health inequity. However, achieving the goals' promises will require new mechanisms for inter-sectoral coordination and action, enhanced instruments for rational priority-setting that involve affected population groups, and new approaches to ensuring accountability. Rights-based approaches can inform developments in each of these areas. In this commentary, we build upon a paper by Forman et al and propose that the significance of the SDGs lies in their ability to move beyond a biomedical approach to health and healthcare, and to seize the opportunity for the realization of the right to health in its fullest, widest, most fundamental sense: the right to a health-promoting and health protecting environment for each and every one of us. We argue that realizing the right to health inherent in the SDG Agenda is possible but demands that we seize on a range of commitments, not least those outlined in other goals, and pursue complementary openings in the Agenda - from inclusive policy-making, to novel partnerships, to monitoring and review. It is critical that we do not risk losing the right to health in the rhetoric of the SDGs and ensure that we make good on the promise of leaving no one behind. © 2016 by Kerman University of Medical Sciences.

Some comments on water rights in South Africa

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

N Gabru

2005-01-01

Full Text Available Human life, as with all animal and plant life on the planet, is dependent upon fresh water. Water is not only needed to grow food, generate power and run industries, but it is also needed as a basic part of human life. Human dependency upon water is evident through history, which illustrates that human settlements have been closely linked to the availability and supply of fresh water. Access to the limited water resources in South Africa has been historically dominated by those with access to land and economic power, as a result of which the majority of South Africans have struggled to secure the right to water. Apartheid era legislation governing water did not discriminate directly on the grounds of race, but the racial imbalance in ownership of land resulted in the disproportionate denial to black people of the right to water. Beyond racial categorisations, the rural and poor urban populations were traditionally especially vulnerable in terms of the access to the right. The enactment of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa 1996, brought the South African legal system into a new era, by including a bill of fundamental human rights (Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights makes provision for limited socio-economic rights. Besides making provision for these human rights, the Constitution also makes provision for the establishment of state institutions supporting constitutional democracy. The Constitution has been in operation since May 1996. At this stage, it is important to take stock and measure the success of the implementation of these socio-economic rights. This assessment is important in more ways than one, especially in the light of the fact that many lawyers argued strongly against the inclusion of the second and third generation of human rights in a Bill of Rights. The argument was that these rights are not enforceable in a court of law and that they would create unnecessary expectations of food, shelter, health, water and the

Predictors of food decision making: A systematic interdisciplinary mapping (SIM) review.

Science.gov (United States)

Symmank, Claudia; Mai, Robert; Hoffmann, Stefan; Stok, F Marijn; Renner, Britta; Lien, Nanna; Rohm, Harald

2017-03-01

The number of publications on consumer food decision making and its predictors and correlates has been steadily increasing over the last three decades. Given that different scientific disciplines illuminate this topic from different perspectives, it is necessary to develop an interdisciplinary overview. The aim of this study is to conduct a systematic interdisciplinary mapping (SIM) review by using rapid review techniques to explore the state-of-the-art, and to identify hot topics and research gaps in this field. This interdisciplinary review includes 1,820 publications in 485 different journals and other types of publications from more than ten disciplines (including nutritional science, medicine/health science, psychology, food science and technology, business research, etc.) across a period of 60 years. The identified predictors of food decision making were categorized in line with the recently proposed DONE (Determinants Of Nutrition and Eating behavior) framework. After applying qualitative and quantitative analyses, this study reveals that most of the research emphasizes biological, psychological, and product-related predictors, whereas policy-related influences on food choice are scarcely considered. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The fate and enantioselective behavior of zoxamide during wine-making process.

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Xinglu; Dong, Fengshou; Liu, Na; Cheng, Youpu; Xu, Jun; Liu, Xingang; Wu, Xiaohu; Chen, Zenglong; Zheng, Yongquan

2018-05-15

The fate of zoxamide and its enantiomers were evaluated in detail during wine-making process. The enantiomers of zoxamide were separated and determined by ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography coupled with tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) after each processing procedure including washing, peeling, fermentation and clarification. Significant enantioselectivity was observed in all three treatments with the half-lives of R-zoxamide and S-zoxamide estimated to be 45.6 and 52.9 h in Group A, 45.0 and 52.1 h in Group B, 56.8 and 70.7 h in Group C, respectively. The results indicated that R-zoxamide degraded faster than S-zoxamide during the fermentation process. The processing factors (PFs) of each procedure were generally less than 1, and the PF of the overall process ranged from 0.019 to 0.051, which indicated that the whole process can reduce the zoxamide residue in red and white wine obviously. The results could help facilitate more accurate risk assessments of zoxamide during wine-making process. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Strategies to facilitate shared decision-making about pediatric oncology clinical trial enrollment: A systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Robertson, Eden G; Wakefield, Claire E; Signorelli, Christina; Cohn, Richard J; Patenaude, Andrea; Foster, Claire; Pettit, Tristan; Fardell, Joanna E

2018-07-01

We conducted a systematic review to identify the strategies that have been recommended in the literature to facilitate shared decision-making regarding enrolment in pediatric oncology clinical trials. We searched seven databases for peer-reviewed literature, published 1990-2017. Of 924 articles identified, 17 studies were eligible for the review. We assessed study quality using the 'Mixed-Methods Appraisal Tool'. We coded the results and discussions of papers line-by-line using nVivo software. We categorized strategies thematically. Five main themes emerged: 1) decision-making as a process, 2) individuality of the process; 3) information provision, 4) the role of communication, or 5) decision and psychosocial support. Families should have adequate time to make a decision. HCPs should elicit parents' and patients' preferences for level of information and decision involvement. Information should be clear and provided in multiple modalities. Articles also recommended providing training for healthcare professionals and access to psychosocial support for families. High quality, individually-tailored information, open communication and psychosocial support appear vital in supporting decision-making regarding enrollment in clinical trials. These data will usefully inform future decision-making interventions/tools to support families making clinical trial decisions. A solid evidence-base for effective strategies which facilitate shared decision-making is needed. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Shared decision-making during surgical consultation for gallstones at a safety-net hospital.

Science.gov (United States)

Mueck, Krislynn M; Leal, Isabel M; Wan, Charlie C; Goldberg, Braden F; Saunders, Tamara E; Millas, Stefanos G; Liang, Mike K; Ko, Tien C; Kao, Lillian S

2018-04-01

Understanding patient perspectives regarding shared decision-making is crucial to providing informed, patient-centered care. Little is known about perceptions of vulnerable patients regarding shared decision-making during surgical consultation. The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether a validated tool reflects perceptions of shared decision-making accurately among patients seeking surgical consultation for gallstones at a safety-net hospital. A mixed methods study was conducted in a sample of adult patients with gallstones evaluated at a safety-net surgery clinic between May to July 2016. Semi-structured interviews were conducted after their initial surgical consultation and analyzed for emerging themes. Patients were administered the Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire and Autonomy Preference Scale. Univariate analyses were performed to identify factors associated with shared decision-making and to compare the results of the surveys to those of the interviews. The majority of patients (N = 30) were female (90%), Hispanic (80%), Spanish-speaking (70%), and middle-aged (45.7 ± 16 years). The proportion of patients who perceived shared decision-making was greater in the Shared Decision-Making Questionnaire versus the interviews (83% vs 27%, P decision for operation was not associated with shared decision-making. Contributory factors to this discordance include patient unfamiliarity with shared decision-making, deference to surgeon authority, lack of discussion about different treatments, and confusion between aligned versus shared decisions. Available questionnaires may overestimate shared decision-making in vulnerable patients suggesting the need for alternative or modifications to existing methods. Furthermore, such metrics should be assessed for correlation with patient-reported outcomes, such as satisfaction with decisions and health status. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

The influence of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex on attentional behavior and decision making. A t-DCS study on emotionally vs. functionally designed objects.

Science.gov (United States)

Colombo, Barbara; Balzarotti, Stefania; Mazzucchelli, Nicla

2016-04-01

Prior research has shown that right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex may be crucial in cognitive control of affective impulses during decision making. The present study examines whether modulation of r-DLPFC with transcranial direct current stimulation influences attentional behavior and decision-making in a purchase task requiring participants to choose either emotional/attractive or functional/useful objects. 30 participants were shown sixteen pairs of emotionally or functionally designed products while their eye-movements were recorded. Participants were asked to judge aesthetics and usefulness of each object, and to decide which object of each pair they would buy. Results revealed that participants decided to buy the functionally designed objects more often regardless of condition; however, participants receiving anodal stimulation were faster in decision making. Although stimulation of r-DLPFC did not affect the actual purchasing choice and had little effect on visual exploration during decision making, it influenced perceived usefulness and attractiveness, with temporary inhibition of r-DLPFC leading to evaluate functional objects as less attractive. Finally, anodal stimulation led to judge the objects as more useful. The implications of these results are discussed. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Filling gaps in a large reserve network to address freshwater conservation needs.

Science.gov (United States)

Hermoso, Virgilio; Filipe, Ana Filipa; Segurado, Pedro; Beja, Pedro

2015-09-15

Freshwater ecosystems and biodiversity are among the most threatened at global scale, but efforts for their conservation have been mostly peripheral to terrestrial conservation. For example, Natura 2000, the world's largest network of protected areas, fails to cover adequately the distribution of rare and endangered aquatic species, and lacks of appropriate spatial design to make conservation for freshwater biodiversity effective. Here, we develop a framework to identify a complementary set of priority areas and enhance the conservation opportunities of Natura 2000 for freshwater biodiversity, using the Iberian Peninsula as a case study. We use a systematic planning approach to identify a minimum set of additional areas that would help i) adequately represent all freshwater fish, amphibians and aquatic reptiles at three different target levels, ii) account for key ecological processes derived from riverscape connectivity, and iii) minimize the impact of threats, both within protected areas and propagated from upstream unprotected areas. Addressing all these goals would need an increase in area between 7 and 46%, depending on the conservation target used and strength of connectivity required. These new priority areas correspond to subcatchments inhabited by endangered and range restricted species, as well as additional subcatchments required to improve connectivity among existing protected areas and to increase protection against upstream threats. Our study should help guide future revisions of the design of Natura 2000, while providing a framework to address deficiencies in reserve networks for adequately protecting freshwater biodiversity elsewhere. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Incorporating uncertainty regarding applicability of evidence from meta-analyses into clinical decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Kriston, Levente; Meister, Ramona

2014-03-01

Judging applicability (relevance) of meta-analytical findings to particular clinical decision-making situations remains challenging. We aimed to describe an evidence synthesis method that accounts for possible uncertainty regarding applicability of the evidence. We conceptualized uncertainty regarding applicability of the meta-analytical estimates to a decision-making situation as the result of uncertainty regarding applicability of the findings of the trials that were included in the meta-analysis. This trial-level applicability uncertainty can be directly assessed by the decision maker and allows for the definition of trial inclusion probabilities, which can be used to perform a probabilistic meta-analysis with unequal probability resampling of trials (adaptive meta-analysis). A case study with several fictitious decision-making scenarios was performed to demonstrate the method in practice. We present options to elicit trial inclusion probabilities and perform the calculations. The result of an adaptive meta-analysis is a frequency distribution of the estimated parameters from traditional meta-analysis that provides individually tailored information according to the specific needs and uncertainty of the decision maker. The proposed method offers a direct and formalized combination of research evidence with individual clinical expertise and may aid clinicians in specific decision-making situations. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Awareness of the healthcare system and rights to healthcare in the Colombian population.

