New radiation warning sign

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Mac Kenzie, C.; Mason, C.

2006-01-01

Full text: Radiation accidents involving orphan radioactive sources have happened as a result of people not recognizing the radiation trefoil symbol or from being illiterate and not understanding a warning statement on the radiation source. The trefoil symbol has no inherent meaning to people that have not been instructed in its use. A new radiation warning sign, to supplement the existing trefoil symbol, has been developed to address these issues. Human Factors experts, United Nations member states, and members of the international community of radiation protection professionals were consulted for input on the design of a new radiation warning sign that would clearly convey the message of 'Danger- Run Away- Stay Away' when in close proximity to a dangerous source of radiation. Cultural differences of perception on various warning symbols were taken into consideration and arrays of possible signs were developed. The signs were initially tested in international children for identification with the desired message and response. Based on these test results and further input from radiation protection professionals, five warning signs were identified as the most successful in conveying the desired message and response. These five signs were tested internationally in eleven countries by a professional survey company to determine the best sign for this purpose. The conclusion of the international testing is presented. The new radiation warning sign is currently a draft ISO standard under committee review. The design of the propose d radiation warning sign and the proposed implementation strategy outlined in the draft ISO standard is presented. (authors)

The role of negative affect and message credibility in perceived effectiveness of smokeless tobacco health warning labels in Navi Mumbai, India and Dhaka, Bangladesh: A moderated-mediation analysis.

Science.gov (United States)

Mutti-Packer, Seema; Reid, Jessica L; Thrasher, James F; Romer, Daniel; Fong, Geoffrey T; Gupta, Prakash C; Pednekar, Mangesh S; Nargis, Nigar; Hammond, David

2017-10-01

There is strong evidence showing that pictorial health warnings are more effective than text-only warnings. However, much of this evidence comes from high-income countries and is limited to cigarette packaging. Moreover, few studies have identified mechanisms that might explain the impact of warnings. The current study examined the potential mediating role of negative affect and the moderating influence of message credibility in perceived effectiveness of smokeless tobacco warnings in two low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Field interviews were conducted in India and Bangladesh, with adult (19+ years) smokeless tobacco users (n=1053), and youth (16-18years) users (n=304) and non-users (n=687). Respondents were randomly assigned to view warnings in one of four conditions: (1) Text-only, (2) pictorial with symbolic imagery, (3) pictorial with graphic images of health effects, or (4) pictorial with personalized graphic images plus a personal testimonial. The findings provide support for the mediating influence of negative affect in perceived effectiveness, for adult and youth smokeless tobacco users who viewed pictorial warnings (vs. text-only), and graphic health warnings (vs. personal testimonials). Among adults, message credibility moderated the indirect effect; the association was stronger when credibility was high and weaker when it was low. Among youth users and non-users, message credibility did not moderate the indirect effect. Consistent with research from high-income countries, these findings highlight the importance of selecting imagery that will elicit negative emotional reactions and be perceived as credible. Differential effects among adults and youth highlight the importance of pre-testing images. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Volcano warning systems: Chapter 67

Science.gov (United States)

Gregg, Chris E.; Houghton, Bruce F.; Ewert, John W.

2015-01-01

Messages conveying volcano alert level such as Watches and Warnings are designed to provide people with risk information before, during, and after eruptions. Information is communicated to people from volcano observatories and emergency management agencies and from informal sources and social and environmental cues. Any individual or agency can be both a message sender and a recipient and multiple messages received from multiple sources is the norm in a volcanic crisis. Significant challenges to developing effective warning systems for volcanic hazards stem from the great diversity in unrest, eruption, and post-eruption processes and the rapidly advancing digital technologies that people use to seek real-time risk information. Challenges also involve the need to invest resources before unrest to help people develop shared mental models of important risk factors. Two populations of people are the target of volcano notifications–ground- and aviation-based populations, and volcano warning systems must address both distinctly different populations.

Effects of Traditional Advertising and Social Messages on Brand-Building Metrics and Customer Acquisition

NARCIS (Netherlands)

De Vries, Lisette; Gensler, Sonja; Leeflang, Pieter

This study examines the relative effectiveness of traditional advertising, impressions generated through firm-to-consumer (F2C) messages on Facebook, and the volume and valence of consumer-to-consumer (C2C) messages on Twitter and web forums for brand-building and customer acquisition efforts. The

Environment Agency England flood warning systems

Science.gov (United States)

Strong, Chris; Walters, Mark; Haynes, Elizabeth; Dobson, Peter

2015-04-01

Context In England around 5 million homes are at risk of flooding. We invest significantly in flood prevention and management schemes but we can never prevent all flooding. Early alerting systems are fundamental to helping us reduce the impacts of flooding. The Environment Agency has had the responsibility for flood warning since 1996. In 2006 we invested in a new dissemination system that would send direct messages to pre-identified recipients via a range of channels. Since then we have continuously improved the system and service we offer. In 2010 we introduced an 'opt-out' service where we pre-registered landline numbers in flood risk areas, significantly increasing the customer base. The service has performed exceptionally well under intense flood conditions. Over a period of 3 days in December 2013, when England was experiencing an east coast storm surge, the system sent nearly 350,000 telephone messages, 85,000 emails and 70,000 text messages, with a peak call rate of around 37,000 per hour and 100% availability. The Floodline Warnings Direct (FWD) System FWD provides warnings in advance of flooding so that people at risk and responders can take action to minimise the impact of the flood. Warnings are sent via telephone, fax, text message, pager or e-mail to over 1.1 million properties located within flood risk areas in England. Triggers for issuing alerts and warnings include attained and forecast river levels and rainfall in some rapidly responding locations. There are three levels of warning: Flood Alert, Flood Warning and Severe Flood Warning, and a stand down message. The warnings can be updated to include relevant information to help inform those at risk. Working with our current provider Fujitsu, the system is under a programme of continuous improvement including expanding the 'opt-out' service to mobile phone numbers registered to at risk addresses, allowing mobile registration to the system for people 'on the move' and providing access to