Science.gov (United States)

Delgado Gallego, María Eugenia; Vázquez-Navarrete, María Luisa

2013-01-01

To analyze changes in users' awareness of the healthcare system and of their rights to healthcare in Colombia in the last 10 years, as well as the factors that influence users' awareness. We carried out a descriptive study to compare the results of two cross-sectional studies based on two surveys of users of the Colombian healthcare system. The first survey was performed in 2000 and the second in 2010. The municipalities of Tuluá (urban area) and Palmira (rural area) were surveyed. In both surveys, a stratified, multistage probability sample was selected. There were 1497 users in the first sample and 1405 in the second. Changes in awareness of the healthcare system and associated factors in each year were assessed through multivariate logistic regressions. Users' awareness of the healthcare system was limited in 2000 and was significantly lower in 2010, except for that relating to health insurers and providers. In contrast, more than 90% of users in both surveys perceived themselves as having healthcare rights. The factors consistently associated with greater awareness were belonging to a high socioeconomic stratum and having higher education. The most underprivileged users were less likely to be aware of the healthcare system, hampering their ability to make informed decisions and to exercise their health rights. To correct this situation, health institutions and the government should act decisively to reduce social inequalities. Copyright © 2012 SESPAS. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.

Open heart surgery for management of right auricular thrombus related to central venous catheterization.

Science.gov (United States)

Ribeiro, A F; Neto, I S; Maia, I; Dias, C

2018-04-19

Central venous catheters are widely used in critically ill patients; however, they are also associated with increased morbidity and mortality. The literature may underestimate the incidence of catheter-inducible right atrial thrombi that are asymptomatic but potentially life threatening. The recognized risk factors for its development include infections related to the catheter, endothelial injury secondary to mechanical and chemical damage induced by certain medications and infused fluids. The characteristics of the patient and the catheter, such as size, material, type, location and ease of insertion, as well as the duration of placement play an additional role. We report the case of a 38-year-old man, who developed an asymptomatic catheter-inducible right atrial thrombi requiring open heart surgery, after taking a central venous catheter for thirty-five days. The present case highlights existing limitations in making a correct and fast diagnosis, which should be anticipated in patients with multiple risk factors for thrombosis. Given the limited recommendations available, we consider that the most appropriate strategy should be individualized. Copyright © 2018 Sociedad Española de Anestesiología, Reanimación y Terapéutica del Dolor. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Defining minors' abortion rights.

Science.gov (United States)

Rhodes, A M

1988-01-01

The right to abortion is confirmed in the Roe versus Wade case, by the US Supreme Court. It is a fundamental right of privacy but not an absolute right, and must consider state interests. During the first trimester of pregnancy abortion is a decision of the woman and her doctor. During the second trimester of pregnancy the state may control the abortion practice to protect the mothers health, and in the last trimester, it may prohibit abortion, except in cases where the mother's life or health are in danger. The states enacted laws, including one that required parents to give written consent for a unmarried minor's abortion. This law was struck down by the US Court, but laws on notification were upheld as long as there was alternative procedures where the minor's interests are upheld. Many of these law have been challenged successfully, where the minor was judged mature and where it served her best interests. The state must enact laws on parental notification that take into consideration basic rights of the minor woman. Health professionals and workers should be aware of these laws and should encourage the minor to let parents in on the decision making process where possible.

Influence of COMT Val158Met polymorphism on emotional decision-making: A sex-dependent relationship?

Science.gov (United States)

Costa, Danielle de Souza; Bechara, Antoine; de Paula, Jonas Jardim; Romano-Silva, Marco Aurélio; Correa, Humberto; Lage, Guilherme Menezes; Miranda, Débora Marques de; Malloy-Diniz, Leandro Fernandes

2016-12-30

The biological underpinnings of sex-related differences in decision-making are still under-explored. The COMT gene is related to sexual dimorphism and with different choices made under uncertainty, albeit no study has specifically investigated a moderation effect of sex on the association between the COMT gene and the performance on decision-making paradigms. In this study, we investigated the influence of the COMT Val 158 Met polymorphism on Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) performance depending on sex in a healthy adult sample. Participants were 192 healthy adults (84 men and 108 women). The first 40 choices in the IGT were considered decisions under ambiguity and the last 60 choices decisions under risk. To test our moderation hypothesis we used a separate regressions approach. The results revealed a sex-dependent effect of COMT Va l 158 Met polymorphism on decision-making as measured by the IGT. Val/Val women showed the best performance in the last trials of the IGT. Therefore, the COMT Val 158 Met polymorphism may be considered a genetic marker underlying sex differences in decision-making. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Coronial law and practice: a human rights perspective.

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Freckelton, Ian; McGregor, Simon

2014-03-01

Coronial law and practice inevitably impact upon the human rights of those affected by deaths. It is important that such rights be incorporated in how death investigations, up to and including coronial inquests, take place. This article explores the significant impact of the jurisprudence emanating from the European Court of Human Rights, as well as the application of such law by the courts of the United Kingdom and potentially in other countries. It argues that viewing the work of coroners through the lens of human rights is a constructive approach and that, although in the coronial legislation of Australia and New Zealand, many human rights, especially those of family members, and civil liberties are explicitly protected, there remain real advantages in reflecting upon compliance with human rights by death investigation procedures and decision-making.

Fab Labs: Using Technology to Make (Almost) Anything!

Science.gov (United States)

DeNisco, Alison

2012-01-01

Students taking the "How to Make (Almost) Anything" class at Mahtomedi High School in Mahtomedi, Minn. can literally make almost anything--from chess pieces to cups to chairs, and DVD cases to clocks to lampshades--right in their classroom. And besides getting a daily dose of amazement, these students are making history in the first…

Who decides? The decision-making process of juvenile judges concerning minors with mental disorders.

Science.gov (United States)

Cappon, Leen

2016-01-01

Previous research on juvenile judges' decision-making process has neglected the role of the different actors involved in judicial procedures. The decision can be considered as a result of information exchange between the different actors involved. The process of making a decision is equally important as the decision itself, especially when the decision considers minors with mental disorders. The presence and the type of interaction determine the information available to the juvenile judges to make their final decision. The overall aim of this study is to gain insight into the role of all actors, including the juvenile judge, in the juvenile judge's decision-making process in cases relating to minors with mental disorders. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with professional actors (n=32), minors (n=31) and parents (n=17). The findings indicated that the judge's decision is overall the result of an interaction between the juvenile judge, the social services investigator and the youth psychiatrist. The other professional actors, the minors and the parents had only a limited role in the decision-making process. The research concludes that the judge's decision-making process should be based on dialogue, and requires enhanced collaboration between the juvenile court and youth psychiatrists from mental health services. Future decision-making research should pay more attention to the interactions of the actors that guide a juvenile judge's decision. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Satisficing in split-second decision making is characterized by strategic cue discounting.

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Oh, Hanna; Beck, Jeffrey M; Zhu, Pingping; Sommer, Marc A; Ferrari, Silvia; Egner, Tobias

2016-12-01

Much of our real-life decision making is bounded by uncertain information, limitations in cognitive resources, and a lack of time to allocate to the decision process. It is thought that humans overcome these limitations through satisficing, fast but "good-enough" heuristic decision making that prioritizes some sources of information (cues) while ignoring others. However, the decision-making strategies we adopt under uncertainty and time pressure, for example during emergencies that demand split-second choices, are presently unknown. To characterize these decision strategies quantitatively, the present study examined how people solve a novel multicue probabilistic classification task under varying time pressure, by tracking shifts in decision strategies using variational Bayesian inference. We found that under low time pressure, participants correctly weighted and integrated all available cues to arrive at near-optimal decisions. With increasingly demanding, subsecond time pressures, however, participants systematically discounted a subset of the cue information by dropping the least informative cue(s) from their decision making process. Thus, the human cognitive apparatus copes with uncertainty and severe time pressure by adopting a "drop-the-worst" cue decision making strategy that minimizes cognitive time and effort investment while preserving the consideration of the most diagnostic cue information, thus maintaining "good-enough" accuracy. This advance in our understanding of satisficing strategies could form the basis of predicting human choices in high time pressure scenarios. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

[Barriers and facilitators to implementing shared decision-making in oncology: Patient perceptions].

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Ortega-Moreno, M; Padilla-Garrido, N; Huelva-López, L; Aguado-Correa, F; Bayo-Calero, J; Bayo-Lozano, E

To determine, from the point of view of the oncological patient, who made the decision about their treatment, as well as the major barriers and facilitators that enabled Shared Decision Making to be implemented. A cross-sectional, descriptive, sand association study using a self-report questionnaire to selected cancer patients, with casual sampling in different oncology clinics and random time periods. A total of 108 patients provided analysable data. The information was collected on sociodemographic and clinical variables, who made the decision about treatment, and level of agreement or disagreement with various barriers and facilitators. More than one-third (38.1%) of patients claimed to have participated in shared decision making with their doctor. Barriers such as, time, the difficulty of understanding, the paternalism, lack of fluid communication, and having preliminary and often erroneous information influenced the involvement in decision-making. However, to have or not have sufficient tools to aid decision making or the patient's interest to participate had no effect. As regards facilitators, physician motivation, their perception of improvement, and the interest of the patient had a positive influence. The exception was the possibility of financial incentives to doctors. The little, or no participation perceived by cancer patients in decisions about their health makes it necessary to introduce improvements in the health care model to overcome barriers and promote a more participatory attitude in the patient. Copyright © 2017 SECA. Publicado por Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Making sense of information in noisy networks: human communication, gossip, and distortion.

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Laidre, Mark E; Lamb, Alex; Shultz, Susanne; Olsen, Megan

2013-01-21

Information from others can be unreliable. Humans nevertheless act on such information, including gossip, to make various social calculations, thus raising the question of whether individuals can sort through social information to identify what is, in fact, true. Inspired by empirical literature on people's decision-making when considering gossip, we built an agent-based simulation model to examine how well simple decision rules could make sense of information as it propagated through a network. Our simulations revealed that a minimalistic decision-rule 'Bit-wise mode' - which compared information from multiple sources and then sought a consensus majority for each component bit within the message - was consistently the most successful at converging upon the truth. This decision rule attained high relative fitness even in maximally noisy networks, composed entirely of nodes that distorted the message. The rule was also superior to other decision rules regardless of its frequency in the population. Simulations carried out with variable agent memory constraints, different numbers of observers who initiated information propagation, and a variety of network types suggested that the single most important factor in making sense of information was the number of independent sources that agents could consult. Broadly, our model suggests that despite the distortion information is subject to in the real world, it is nevertheless possible to make sense of it based on simple Darwinian computations that integrate multiple sources. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The human right to water and sanitation: reflections on making the system effective

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Obani, P.; Gupta, J.; Bhaduri, A.; Bogardi, J.; Leentvaar, J.; Marx, S.

2014-01-01

The Millenium Development Goal (MDG) on water has been more successful than the MDG on sanitation. Does this have implications for the human right to sanitation? This chapter argues that there are key differences between access to water and sanitation in terms of the legal content of both, the

Stress alters personal moral decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Youssef, Farid F; Dookeeram, Karine; Basdeo, Vasant; Francis, Emmanuel; Doman, Mekaeel; Mamed, Danielle; Maloo, Stefan; Degannes, Joel; Dobo, Linda; Ditshotlo, Phatsimo; Legall, George

2012-04-01

gender differences in moral reasoning. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Double-outlet right ventricle revisited.

Science.gov (United States)

Ebadi, Ameneh; Spicer, Diane E; Backer, Carl L; Fricker, F Jay; Anderson, Robert H

2017-08-01

Double-outlet right ventricle is a form of ventriculoarterial connection. The definition formulated by the International Society for Nomenclature of Paediatric and Congenital Heart Disease is based on hearts with both arterial trunks supported in their greater part by a morphologically right ventricle. Bilateral infundibula and ventricular septal defects are highly debated criteria. This study examines the anatomic controversies surrounding double-outlet right ventricle. We show that hearts with double-outlet right ventricle can have atrioventricular-to-arterial valvular continuity. We emphasize the difference between the interventricular communication and the zone of deficient ventricular septation. The hearts examined were from the University of Florida in Gainesville; Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital, St Petersburg, Fla; and Lurie Children's Hospital, Chicago, Ill. Each specimen had at least 75% of both arterial roots supported by the morphologically right ventricle, with a total of 100 hearts examined. The morphologic method was used to assess anatomic features, including arterial-atrioventricular valvular continuity, subarterial infundibular musculature, and the location of the hole between the ventricles. Most hearts had fibrous continuity between one of the arterial valves and an atrioventricular valve, with bilateral infundibula in 23%, and intact ventricular septum in 5%. Bilateral infundibula are not a defining feature of double-outlet right ventricle, representing only 23% of the specimens in our sample. The interventricular communication can have a posteroinferior muscular rim or extend to become perimembranous (58%). Double-outlet right ventricle can exist with an intact ventricular septum. Copyright © 2017 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery. All rights reserved.

[Right heart failure after pacemaker implantation].

Science.gov (United States)

Gallego Galiana, Juan; López Castellanos, Genoveva; Gioia, Francesca; Ruiz Ortega, Raúl Antonio; Cobo Reinoso, Maria Eugenia; Manzano Espinosa, Luis

2015-06-22

Severe tricuspid regurgitation (TR) secondary to interference pacemaker (PM) cable is a rare cause of progressive right heart failure (HF), which can worsen patient outcomes. We present 3 clinical cases of right HF secondary to TR after PM implantation. In these patients the clinic is right HF, which can appear early, as in our second patient, or after years of implementation of the PM, as in the first and third patients. The diagnosis is confirmed by echocardiography, the most accurate 3D, followed by transesophageal. The 2D transthoracic can not detect it, because it has low sensitivity for TR associated with PM. Medical treatment is always the first choice, since any other procedure carries significant morbidity and mortality. Probably this is a condition that we will diagnose with increasing frequency, because there are more and more patients with devices and, at the same time, the diagnostic tools are improving. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.

Quantum-like model of brain's functioning: decision making from decoherence.

Science.gov (United States)

Asano, Masanari; Ohya, Masanori; Tanaka, Yoshiharu; Basieva, Irina; Khrennikov, Andrei

2011-07-21

We present a quantum-like model of decision making in games of the Prisoner's Dilemma type. By this model the brain processes information by using representation of mental states in a complex Hilbert space. Driven by the master equation the mental state of a player, say Alice, approaches an equilibrium point in the space of density matrices (representing mental states). This equilibrium state determines Alice's mixed (i.e., probabilistic) strategy. We use a master equation in which quantum physics describes the process of decoherence as the result of interaction with environment. Thus our model is a model of thinking through decoherence of the initially pure mental state. Decoherence is induced by the interaction with memory and the external mental environment. We study (numerically) the dynamics of quantum entropy of Alice's mental state in the process of decision making. We also consider classical entropy corresponding to Alice's choices. We introduce a measure of Alice's diffidence as the difference between classical and quantum entropies of Alice's mental state. We see that (at least in our model example) diffidence decreases (approaching zero) in the process of decision making. Finally, we discuss the problem of neuronal realization of quantum-like dynamics in the brain; especially roles played by lateral prefrontal cortex or/and orbitofrontal cortex. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Affective decision making under uncertainty during a plausible aviation task: an fMRI study.

Science.gov (United States)

Causse, Mickaël; Péran, Patrice; Dehais, Frédéric; Caravasso, Chiara Falletta; Zeffiro, Thomas; Sabatini, Umberto; Pastor, Josette

2013-05-01

In aeronautics, plan continuation error (PCE) represents failure to revise a flight plan despite emerging evidence suggesting that it is no longer safe. Assuming that PCE may be associated with a shift from cold to hot reasoning, we hypothesized that this transition may result from a large range of strong negative emotional influences linked with the decision to abort a landing and circle for a repeat attempt, referred to as a "go-around". We investigated this hypothesis by combining functional neuroimaging with an ecologically valid aviation task performed under contextual variation in incentive and situational uncertainty. Our goal was to identify regional brain activity related to the sorts of conservative or liberal decision-making strategies engaged when participants were both exposed to a financial payoff matrix constructed to bias responses in favor of landing acceptance, while they were simultaneously experiencing maximum levels of uncertainty related to high levels of stimulus ambiguity. Combined with the observed behavioral outcomes, our neuroimaging results revealed a shift from cold to hot decision making in response to high uncertainty when participants were exposed to the financial incentive. Most notably, while we observed activity increases in response to uncertainty in many frontal regions such as dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), less overall activity was observed when the reward was combined with uncertainty. Moreover, participants with poor decision making, quantified as a lower discriminability index d', exhibited riskier behavior coupled with lower activity in the right DLPFC. These outcomes suggest a disruptive effect of biased financial incentive and high uncertainty on the rational decision-making neural network, and consequently, on decision relevance. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Animal rights and environmemntal rights in Brazilian Supreme Court

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Fernando Cesar Costa Xavier

2018-01-01

Full Text Available The subject. The article analyzes the arguments of the Federal Supreme Court of Brazil, used in the consideration of disputes concerning animal rights, in comparison with the developments of theorists in this field.The purpose of the article is to justify the necessity of respect for the rights of animals and the “animal dignity” by the courts.The methodology includes formal-legal analysis of courts’ decisions, comparative-legal analysis and synthesis as well as formal-logical analysis of scientific researches in the field of animal rights.The main results and scope of application. It is wrong to claim that the Brazilian Supreme Court decision in “Vaquejada” case (or even in “Farra do Boi” or cockfights cases would be an increase in the process of a supposed recognition of animal rights in the Brazilian constitutional jurisdiction. In such cases, most of the Judges who participated in the trial pondered and reinforced the prevalence of environmental law, including it wildlife protection (and non-submission of the animals to cruelty, pursuant to Art. 225, § 1, VII, of the Brazilian Constitution. In this way, it would have been disregarded the categorical difference between environmental law and animal rights. The Constitution itself encourages confusion between those categories when dealing with the prohibition of animal cruelty in a chapter on the environment (chap. VI. This article argues that the focus on the statement of environmental law, the Supreme Court allows them to be strengthened arguments considered as obstacles to the defenders of animal rights, particularly the anthropocentric argument that the balanced environment is important to make possible to human beings more quality of life. Analyzing the decisions, especially in of Vaquejada and Farra do Boi cases, it appears that points many important analyzed in the theoretical debate about animal rights, such as the notions of “animal dignity” and “flourishing life�

Adult-Onset Type 1 Diabetes: A Qualitative Study of Decision-Making Needs.

Science.gov (United States)

Jull, Janet; Witteman, Holly O; Ferne, Judi; Yoganathan, Manosila; Stacey, Dawn

2016-04-01

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease resulting from insulin deficiency and must be carefully managed to prevent serious health complications. Diabetes education and management strategies usually focus on meeting the decision-making needs of children and their families, but little is known about the decisional needs of people with adult-onset type 1 diabetes. The aim of this study was to explore the diabetes-related decision-making needs of people diagnosed with adult-onset type 1 diabetes. An interpretive descriptive qualitative study was conducted. Participants who self-identified as having adult-onset type 1 diabetes were interviewed using a semistructured interview guide. Transcripts were coded to identify needs, supports and barriers using thematic analysis. Participating in the study were 8 adults (2 men, 6 women), ages 33 to 57, with type 1 diabetes for durations of 1 to 20 or more years. Their decision-making needs are summarized in 6 broad themes: 1) people diagnosed with type 1 diabetes are launched into a process of decision-making; 2) being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes means you will always have to make decisions; 3) knowledge is crucial; 4) personal preferences matter; 5) support is critical for decisions about self-care in type 1 diabetes; 6) living with type 1 diabetes means making very individualized decisions about daily life. The findings describe the sudden and ubiquitous nature of type 1 diabetes decision-making and the need to tailor approaches for making care decisions in type 1 diabetes. People diagnosed with adult-onset type 1 diabetes require access to reliable information, support and opportunities for participation in decision-making. Copyright © 2016 Canadian Diabetes Association. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Implementing Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child in Child Protection Decision-Making: A Critical Analysis of the Challenges and Opportunities for Social Work

Science.gov (United States)

McCafferty, Paul

2017-01-01

One of the most frequently cited principles in the 1989 United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child is Article 12. This article provides a critical analysis of the challenges that child protection social work faces when implementing Article 12 in social work decision-making whilst simultaneously keeping children safe. The article begins…

Response inhibition and impulsive decision-making in sexual offenders against children.

Science.gov (United States)

Turner, Daniel; Laier, Christian; Brand, Matthias; Bockshammer, Tamara; Welsch, Robin; Rettenberger, Martin

2018-05-31

Current theories view impulsivity as an important factor in the explanation of sexual offending. While impulsivity itself is a multidimensional construct, response inhibition and impulsive decision-making are frequently discussed subcomponents. Impulsivity in sexual offenders could be triggered by sexual cues with high emotional significance. The present study compared response inhibition abilities and the degree of impulsive decision-making between 63 child sexual abusers and 63 nonoffending controls. A Go/No-Go task was used to assess response inhibition, while the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) and the Game of Dice Task (GDT) were used for the assessment of decision-making. In contrast to previous studies, modified versions of the Go/No-Go task and the IGT were used, including pictures of the Not Real People-Set depicting nude adults and children. Child sexual abusers showed more deficits in response inhibition in the Go/No-Go task. Furthermore, decision-making was especially impaired by the presence of child images in child sexual abusers with more intense pedophilic sexual interests. In contrast, in the nonoffending controls the presence of preferred sexual cues (pictures of women) improved decision-making performance. No differences in overall GDT performance were found between the groups; however, child sexual abusers chose the riskiest option more frequently than nonoffending controls. In line with theoretical assumptions about the processes underlying sexual offending, child sexual abusers show more deficits in neuropsychological functioning, which may be related to more impulsive behaviors. These impairments could be triggered by the presence of sexually relevant cues. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

RBAC-Matrix-based EMR right management system to improve HIPAA compliance.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Hung-Chang; Chang, Shih-Hsin

2012-10-01

Security control of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) is a mechanism used to manage electronic medical records files and protect sensitive medical records document from information leakage. Researches proposed the Role-Based Access Control(RBAC). However, with the increasing scale of medical institutions, the access control behavior is difficult to have a detailed declaration among roles in RBAC. Furthermore, with the stringent specifications such as the U.S. HIPAA and Canada PIPEDA etc., patients are encouraged to have the right in regulating the access control of his EMR. In response to these problems, we propose an EMR digital rights management system, which is a RBAC-based extension to a matrix organization of medical institutions, known as RBAC-Matrix. With the aim of authorizing the EMR among roles in the organization, RBAC-Matrix also allow patients to be involved in defining access rights of his records. RBAC-Matrix authorizes access control declaration among matrix organizations of medical institutions by using XrML file in association with each EMR. It processes XrML rights declaration file-based authorization of behavior in the two-stage design, called master & servant stage, thus makes the associated EMR to be better protected. RBAC-Matrix will also make medical record file and its associated XrML declaration to two different EMRA(EMR Authorization)roles, namely, the medical records Document Creator (DC) and the medical records Document Right Setting (DRS). Access right setting, determined by the DRS, is cosigned by the patient, thus make the declaration of rights and the use of EMR to comply with HIPAA specifications.

When Organizational Identification Elicits Moral Decision-Making:A Matter of the Right Climate

OpenAIRE

Gils, Suzanne Van; A HOGG, Michael; Van Quaquebeke, N; Van Knippenberg, Daniel L

2015-01-01

textabstractTo advance current knowledge on ethical decision-making in organizations, we integrate two perspectives that have thus far developed independently: the organizational identification perspective and the ethical climate perspective. We illustrate the interaction between these perspectives in two studies (Study 1, N = 144, US sample; and Study 2, N = 356, UK sample), in which we presented participants with moral business dilemmas. Specifically, we found that organizational identifica...

Assessing the Decision-Making Capacity of Terminally Ill Patients with Cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Kolva, Elissa; Rosenfeld, Barry; Saracino, Rebecca

2018-05-01

Despite the clinical, ethical, and legal magnitude of end-of-life decision-making, the capacity of terminally ill patients to make the medical decisions they often face is largely unknown. In practice, clinicians are responsible for determining when their patients are no longer competent to make treatment decisions, yet the accuracy of these assessments is unclear. The purpose of this study was to explore decision-making capacity and its assessment in terminally ill cancer patients. Fifty-five patients with advanced cancer receiving inpatient palliative care and 50 healthy adults were administered the MacArthur Competence Assessment Tool for Treatment (MacCAT-T) to evaluate decision-making capacity with regard to the four most commonly used legal standards: Choice, Understanding, Appreciation, and Reasoning. Participants made a hypothetical treatment decision about whether to accept artificial nutrition and hydration for treatment of cachexia. Participants' physicians independently rated their decision-making capacity. Terminally ill participants were significantly more impaired than healthy adults on all MacCAT-T subscales. Most terminally ill participants were able to express a treatment choice (85.7%), but impairment was common on the Understanding (44.2%), Appreciation (49.0%), and Reasoning (85.4%) subscales. Agreement between physician-rated capacity and performance on the MacCAT-T subscales was poor. The use of the MacCAT-T revealed high rates of decisional impairment in terminally ill participants. Participants' physicians infrequently detected impairment identified by the MacCAT-T. The findings from the present study reinforce the need for engagement in advance care planning for patients with advanced cancer. Copyright © 2018 American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Improving children's affective decision making in the Children's Gambling Task.

Science.gov (United States)

Andrews, Glenda; Moussaumai, Jennifer

2015-11-01

Affective decision making was examined in 108 children (3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds) using the Children's Gambling Task (CGT). Children completed the CGT and then responded to awareness questions. Children in the binary_experience and binary_experience+awareness (not control) conditions first completed two simpler versions. Children in the binary_experience+awareness condition also responded to questions about relational components of the simpler versions. Experience with simpler versions facilitated decision making in 4- and 5-year-olds, but 3-year-olds' advantageous choices declined across trial blocks in the binary_experience and control conditions. Responding to questions about relational components further benefited the 4- and 5-year-olds. The 3-year-olds' advantageous choices on the final block were at chance level in the binary_experience+awareness condition but were below chance level in the other conditions. Awareness following the CGT was strongly correlated with advantageous choices and with age. Awareness was demonstrated by 5-year-olds (all conditions) and 4-year-olds (binary_experience and binary_experience+awareness) but not by 3-year-olds. The findings demonstrate the importance of complexity and conscious awareness in cognitive development. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

77 FR 21846 - Reserve Requirements of Depository Institutions: Reserves Simplification

Science.gov (United States)

2012-04-12

... Requirements of Depository Institutions: Reserves Simplification AGENCY: Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. ACTION: Final rule. SUMMARY: The Board is amending Regulation D, Reserve Requirements of Depository Institutions, to simplify the administration of reserve requirements. The final rule creates a...

Right atrium positioning for exposure of right pulmonary veins during off-pump atrial fibrillation ablation.

Science.gov (United States)

Suwalski, Grzegorz; Emery, Robert; Mróz, Jakub; Kaczejko, Kamil; Gryszko, Leszek; Cwetsch, Andrzej; Skrobowski, Andrzej

2017-06-01

Concomitant surgical ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF) is recommended for patients undergoing off-pump coronary revascularization in the presence of this arrhythmia. Achievement of optimal visualization of pulmonary veins while maintaining stable haemodynamic conditions is crucial for proper completion of the ablation procedure. This study evaluates the safety and feasibility of right atrial positioning using a suction-based cardiac positioner as opposed to compressive manoeuvres for exposure during off-pump surgical ablation for AF. Thirty-four consecutive patients underwent pulmonary vein isolation, ganglionated plexi ablation and left atrial appendage occlusion during off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting. Right atrial suction positioning was used to visualize right pulmonary veins. Safety and feasibility end points were analysed intraoperatively and in the early postoperative course. In all patients, right atrial positioning created optimal conditions to complete transverse and oblique sinus blunt dissection, correct placement of a bipolar ablation probe, detection and ablation of ganglionated plexi and conduction block assessment. In all patients, this entire right-sided ablation procedure was completed with a single exposure manoeuvre. Feasibility end points were achieved in all study patients. This report documents the safety and feasibility of right atrial exposure using a suction-based cardiac positioner to complete ablation for AF concomitant with off-pump coronary revascularization. This technique may be widely adopted to create stable haemodynamic conditions and optimal visualization of the right pulmonary veins. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery. All rights reserved.

Making electronic health records support quality management: A narrative review.

Science.gov (United States)

Triantafillou, Peter

2017-08-01

Since the 1990s many hospitals in the OECD countries have introduced electronic health record (EHR) systems. A number of studies have examined the factors impinging on EHR implementation. Others have studied the clinical efficacy of EHR. However, only few studies have explored the (intermediary) factors that make EHR systems conducive to quality management (QM). Undertake a narrative review of existing studies in order to identify and discuss the factors conducive to making EHR support three dimensions of QM: clinical outcomes, managerial monitoring and cost-effectiveness. A narrative review of Web of Science, Cochrane, EBSCO, ProQuest, Scopus and three Nordic research databases. most studies do not specify the type of EHR examined. 39 studies were identified for analysis. 10 factors were found to be conducive to make EHR support QM. However, the contribution of EHR to the three specific dimensions of QM varied substantially. Most studies (29) included clinical outcomes. However, only half of these reported EHR to have a positive impact. Almost all the studies (36) dealt with the ability of EHR to enhance managerial monitoring of clinical activities, the far majority of which showed a positive relationship. Finally, only five dealt with cost-effectiveness of which two found positive effects. The findings resonates well with previous reviews, though two factors making EHR support QM seem new, namely: political goals and strategies, and integration of guidelines for clinical conduct. Lacking EHR type specification and diversity in study method imply that there is a strong need for further research on the factors that may make EHR may support QM. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Making people be healthy.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkinson, Timothy Martin

2009-09-01

How are we supposed to decide the rights and wrongs of banning smoking in bars, restricting adverts for junk food, nagging people into being screened for cancers, or banning the sale of party pills? The aim of this paper is to think through the political ethics of trying to make people healthier through influencing or restricting their choices. This paper covers: (1) Paternalism. What it is, what it assumes. (2) The place of health in well-being, and how this makes paternalism problematic. (3) The mistakes people make in acting in their own interests, and the implications for pro-health paternalism. (4) Autonomy objections to paternalism. The paper (5) finishes on a note of hope, by commending the currently fashionable libertarian paternalism: trying to have one's carrot cake and eat it too. A persistent theme is that thinking sensibly about making people healthier needs subtlety, not broad, ringing declarations.

A defense of peace as a human right | Hayden | South African ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

Recent years have seen increased debate about the contributions that human rights make to the creation of conditions of peace. However, less attention has been paid to the claim that peace itself is a genuine human right. Whereas some critics argue that a focus on rights results in an overly formal juridical account of ...

Reviewing model application to support animal health decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Singer, Alexander; Salman, Mo; Thulke, Hans-Hermann

2011-04-01

Animal health is of societal importance as it affects human welfare, and anthropogenic interests shape decision making to assure animal health. Scientific advice to support decision making is manifold. Modelling, as one piece of the scientific toolbox, is appreciated for its ability to describe and structure data, to give insight in complex processes and to predict future outcome. In this paper we study the application of scientific modelling to support practical animal health decisions. We reviewed the 35 animal health related scientific opinions adopted by the Animal Health and Animal Welfare Panel of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Thirteen of these documents were based on the application of models. The review took two viewpoints, the decision maker's need and the modeller's approach. In the reviewed material three types of modelling questions were addressed by four specific model types. The correspondence between tasks and models underpinned the importance of the modelling question in triggering the modelling approach. End point quantifications were the dominating request from decision makers, implying that prediction of risk is a major need. However, due to knowledge gaps corresponding modelling studies often shed away from providing exact numbers. Instead, comparative scenario analyses were performed, furthering the understanding of the decision problem and effects of alternative management options. In conclusion, the most adequate scientific support for decision making - including available modelling capacity - might be expected if the required advice is clearly stated. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Adolescent psychological development, parenting styles, and pediatric decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Partridge, Brian C

2010-10-01

The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child risks harm to adolescents insofar as it encourages not only poor decision making by adolescents but also parenting styles that will have an adverse impact on the development of mature decision-making capacities in them. The empirical psychological and neurophysiological data weigh against augmenting and expression of the rights of children. Indeed, the data suggest grounds for expanding parental authority, not limiting its scope. At the very least, any adequate appreciation of the moral claims regarding the authority of parents with respect to the decision-making capacity of adolescents needs to be set within an understanding of the psychological and neurophysiological facts regarding the development of adolescent decision-making capacity.

PUBLIC PARTICIPATION AND WATER USE RIGHTS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Phillipa King

2015-11-01

Full Text Available The conservation and protection of water resources is paramount in the safeguarding of environmental rights and the attainment of sustainable development in South Africa. Although the National Water Act 36 of 1998 (the NWA seeks to provide a framework for ensuring the sustainable use of water resources, its application has been hindered by capacity and enforcement constraints, a legacy of water pollution (primarily as a result of mining and industrial activities, and poor resource management. To aggravate this situation, the difficulties in effectively implementing the NWA are exacerbated by inadequate public participation in water use licensing processes. Public participation in environmental decision-making has increasingly received recognition for its role in ensuring administrative justice and the protection of environmental rights. While environmental legislation (in many cases sets out procedures for ensuring that public views are taken into account in environmental decision-making processes, the judiciary has also recognised the pivotal role of public engagement in ensuring administrative justice where environmental rights are at stake. Sound public participation practices play an important role in identifying issues requiring consideration in the context of environmental assessment processes, as well as in ensuring that communities are empowered to monitor, identify and report on potential contraventions of environmental legislation. Water is a vital natural resource which is under significant pressure in South Africa. In the circumstances, effective public participation is crucial to ensuring the protection and equitable use of water resources. It follows that provision for comprehensive public engagement in water use licensing processes is integral to ensuring the sustainable management of water resources. While provision is made in the NWA for public engagement in the context of water use licensing processes, such participation is

OPINIONS ON INTERNATIONAL RESERVES MANAGEMENT - POST CRISIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

MERCEA (HANDRO PATRICIA AMALIA

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The recent crisis demonstrated once again the importance of maintaining an adequate level of the international reserves as part of the defense of a country against the shocks internationally transmitted. Liquidity buffers aided the good functioning of financial systems, and allowed countries to cope with sudden foreign capital stops or to manage massive outflows without facing a costly crisis. This logic has been strengthened in the context of the crisis from 2008, when countries with lots of reserves, such as China or Brazil, came through better than those with lower liquid assets. Economists have argued that developing countries need reserves mainly to cover urgent imports and short-term debts. The current level of global reserves far exceeds this traditional postulate. In this context, it is necessary to rethink the adequacy of the level of constituting the reserves portfolio. The dominance of the dollar as a reserve currency, another important feature of the current reserves portfolio, makes the holders become vulnerable to the monetary policy of FED. A greater flexibility of the currency will also be needed. The often called the “trilemma” of international economics dictates: when capital is mobile, countries must choose between fixing their currencies and controlling their domestic monetary conditions. They cannot do both. The domestic currency inflexibility will ultimately lead to asset bubbles and inflation. The pressure of capital flows will depend on the prospects of rich economies, especially America’s. The increment of emerging economies availability to allow the exchange rate to move will depend on what China does - and China may remain forever linked to the dollar. The emergence of a global currency that constitute a genuine means of exchange or the use of cross-border multifaceted cash pools common to IMF members would reduce systemic risks. International regulations for countries with persistent trade surpluses could be a

Disrupting the right prefrontal cortex alters moral judgement.

Science.gov (United States)

Tassy, Sébastien; Oullier, Olivier; Duclos, Yann; Coulon, Olivier; Mancini, Julien; Deruelle, Christine; Attarian, Sharam; Felician, Olivier; Wicker, Bruno

2012-03-01

Humans daily face social situations involving conflicts between competing moral decision. Despite a substantial amount of studies published over the past 10 years, the respective role of emotions and reason, their possible interaction, and their behavioural expression during moral evaluation remains an unresolved issue. A dualistic approach to moral evaluation proposes that the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (rDLPFc) controls emotional impulses. However, recent findings raise the possibility that the right DLPFc processes emotional information during moral decision making. We used repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to transiently disrupt rDLPFc activity before measuring decision making in the context of moral dilemmas. Results reveal an increase of the probability of utilitarian responses during objective evaluation of moral dilemmas in the rTMS group (compared to a SHAM one). This suggests that the right DLPFc function not only participates to a rational cognitive control process, but also integrates emotions generated by contextual information appraisal, which are decisive for response selection in moral judgements. © The Author (2011). Published by Oxford University Press.

The illusion of handy wins: Problem gambling, chasing, and affective decision-making.

Science.gov (United States)

Nigro, Giovanna; Ciccarelli, Maria; Cosenza, Marina

2018-01-01

Chasing losses is a behavioral marker and a diagnostic criterion for gambling disorder. It consists in continuing gambling to recoup previous losses. Although chasing has been recognized playing a central role in gambling disorder, research on this topic is relatively scarce, and it remains unclear whether chasing affects decision-making in behavioral tasks in which participants gain or loss some money. Even if several studies found that the more the gambling involvement, the poorer the decision-making, to date no research investigated the role of chasing in decision-making. The study aimed to first investigate the relation between chasing and decision-making in adult gamblers. One hundred and four VLT players were administered the South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), a computerized task measuring chasing, and the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). Correlation analysis showed that the higher the SOGS scores, the higher the propensity to chase, and the poorer the decision-making performance. Regression analysis revealed that chasing propensity and gambling severity predicted IGT performance. Mediation analysis indicated that the association between gambling severity and poor decision-making is mediated by chasing. Gambling severity was assessed by means of a self-report measure. The generalizability of findings is limited, since the study focused only on VLT players. This study provides the first evidence that chasing, along with gambling severity, affects decision-making, at least in behavioral tasks involving money. Since chasers and non-chasers could be two different sub-types of gamblers, treatment protocols should take into account the additive role of chasing in gambling disorder. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Signals from the oil market. The right strategy at the right moment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Correlje, A.; Van Geuns, L.

2006-04-01

The authors discuss the perceptions of the international oil market which are formed in the light of the current high oil prices, tight supplies, rapid demand growth, geopolitical turbulence and diminishing reserves. The authors argue that the world is not running out of oil in the near and medium term, albeit that substantial investments and continuing technological innovations are required to increase the world oil production capacity. The problem signalled is that observers and policy makers are tempted to mix up their interpretation of short term events and possible longer term developments. Market developments should be evaluated in the context of the time scale at which they occur. An accumulation of ad hoc policies, unrelated to the nature of the problem and timing, may have disastrous consequences for the oil market and energy supply. Over the longer term it is hard to make predictions about the interaction of specific technological, economic and political developments. Given these uncertainties, policy makers should strive for a type of energy policy making that is consistent with mid-term objectives. [nl

Individual differences in decision making by foraging hummingbirds.

Science.gov (United States)

Morgan, Kate V; Hurly, T Andrew; Healy, Susan D

2014-11-01

For both humans and animals preference for one option over others can be influenced by the context in which the options occur. In animals, changes in preference could be due to comparative decision-making or to changes in the energy state of the animal when making decisions. We investigated which of these possibilities better explained the response of wild hummingbirds to the addition of a decoy option to a set of two options by presenting Rufous hummingbirds (Selasphorus rufus) with a foraging experiment with two treatments. In each treatment the birds were presented with a binary choice between two options and a trinary choice with three options. In treatment one the binary choice was between a volume option and a concentration option, whereas in treatment two the same volume option was presented alongside an alternative concentration option. In the trinary choice, birds were presented with the same options as in the binary choice plus one of two inferior options. Birds changed their preferences when a poorer option was added to the choice set: birds increased their preference for the same option when in the presence of either decoy. Which option differed across individuals and the changes in preference were not readily explained by either energy maximisation or the decoy effect. The consistency in response within individuals, however, would suggest that the individual itself brings an extra dimension to context-dependent decision-making. This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Cognition in the wild. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Does the instantaneous wave-free ratio approximate the fractional flow reserve?

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Johnson, Nils P.; Kirkeeide, Richard L.; Asrress, Kaleab N.; Fearon, William F.; Lockie, Timothy; Marques, Koen M. J.; Pyxaras, Stylianos A.; Rolandi, M. Cristina; van 't Veer, Marcel; de Bruyne, Bernard; Piek, Jan J.; Pijls, Nico H. J.; Redwood, Simon; Siebes, Maria; Spaan, Jos A. E.; Gould, K. Lance

2013-01-01

This study sought to examine the clinical performance of and theoretical basis for the instantaneous wave-free ratio (iFR) approximation to the fractional flow reserve (FFR). Recent work has proposed iFR as a vasodilation-free alternative to FFR for making mechanical revascularization decisions. Its

Ambiguity aversion in schizophrenia: An fMRI study of decision-making under risk and ambiguity.

Science.gov (United States)

Fujino, Junya; Hirose, Kimito; Tei, Shisei; Kawada, Ryosaku; Tsurumi, Kosuke; Matsukawa, Noriko; Miyata, Jun; Sugihara, Genichi; Yoshihara, Yujiro; Ideno, Takashi; Aso, Toshihiko; Takemura, Kazuhisa; Fukuyama, Hidenao; Murai, Toshiya; Takahashi, Hidehiko

2016-12-01

When making decisions in everyday life, we often have to choose between uncertain outcomes. Economic studies have demonstrated that healthy people tend to prefer options with known probabilities (risk) than those with unknown probabilities (ambiguity), which is referred to as "ambiguity aversion." However, it remains unclear how patients with schizophrenia behave under ambiguity, despite growing evidence of their altered decision-making under uncertainty. In this study, combining economic tools and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), we assessed the attitudes toward risk/ambiguity and investigated the neural correlates during decision-making under risk/ambiguity in schizophrenia. Although no significant difference in attitudes under risk was observed, patients with schizophrenia chose ambiguity significantly more often than the healthy controls. Attitudes under risk and ambiguity did not correlate across patients with schizophrenia. Furthermore, unlike in the healthy controls, activation of the left lateral orbitofrontal cortex was not increased during decision-making under ambiguity compared to under risk in schizophrenia. These results suggest that ambiguity aversion, a well-established subjective bias, is attenuated in patients with schizophrenia, highlighting the need to distinguish between risk and ambiguity when assessing decision-making under these situations. Our findings, comprising important clinical implications, contribute to improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying altered decision-making in patients with schizophrenia. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Is exercise good for the right ventricle? Concepts for health and disease.

Science.gov (United States)

La Gerche, André; Claessen, Guido

2015-04-01

There is substantial evidence supporting the prescription of exercise training in patients with left-sided heart disease, but data on the effects of exercise are far more limited for conditions that primarily affect the right ventricle. There is evolving evidence that right ventricular (RV) function is of critical importance to circulatory function during exercise. Even in healthy individuals with normal pulmonary vascular function, the hemodynamic load on the right ventricle increases relatively more during exercise than that of the left ventricle, and this disproportionate load is far greater in patients with pulmonary hypertension. Exercise-induced increases in pulmonary artery pressures can exceed RV contractile reserve (so-called arterioventricular uncoupling), resulting in attenuated cardiac output and exercise intolerance. In this review, we explore the spectrum of RV reserve-from transient RV dysfunction observed in athletes after extreme bouts of intense endurance exercise to RV failure with minimal exertion in patients with advanced pulmonary hypertension. Recent advances and novel approaches to echocardiographic and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging have provided more accurate means of assessing the right ventricle and pulmonary circulation during exercise such that quantification of exercise reserve may provide a valuable means of assessing prognosis and response to therapies. We discuss the potential benefits and risks of exercise training in both health and disease while recognizing the need for prospective studies that assess the long-term efficacy and safety of exercise interventions in patients with pulmonary vascular and RV pathologic conditions. Copyright © 2015 Canadian Cardiovascular Society. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Shared decision making in endocrinology: present and future directions.

Science.gov (United States)

Rodriguez-Gutierrez, Rene; Gionfriddo, Michael R; Ospina, Naykky Singh; Maraka, Spyridoula; Tamhane, Shrikant; Montori, Victor M; Brito, Juan P

2016-08-01

available evidence, however, endocrinologists can now start to practice shared decision making, partner with their patients, and use their expertise to formulate treatment plans that reflect patient preferences and are more likely to fit into the context of patients' lives. In this Personal View, we describe shared decision making, the evidence behind the approach, and why and how both endocrinologists and their patients could benefit from this approach. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Culture and medical decision making: Healthcare consumer perspectives in Japan and the United States.

Science.gov (United States)

Alden, Dana L; Friend, John M; Lee, Angela Y; de Vries, Marieke; Osawa, Ryosuke; Chen, Qimei

2015-12-01

Two studies identified core value influences on medical decision-making processes across and within cultures. In Study 1, Japanese and American adults reported desired levels of medical decision-making influence across conditions that varied in seriousness. Cultural antecedents (interdependence, independence, and power distance) were also measured. In Study 2, American adults reviewed a colorectal cancer screening decision aid. Decision preparedness was measured along with interdependence, independence, and desire for medical information. In Study 1, higher interdependence predicted stronger desire for decision-making information in both countries, but was significantly stronger in Japan. The path from information desire to decision-making influence desire was significant only in Japan. The independence path to desire for decision-making influence was significant only in the United States. Power distance effects negatively predicted desire for decision-making influence only in the United States. For Study 2, high (low) interdependents and women (men) in the United States felt that a colorectal cancer screening decision aid helped prepare them more (less) for a medical consultation. Low interdependent men were at significantly higher risk for low decision preparedness. Study 1 suggests that Japanese participants may tend to view medical decision-making influence as an interdependent, information sharing exchange, whereas American respondents may be more interested in power sharing that emphasizes greater independence. Study 2 demonstrates the need to assess value influences on medical decision-making processes within and across cultures and suggests that individually tailored versions of decision aids may optimize decision preparedness. (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

The right brain is dominant in psychotherapy.

Science.gov (United States)

Schore, Allan N

2014-09-01

This article discusses how recent studies of the right brain, which is dominant for the implicit, nonverbal, intuitive, holistic processing of emotional information and social interactions, can elucidate the neurobiological mechanisms that underlie the relational foundations of psychotherapy. Utilizing the interpersonal neurobiological perspective of regulation theory, I describe the fundamental role of the early developing right brain in relational processes, throughout the life span. I present interdisciplinary evidence documenting right brain functions in early attachment processes, in emotional communications within the therapeutic alliance, in mutual therapeutic enactments, and in therapeutic change processes. This work highlights the fact that the current emphasis on relational processes is shared by, cross-fertilizing, and indeed transforming both psychology and neuroscience, with important consequences for clinical psychological models of psychotherapeutic change. PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved.

High technology and civil rights

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lerche, P.

1982-01-01

Court decision reflect the widely felt lack of clarity about the present legal situation in the field of high technology. This confusion is also due to the fact that this legal situation is surrounded by civil rights constellations, which have more and more eroded the contours of our legal system in recent years: Today, civil rights are no longer specific, well-definable bulwarks for the citizen, but are more and more frequently interpreted by the supreme courts as sources of procedural requirements with more or less certain often vague consequences. This shifting of the accent in civil rights towards procedural matters is due to an innate logical necessity, however: The same civil right considered in the same situation, e.g., in planning for high technology, may give rise to very different, even contradictory individual claims. Therefore, one of the main modern objectives of civil rights becoming more and more apparent is the need to reconcile conflicting positions, which makes civil rights a driving force in balancing interests in the easiest possible way. Yet, one of the main deficiencies in this rapidly growing procedural approach is the one-sidedness often to be found as a result of isolated, punctual actions. This misses the objective of achieving adequate harmonization. As examples of such one-sided, isolated civil rights approaches, legal opinions are cited on the so-called public participation (possibility to object for those concerned) in the licensing procedures under the German Atomic Energy Act and for protection against environmental impacts. Quity rightly, this participation of the public is interpreted as an advance protection of civil rights. However, its consequences quite often are exaggerated. (orig.) [de

Getting the right training and job.

Science.gov (United States)

Deschamps, Claude

2011-08-01

The authors discuss the factors to be considered in selecting locations in which to train and to practice, and in conducting successful interviews and site visits. The advantages and disadvantages of different types of surgical practice (ie, solo vs group) are also reviewed, as are issues surrounding negotiations related to contracts, benefits, and covenants. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Rights

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Buhmann, Karin

2006-01-01

rather than public regulation. The UN Global Compact and the UN Norms on human rights responsibilities for transnational and other corporations are discussed as examples of changes in international UN based regulation of corporations in relation to CSR topics, and as examples of network governance......Taking its point of departure in the aims of the United Nations, the article discusses challenges to international law making and the UN in the relatively immediate future in view of the increasing role and influence of corporations. This is done addressing challenges posed by globalisation......, in particular with regard to the appropriateness of past and present ideas of duty holders, modes of regulation, and law making, to deliver the aims of the UN; International law making and actors in this process; and a changing character of law and legal regulation, towards deregulation and private regulation...

A novel framework for improvement of road accidents considering decision-making styles of drivers in a large metropolitan area.

Science.gov (United States)

Azadeh, Ali; Zarrin, Mansour; Hamid, Mehdi

2016-02-01

Road accidents can be caused by different factors such as human factors. Quality of the decision-making process of drivers could have a considerable impact on preventing disasters. The main objective of this study is the analysis of factors affecting road accidents by considering the severity of accidents and decision-making styles of drivers. To this end, a novel framework is proposed based on data envelopment analysis (DEA) and statistical methods (SMs) to assess the factors affecting road accidents. In this study, for the first time, dominant decision-making styles of drivers with respect to severity of injuries are identified. To show the applicability of the proposed framework, this research employs actual data of more than 500 samples in Tehran, Iran. The empirical results indicate that the flexible decision style is the dominant style for both minor and severe levels of accident injuries. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The interrogation decision-making model: A general theoretical framework for confessions.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Yueran; Guyll, Max; Madon, Stephanie

2017-02-01

This article presents a new model of confessions referred to as the interrogation decision-making model . This model provides a theoretical umbrella with which to understand and analyze suspects' decisions to deny or confess guilt in the context of a custodial interrogation. The model draws upon expected utility theory to propose a mathematical account of the psychological mechanisms that not only underlie suspects' decisions to deny or confess guilt at any specific point during an interrogation, but also how confession decisions can change over time. Findings from the extant literature pertaining to confessions are considered to demonstrate how the model offers a comprehensive and integrative framework for organizing a range of effects within a limited set of model parameters. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

[French law related to patient's rights and end of life: pediatric intensive care unit's health professionals' opinions].

Science.gov (United States)

de Saint Blanquat, L; Cremer, R; Elie, C; Lesage, F; Dupic, L; Hubert, P

2014-01-01

To identify the knowledge of caregivers of pediatric intensive care units (PICUs) on the French law related to patients' rights and end of life, their views on withholding/withdrawing life-sustaining treatment (WWLST) decisions, and their feelings about how these decisions were made and implemented. A multicenter survey in 24 French PICUs during the fourth trimester 2010. One thousand three hundred and thirty-nine professional healthcare workers (1005 paramedics and 334 physicians) responded. Over 85% of caregivers had good knowledge of the WWLST decision-making processes required by law. More than 80% of caregivers accepted mechanical ventilation, hemodiafiltration, or hemodynamic support withdrawal or withholding. Nevertheless, the withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration generated reluctance or opposition for the majority of respondents. While paramedics' participation in the decision-making process was deemed necessary by all caregivers, paramedics found more often than physicians that they were insufficiently involved. The quality of end-of-life care was judged very positively by caregivers. The answers on how WWLST was applied suggest very different interpretations of the law. Some caregivers respect the principles of palliative care as stated in the public health code and 40% of doctors and 64% of caregivers consider it "acceptable" to hasten death if resulting from a collaborative decision-making process. This study is the first to show that caregivers of French PICUs have good knowledge of the French law concerning the end of life. Yet, there is still confusion about the limits of practice during the end-of-life period. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

Regulation of experienced and anticipated regret in daily decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Bjälkebring, Pär; Västfjäll, Daniel; Svenson, Ola; Slovic, Paul

2016-04-01

Decisions were sampled from 108 participants during 8 days using a web-based diary method. Each day participants rated experienced regret for a decision made, as well as forecasted regret for a decision to be made. Participants also indicated to what extent they used different strategies to prevent or regulate regret. Participants regretted 30% of decisions and forecasted regret in 70% of future decisions, indicating both that regret is relatively prevalent in daily decisions but also that experienced regret was less frequent than forecasted regret. In addition, a number of decision-specific regulation and prevention strategies were successfully used by the participants to minimize regret and negative emotions in daily decision making. Overall, these results suggest that regulation and prevention of regret are important strategies in many of our daily decisions. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Affirmative Action: Reservation Seats untuk Perempuan di Parlemen India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Evi Yunita Kurniaty

2015-12-01

Full Text Available The study aims to help us understand and analyze women's efforts in the policy-making process to increase their political participation in the constitutional and electoral processes. We can also see the extent to which the values rooted in the patriarchal culture in a society and what can be done and reduce them. Affirmative action is carried out in India by applying the system of reservation seats for women in the Indian Parliament. This is done in India is proven to increase the number of women in the Indian Parliament. By the way there are quotas for women as a strategy for accessing the political arena has growing support among MPs. In this study, Indonesia could get a reservation seats of learning about the system is done. To increase the representation in the "area" is very difficult to be touched by a quota system which is run now, it can be done with reservation seats quota to ensure women's representation in parliament.

Searching for the Right to Health in the Sustainable Development Agenda; Comment on “Rights Language in the Sustainable Development Agenda: Has Right to Health Discourse and Norms Shaped Health Goals?”

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah Hawkes

2016-05-01

Full Text Available The United Nations (UN Sustainable Development Agenda offers an opportunity to realise the right to health for all. The Agenda’s “interlinked and integrated” Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs provide the prospect of focusing attention and mobilising resources not just for the provision of health services through universal health coverage (UHC, but also for addressing the underlying social, structural, and political determinants of illness and health inequity. However, achieving the goals’ promises will require new mechanisms for inter-sectoral coordination and action, enhanced instruments for rational priority-setting that involve affected population groups, and new approaches to ensuring accountability. Rights-based approaches can inform developments in each of these areas. In this commentary, we build upon a paper by Forman et al and propose that the significance of the SDGs lies in their ability to move beyond a biomedical approach to health and healthcare, and to seize the opportunity for the realization of the right to health in its fullest, widest, most fundamental sense: the right to a healthpromoting and health protecting environment for each and every one of us. We argue that realizing the right to health inherent in the SDG Agenda is possible but demands that we seize on a range of commitments, not least those outlined in other goals, and pursue complementary openings in the Agenda – from inclusive policy-making, to novel partnerships, to monitoring and review. It is critical that we do not risk losing the right to health in the rhetoric of the SDGs and ensure that we make good on the promise of leaving no one behind.

Reported Influences on Restaurant-Type Food Selection Decision Making in a Grocery Store Chain.

Science.gov (United States)

Bachman, Jessica Lynne; Arigo, Danielle

2018-06-01

To examine food decision-making priorities for restaurant-type foods at grocery stores and determine whether adding calorie information, as required by federal menu labeling laws, affected decision-making priorities. Natural experiment: intervention and control groups with baseline and follow-up. Regional grocery store chain with 9 locations. Participants (n = 393; mean age, 54.8 ± 15.1 years) were primarily women (71%) and Caucasian (95%). Data were collected before and after calorie information was added to restaurant-type foods at 4 intervention locations. Primary influencers of food selection decision making for restaurant-type foods and frequency of use of nutrition information. Quantitative analysis examined the top 3 influencers of food selections and chi-square goodness of fit test determined whether the calorie labeling intervention changed food decision-making priorities. Qualitative data were used to describe responses. Taste, cost, and convenience were the most frequently reported influencers of restaurant-type food selections; 20% of participants rated calories as influential. Calorie labeling did not affect food selection decision making; 16% of participants in intervention stores noticed calorie labels. Qualitative explanations confirmed these findings. Menu labeling laws increase access to calorie information; however, use of this information is limited. Additional interventions are needed to encourage healthier restaurant-type food selections in grocery stores. Copyright © 2018 Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effective follow-up consultations: the importance of patient-centered communication and shared decision making.

Science.gov (United States)

Brand, Paul L P; Stiggelbout, Anne M

2013-12-01

Paediatricians spend a considerable proportion of their time performing follow-up visits for children with chronic conditions, but they rarely receive specific training on how best to perform such consultations. The traditional method of running a follow-up consultation is based on the doctor's agenda, and is problem-oriented. Patients and parents, however, prefer a patient-centered, and solution-focused approach. Although many physicians now recognize the importance of addressing the patient's perspective in a follow-up consultation, a number of barriers hamper its implementation in practice, including time constraints, lack of appropriate training, and a strong tradition of the biomedical, doctor-centered approach. Addressing the patient's perspective successfully can be achieved through shared decision making, clinicians and patients making decisions together based on the best clinical evidence. Research shows that shared decision making not only increases patient, parent, and physician satisfaction with the consultation, but also may improve health outcomes. Shared decision making involves building a physician-patient-parent partnership, agreeing on the problem at hand, laying out the available options with their benefits and risks, eliciting the patient's views and preferences on these options, and agreeing on a course of action. Shared decision making requires specific communication skills, which can be learned, and should be mastered through deliberate practice. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Trait mindfulness helps shield decision-making from translating into health-risk behavior.

Science.gov (United States)

Black, David S; Sussman, Steve; Johnson, C Anderson; Milam, Joel

2012-12-01

The cognitive tendency toward mindfulness may influence the enactment of health and risk behaviors by its bringing increased attention to and awareness of decision-making processes underlying behavior. The present study examined the moderating effect of trait mindfulness on associations between intentions to smoke (ITS)/smoking refusal self-efficacy (SRSE) and smoking frequency. Self-reports from Chinese adolescents (N = 5,287; mean age = 16.2 years, standard deviation = .7; 48.8% female) were collected in 24 schools. Smoking frequency was regressed on latent factor interactions Mindful Attention Awareness Scale*ITS and Mindful Attention Awareness Scale*SRSE, adjusting for school clustering effects and covariates. Both interaction terms were significant in cross-sectional analyses and showed that high ITS predicted higher smoking frequency among those low, relative to high, in trait mindfulness, whereas low SRSE predicted higher smoking frequency among those low, relative to high, in trait mindfulness. Findings suggest trait mindfulness possibly shields against decision-making processes that place adolescents at risk for smoking. Copyright © 2012 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

An integrated theory of attention and decision making in visual signal detection.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Philip L; Ratcliff, Roger

2009-04-01

The simplest attentional task, detecting a cued stimulus in an otherwise empty visual field, produces complex patterns of performance. Attentional cues interact with backward masks and with spatial uncertainty, and there is a dissociation in the effects of these variables on accuracy and on response time. A computational theory of performance in this task is described. The theory links visual encoding, masking, spatial attention, visual short-term memory (VSTM), and perceptual decision making in an integrated dynamic framework. The theory assumes that decisions are made by a diffusion process driven by a neurally plausible, shunting VSTM. The VSTM trace encodes the transient outputs of early visual filters in a durable form that is preserved for the time needed to make a decision. Attention increases the efficiency of VSTM encoding, either by increasing the rate of trace formation or by reducing the delay before trace formation begins. The theory provides a detailed, quantitative account of attentional effects in spatial cuing tasks at the level of response accuracy and the response time distributions. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved

Emotional see-saw affects rationality of decision-making: Evidence for metacognitive impairments.

Science.gov (United States)

Folwarczny, Michał; Kaczmarek, Magdalena C; Doliński, Dariusz; Szczepanowski, Remigiusz

2018-05-01

This research investigated the cognitive mechanisms that underlie impairments in human reasoning triggered by the emotional see-saw technique. It has previously been stated that such manipulation is effective as it presumably induces a mindless state and cognitive deficits in compliant individuals. Based on the dual-system architecture of reasoning (system 2) and affective decision-making (system 1), we challenged the previous theoretical account by indicating that the main source of compliance is impairment of the meta-reasoning system when rapid affective changes occur. To examine this hypothesis, we manipulated affective feelings (system 1 processing) by violating participants' expectations regarding reward and performance in a go/no-go task in which individuals were to inhibit their responses to earn money. Aside from the go/no-go performance, we measured rationality (meta-reasoning system 2) in decision-making by asking participants to comply with a nonsensical request. We found that participants who were exposed to meta-reasoning impairments due to the emotional see-saw phenomenon exhibited mindless behavior. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

More Than a Destination: Contraceptive Decision Making as a Journey.

Science.gov (United States)

Downey, Margaret Mary; Arteaga, Stephanie; Villaseñor, Elodia; Gomez, Anu Manchikanti

Contraceptive use is widely recognized as a means of reducing adverse health-related outcomes. However, dominant paradigms of contraceptive counseling may rely on a narrow definition of "evidence" (i.e., scientifically accurate but exclusive of individual women's experiences). Given increased enthusiasm for long-acting, reversible contraceptive methods, such paradigms may reinforce counseling that overprivileges effectiveness, particularly for groups considered at high risk of unintended pregnancy. This study investigates where and how women's experiences fit into the definition of evidence these counseling protocols use. Using a qualitative approach, this analysis draws on semistructured interviews with 38 young (ages 18-24) Black and Latina women. We use a qualitative content analysis approach, with coding categories derived directly from the textual data. Our analysis suggests that contraceptive decision making is an iterative, relational, reflective journey. Throughout contraceptive histories, participants described experiences evolving to create a foundation from which decision-making power was drawn. The same contraceptive-related decisions were revisited repeatedly, with knowledge accrued along the way. The cumulative experience of using, assigning meanings to, and developing values around contraception meant that young women experienced contraceptive decision making as a dynamic process. This journey creates a rich body of evidence that informs contraceptive decision making. To provide appropriate, acceptable, patient-centered family planning care, providers must engage with evidence grounded in women's expertise on their contraceptive use in addition to medically accurate data on method effectiveness, side effects, and contraindications. Copyright © 2017 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Understanding decision-making in cardiac imaging: determinants of appropriate use.

Science.gov (United States)

Fonseca, Ricardo; Jose, Kim; Marwick, Thomas H

2018-03-01

Appropriate Use Criteria (AUC) for echocardiography were developed in 2007 to facilitate decision-making, reduce variability in test utilization, and encourage rational use of imaging. However, there is little evidence that the AUC have favourably influenced ordering behaviour. This study explores the factors that contribute to clinicians requesting echocardiograms with a focus on appropriate use. Semi-structured face-to-face interviews with cardiologists and non-cardiologists who had requested echocardiograms were conducted at an Australian tertiary hospital. The interview guide included hypothetical clinical scenarios to better understand decision-making in ordering echocardiograms and the actions they could take when receiving test reports. Interviews underwent thematic analysis. Seventeen clinicians were interviewed, ten of whom were cardiologists. All participants ordered echocardiograms to support their clinical decision-making. Awareness of the AUC was low. The categorization of tests as 'appropriate' or 'inappropriate' was considered ineffective as it failed to reflect the decision-making process. The decision to request echocardiograms was influenced by a number of personal and systemic factors as well as guidelines and protocols. Training and experience, patients' expectations, and management of uncertainty were key personal factors. Systemic factors involved the accessibility of services and health insurance status of the patient. Factors that influenced the ordering of echocardiograms by clinicians at a tertiary care hospital did not appear to be amenable to control with AUC. Alternative approaches may be more effective than the AUC in addressing the overuse of echocardiography. Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2017. For permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

23 CFR 645.111 - Right-of-way.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-04-01

... existing location beause it holds the fee, an easement, or another real property interest, the damaging or... for highway purposes. (b) The utility shall determine and make a written valuation of the replacement... valuation shall be accomplished prior to negotiation for acquisition. (c) Acquisition of replacement right...

Androgen receptor distribution in the social decision-making network of eusocial naked mole-rats.

Science.gov (United States)

Holmes, Melissa M; Van Mil, Spencer; Bulkowski, Camila; Goldman, Sharry L; Goldman, Bruce D; Forger, Nancy G

2013-11-01

Naked mole-rats are highly social rodents that live in large groups and exhibit a strict reproductive and social hierarchy. Only a few animals in each colony breed; the remainder are non-reproductive and are socially subordinate to breeders. We have examined androgen receptor immunoreactive (AR+) cells in brain regions comprising the recently described social decision-making network in subordinate and breeder naked mole-rats of both sexes. We find that subordinates have a significantly higher percentage of AR+ cells in all brain regions expressing this protein. By contrast, there were no significant effects of sex and no sex-by-status interactions on the percentage of AR+ cells. Taken together with previous findings, the present data complete a systematic assessment of the distribution of AR protein in the social decision-making network of the eusocial mammalian brain and demonstrate a significant role for social status in the regulation of this protein throughout many nodes of this network. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Quantitative, steady-state properties of Catania's computational model of the operant reserve.

Science.gov (United States)

Berg, John P; McDowell, J J

2011-05-01

Catania (2005) found that a computational model of the operant reserve (Skinner, 1938) produced realistic behavior in initial, exploratory analyses. Although Catania's operant reserve computational model demonstrated potential to simulate varied behavioral phenomena, the model was not systematically tested. The current project replicated and extended the Catania model, clarified its capabilities through systematic testing, and determined the extent to which it produces behavior corresponding to matching theory. Significant departures from both classic and modern matching theory were found in behavior generated by the model across all conditions. The results suggest that a simple, dynamic operant model of the reflex reserve does not simulate realistic steady state behavior. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Human trafficking in Germany: strengthening victim's human rights

OpenAIRE

Follmar-Otto, Petra; Rabe, Heike

2009-01-01

The first study - "A human rights approach against human trafficking - International obligations and the status of implementation in Germany" - analyses how the prohibition of human trafficking and the resulting state obligations are anchored in human rights. The more recent specialised international agreements on human trafficking and law-making in the European Union are then presented. The emphasis is on the Council of Europe Convention, which professes to treat human trafficking in a human...

The psychology of corporate rights: Perception of corporate versus individual rights to religious liberty, privacy, and free speech.

Science.gov (United States)

Mentovich, Avital; Huq, Aziz; Cerf, Moran

2016-04-01

The U.S. Supreme Court has increasingly expanded the scope of constitutional rights granted to corporations and other collective entities. Although this tendency receives widespread public and media attention, little empirical research examines how people ascribe rights, commonly thought to belong to natural persons, to corporations. This article explores this issue in 3 studies focusing on different rights (religious liberty, privacy, and free speech). We examined participants' willingness to grant a given right while manipulating the type of entity at stake (from small businesses, to larger corporations, to for-profit and nonprofit companies), and the identity of the right holder (from employees, to owners, to the company itself as a separate entity). We further examined the role of political ideology in perceptions of rights. Results indicated a significant decline in the degree of recognition of entities' rights (the company itself) in comparison to natural persons' rights (owners and employees). Results also demonstrated an effect of the type of entity at stake: Larger, for-profit businesses were less likely to be viewed as rights holders compared with nonprofit entities. Although both tendencies persisted across the ideological spectrum, ideological differences emerged in the relations between corporate and individual rights: these were positively related among conservatives but negatively related among liberals. Finally, we found that the desire to protect citizens (compared with businesses) underlies individuals' willingness to grant rights to companies. These findings show that people (rather than corporations) are more appropriate recipients of rights, and can explain public backlash to judicial expansions of corporate rights. (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved).

Awake right hemisphere brain surgery.

Science.gov (United States)

Hulou, M Maher; Cote, David J; Olubiyi, Olutayo I; Smith, Timothy R; Chiocca, E Antonio; Johnson, Mark D

2015-12-01

We report the indications and outcomes of awake right hemispheric brain surgery, as well as a rare patient with crossed aphasia. Awake craniotomies are often performed to protect eloquent cortex. We reviewed the medical records for 35 of 96 patients, in detail, who had awake right hemisphere brain operations. Intraoperative cortical mapping of motor and/or language function was performed in 29 of the 35 patients. A preoperative speech impairment and left hand dominance were the main indicators for awake right-sided craniotomies in patients with right hemisphere lesions. Four patients with lesion proximity to eloquent areas underwent awake craniotomies without cortical mapping. In addition, one patient had a broncho-pulmonary fistula, and another had a recent major cardiac procedure that precluded awake surgery. An eloquent cortex representation was identified in 14 patients (48.3%). Postoperatively, seven of 17 patients (41.1%) who presented with weakness, experienced improvements in their motor functions, 11 of 16 (68.7%) with seizures became seizure-free, and seven of nine (77.7%) with moderate to severe headaches and one of two with a visual field deficit improved significantly. There were also improvements in speech and language functions in all patients who presented with speech difficulties. A right sided awake craniotomy is an excellent option for left handed patients, or those with right sided cortical lesions that result in preoperative speech impairments. When combined with intraoperative cortical mapping, both speech and motor function can be well preserved. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Meaning making and psychological adjustment following cancer: the mediating roles of growth, life meaning, and restored just-world beliefs.

Science.gov (United States)

Park, Crystal L; Edmondson, Donald; Fenster, Juliane R; Blank, Thomas O

2008-10-01

Cancer survivors' efforts at meaning making may influence the extent to which they successfully make meaning from their experience (i.e., experience posttraumatic growth, find life meaningful, and restore beliefs in a just world), which may, in turn, influence their psychological adjustment. Previous research regarding both meaning making processes and meanings made as determinants of adjustment has shown inconsistent effects, partly because of the lack of clearly articulated theoretical frameworks and problematic research strategies. In a 1-year longitudinal study, the authors distinguished the meaning making process from the outcomes of that process (meanings made), employing specific measures of both. The authors tested pathways through which meaning making efforts led to 3 different meanings made (growth, life meaning, and restored just-world belief) in a sample of 172 young to middle-age adult cancer survivors, and they explored whether those meanings made mediated the effect of meaning making efforts on psychological adjustment. Cross-sectional and longitudinal path models of the meaning making process indicate that meaning making efforts are related to better adjustment through the successful creation of adaptive meanings made from the cancer experience. The authors conclude with clinical implications and suggestions for future research. (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved.

A framework for stochastic simulation of distribution practices for hotel reservations

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Halkos, George E.; Tsilika, Kyriaki D. [Laboratory of Operations Research, Department of Economics, University of Thessaly, Korai 43, 38 333, Volos (Greece)

2015-03-10

The focus of this study is primarily on the Greek hotel industry. The objective is to design and develop a framework for stochastic simulation of reservation requests, reservation arrivals, cancellations and hotel occupancy with a planning horizon of a tourist season. In Greek hospitality industry there have been two competing policies for reservation planning process up to 2003: reservations coming directly from customers and a reservations management relying on tour operator(s). Recently the Internet along with other emerging technologies has offered the potential to disrupt enduring distribution arrangements. The focus of the study is on the choice of distribution intermediaries. We present an empirical model for the hotel reservation planning process that makes use of a symbolic simulation, Monte Carlo method, as, requests for reservations, cancellations, and arrival rates are all sources of uncertainty. We consider as a case study the problem of determining the optimal booking strategy for a medium size hotel in Skiathos Island, Greece. Probability distributions and parameters estimation result from the historical data available and by following suggestions made in the relevant literature. The results of this study may assist hotel managers define distribution strategies for hotel rooms and evaluate the performance of the reservations management system.

A framework for stochastic simulation of distribution practices for hotel reservations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Halkos, George E.; Tsilika, Kyriaki D.

2015-01-01

The focus of this study is primarily on the Greek hotel industry. The objective is to design and develop a framework for stochastic simulation of reservation requests, reservation arrivals, cancellations and hotel occupancy with a planning horizon of a tourist season. In Greek hospitality industry there have been two competing policies for reservation planning process up to 2003: reservations coming directly from customers and a reservations management relying on tour operator(s). Recently the Internet along with other emerging technologies has offered the potential to disrupt enduring distribution arrangements. The focus of the study is on the choice of distribution intermediaries. We present an empirical model for the hotel reservation planning process that makes use of a symbolic simulation, Monte Carlo method, as, requests for reservations, cancellations, and arrival rates are all sources of uncertainty. We consider as a case study the problem of determining the optimal booking strategy for a medium size hotel in Skiathos Island, Greece. Probability distributions and parameters estimation result from the historical data available and by following suggestions made in the relevant literature. The results of this study may assist hotel managers define distribution strategies for hotel rooms and evaluate the performance of the reservations management system

The world trade organisation and Human Rights: The role of ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

This contribution attempts to make clear what these activities are and how they may affect the protection of human rights. The implementation of good governance principles in international organisations can be considered a sine qua non for the realisation of human rights. Therefore, it will be examined what role the ...

32 CFR 552.35 - Rights-of-entry for survey and exploration.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... RESERVATIONS AND NATIONAL CEMETERIES REGULATIONS AFFECTING MILITARY RESERVATIONS Acquisition of Real Estate and... to enter upon non-Government-owned real estate during site selection, particularly for the purpose of... 32 National Defense 3 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 true Rights-of-entry for survey and exploration. 552...

Offshore oil and gas and coastal British Columbia : Aboriginal rights, title and interests

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Porter, D. [First Nations Summit, West Vancouver, BC (Canada)

2006-07-01

This presentation discussed the legal duty of offshore proponents in the oil and gas industry to consult with Aboriginal nations. The Crown court's support for Aboriginal title to ocean areas within proposed offshore regions was also discussed, and Aboriginal rights to manage ocean resources were outlined. Haida and Taku River Tlingit legal decisions have confirmed both a constitutional and fiduciary duty for the Crown to consult with Aboriginal nations who assert their rights or title to lands subject to development. Resource rights granted without meaningful consultation with Aboriginal nations can be challenged, which may result in legal and financial liability for resource companies. A consultative process that addresses ownership, capacity and benefit sharing must be developed so that Aboriginal governments can participate in the design and development of appropriate fiscal and regulatory regimes. The developed regime must consider benefit and revenue sharing, as well as the integration of traditional knowledge within western science for the lifetime of any project. All decision-making bodies must include participation from Aboriginal groups. Mechanisms must also be developed to mitigate the environmental and socio-economic consequences of resource development. Impact and benefit agreements must be negotiated with coastal nations. Dissatisfaction with the concept of consultation processes has led first nations to reconsider the role that they must play in ensuring that oil and gas developments in the coastal regions of British Columbia do not negatively impact on their communities. It was noted that Inuit land claims reserve special rights for the Inuit over 18,800 miles of tidal waters. Earlier attempts by Aboriginal societies to assert their right to control their own ocean resources free from governmental interference were also discussed. It was concluded that litigation of Aboriginal rights and title poses serious challenges to offshore oil and gas

Temporal characteristics of decisions in hospital encounters: a threshold for shared decision making? A qualitative study.

Science.gov (United States)

Ofstad, Eirik H; Frich, Jan C; Schei, Edvin; Frankel, Richard M; Gulbrandsen, Pål

2014-11-01

To identify and characterize physicians' statements that contained evidence of clinically relevant decisions in encounters with patients in different hospital settings. Qualitative analysis of 50 videotaped encounters from wards, the emergency room (ER) and outpatient clinics in a department of internal medicine at a Norwegian university hospital. Clinical decisions could be grouped in a temporal order: decisions which had already been made, and were brought into the encounter by the physician (preformed decisions), decisions made in the present (here-and-now decisions), and decisions prescribing future actions given a certain course of events (conditional decisions). Preformed decisions were a hallmark in the ward and conditional decisions a main feature of ER encounters. Clinical decisions related to a patient-physician encounter spanned a time frame exceeding the duration of the encounter. While a distribution of decisions over time and space fosters sharing and dilution of responsibility between providers, it makes the decision making process hard to access for patients. In order to plan when and how to involve patients in decisions, physicians need increased awareness of when clinical decisions are made, who usually makes them, and who should make them. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

Genomics and the making of yeast biodiversity.

Science.gov (United States)

Hittinger, Chris Todd; Rokas, Antonis; Bai, Feng-Yan; Boekhout, Teun; Gonçalves, Paula; Jeffries, Thomas W; Kominek, Jacek; Lachance, Marc-André; Libkind, Diego; Rosa, Carlos A; Sampaio, José Paulo; Kurtzman, Cletus P

2015-12-01

Yeasts are unicellular fungi that do not form fruiting bodies. Although the yeast lifestyle has evolved multiple times, most known species belong to the subphylum Saccharomycotina (syn. Hemiascomycota, hereafter yeasts). This diverse group includes the premier eukaryotic model system, Saccharomyces cerevisiae; the common human commensal and opportunistic pathogen, Candida albicans; and over 1000 other known species (with more continuing to be discovered). Yeasts are found in every biome and continent and are more genetically diverse than angiosperms or chordates. Ease of culture, simple life cycles, and small genomes (∼10-20Mbp) have made yeasts exceptional models for molecular genetics, biotechnology, and evolutionary genomics. Here we discuss recent developments in understanding the genomic underpinnings of the making of yeast biodiversity, comparing and contrasting natural and human-associated evolutionary processes. Only a tiny fraction of yeast biodiversity and metabolic capabilities has been tapped by industry and science. Expanding the taxonomic breadth of deep genomic investigations will further illuminate how genome function evolves to encode their diverse metabolisms and ecologies. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Human Rights Education and Religious Education: From Mutual Suspicion to Elective Affinity

Science.gov (United States)

Guyette, Frederick W.

2009-01-01

What are the prospects for joining religious education and human rights education? (1) Human rights educators may cite good historical and philosophical reasons for teaching about human rights without making any reference whatsoever to a religious foundation. (2) For their part, many religious communities have resisted opportunities to form…

Sexual and reproductive health and rights: integration as a holistic and rights-based response to HIV/AIDS.

Science.gov (United States)

Barroso, Carmen; Sippel, Serra

2011-11-01

For decades, donors, governments, and civil society have recognized the importance of sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) in efforts to alleviate poverty and advance gender equality and women's rights. More recently, in the battle against HIV/AIDS--and given the unique challenges the pandemic presents for health and development--the global community has acknowledged the benefits of synergizing sexual and reproductive health and HIV/AIDS interventions. However, the United States has been slow to incorporate lessons learned from the international experience when it comes to integrating HIV/AIDS, SRHR, and gender equality in the fight against HIV/AIDS. This article highlights the importance of SRHR and lessons learned from SRHR-HIV integration to inform U.S. domestic and global AIDS strategies and interventions. Copyright © 2011 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Making multiple 'online counsellings' through policy and practice: an evidence-making intervention approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Savic, Michael; Dilkes-Frayne, Ella; Carter, Adrian; Kokanovic, Renata; Manning, Victoria; Rodda, Simone N; Lubman, Dan I

2018-03-01

Online counselling services for a range of health conditions have proliferated in recent years. However, there is ambiguity and tension around their role and function. It is often unclear whether online counselling services are intended to provide only a brief intervention, the provision of information or referral, or constitute an alternative to face-to-face treatment. In line with recent analyses of alcohol and other drug (AOD) policy and interventions that draw on a critical social science perspective, we take an evidence-making intervention approach to examine how online counselling in the AOD field is made in policy and through processes of local implementation. In this article, we analyse how online AOD counselling interventions and knowledges are enacted in Australia's AOD policy, and compare these enactments with an analysis of information about Australia's national online AOD counselling service, Counselling Online, and transcripts of counselling sessions with clients of Counselling Online. We suggest that while the policy enacts online counselling as a brief intervention targeting AOD use, and as an avenue to facilitate referral to face-to-face treatment services, in its implementation in practice online counselling is enacted in more varied ways. These include online counselling as attempting to attend to AOD use and interconnected psychosocial concerns, as a potential form of treatment in its own right, and as supplementing face-to-face AOD treatment services. Rather than viewing online counselling as a singular and stable intervention object, we suggest that multiple 'online counsellings' emerge in practice through local implementation practices and knowledges. We argue that the frictions that arise between policy and practice enactments need to be considered by policy makers, funders, clinicians and researchers as they affect how the concerns of those targeted by the intervention are attended to. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

36 CFR 251.14 - Conditions, rules and regulations to govern exercise of timber rights reserved in conveyance to...

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... timber products and in locating, constructing and using mills, logging roads, railroads, chutes, landings..., and to young growth or to trees left standing. All survey monuments and witness trees shall be preserved. (3) All trees, timber or timber products of species or sizes not specifically reserved which are...