Perceptions of anti-smoking messages amongst high school students in Pakistan

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Imam Syed H

2011-02-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Surveys have provided evidence that tobacco use is widely prevalent amongst the youth in Pakistan. Several reviews have evaluated the effectiveness of various tobacco control programs, however, few have taken into account the perceptions of students themselves regarding these measures. The aim of this study was to determine the most effective anti-smoking messages that can be delivered to high-school students in Pakistan, based on their self-rated perceptions. It also aimed to assess the impact of pictorial/multi-media messages compared with written health warnings and to discover differences in perceptions of smokers to those of non-smokers to health warning messages. Methods This study was carried out in five major cities of Pakistan in private English-medium schools. A presentation was delivered at each school that highlighted the well-established health consequences of smoking using both written health warnings and pictorial/multi-media health messages. Following the presentation, the participants filled out a graded questionnaire form, using which they rated the risk-factors and messages that they thought were most effective in stopping or preventing them from smoking. The Friedman test was used to rank responses to each of the questions in the form. The Wilcoxon Signed Rank test used to analyze the impact of pictorial/multi-media messages over written statements. The Mann Whitney U test was used to compare responses of smokers with those of non-smokers. Results Picture of an oral cavity cancer, videos of a cancer patient using an electronic voice box and a patient on a ventilator, were perceived to be the most effective anti-smoking messages by students. Addiction, harming others through passive smoking and impact of smoking on disposable incomes were perceived to be less effective messages. Pictorial/multi-media messages were perceived to be more effective than written health warnings. Health warnings were perceived as

Health Warning Labels for Smokeless Tobacco: The Impact of Graphic Images on Attention, Recall, and Craving.

Science.gov (United States)

Klein, Elizabeth G; Quisenberry, Amanda J; Shoben, Abigail B; Cooper, Sarah; Ferketich, Amy K; Berman, Micah; Peters, Ellen; Wewers, Mary Ellen

2017-10-01

Little research has examined the impacts of graphic health warnings on the users of smokeless tobacco products. A convenience sample of past-month, male smokeless tobacco users (n = 142; 100% male) was randomly assigned to view a smokeless tobacco advertisement with a graphic health warning (GHW) or a text-only warning. Eye-tracking equipment measured viewing time, or dwell time, in milliseconds. Following the advertisement exposure, participants self-reported smokeless tobacco craving and recalled any content in the health warning message (unaided recall). Linear and logistic regression analyses evaluated the proportion of time viewing the GHW, craving, and GHW recall. Participants who viewed a GHW spent a significantly greater proportion of their ad viewing time on GHWs (2.87 seconds or 30%), compared to those viewing a text-only warning (2.05 seconds or 24%). Although there were no significant differences by condition in total advertisement viewing duration, those participants viewing a GHW had increased recall of health warning messages compared to the text-only warning (76% had any warning message recall compared to 53%; p recall of health warning messages compared to text-only warnings among rural male smokeless tobacco users. Among a sample of rural smokeless tobacco users, GHWs attracted more attention and recall of health warning messages compared to text-only warnings when viewed within smokeless tobacco advertising. These findings provide additional empirical support that GHWs are an effective tobacco control tool for all tobacco products and advertisements. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

An Envelope Based Feedback Control System for Earthquake Early Warning: Reality Check Algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Heaton, T. H.; Karakus, G.; Beck, J. L.

2016-12-01

Earthquake early warning systems are, in general, designed to be open loop control systems in such a way that the output, i.e., the warning messages, only depend on the input, i.e., recorded ground motions, up to the moment when the message is issued in real-time. We propose an algorithm, which is called Reality Check Algorithm (RCA), which would assess the accuracy of issued warning messages, and then feed the outcome of the assessment back into the system. Then, the system would modify its messages if necessary. That is, we are proposing to convert earthquake early warning systems into feedback control systems by integrating them with RCA. RCA works by continuously monitoring and comparing the observed ground motions' envelopes to the predicted envelopes of Virtual Seismologist (Cua 2005). Accuracy of magnitude and location (both spatial and temporal) estimations of the system are assessed separately by probabilistic classification models, which are trained by a Sparse Bayesian Learning technique called Automatic Relevance Determination prior.

Perception of the mexican public about the warning symbols of ionizing radiations

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Paredes, L.; Ramos, L.; Avila, G.; Canales, G.; Altamirano, R.

2007-01-01

The perception and familiarization of the mexican public on the terms of 'ionizing radiation' and 'radioactive material' and the traditional warning symbol of ionizing radiation, it has been strongly influenced by the television series 'The Simpson' and their character 'Homero Simpson', which has been the means of communication that of agreement to the results of the anonymous survey carried out in the cities of Mexico, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Veracruz and Merida, it has treated these impact topics in the public opinion in a simple way in different chapters of the series, jointly with the medical common practice of carrying out studies of X rays to the patients and the signals placed in the access doors in the imagenology areas. A bigger percentage is reported to 70% of those interviewed that they have listened the terms of 'ionizing radiation' and 'radioactive material. The traditional symbol of warning of ionizing radiation, 12% recognizes it at first sight, the logo doesn't mean him anything, and only a small group that knows the safety color code associates the yellow color of the bottom with the message of warning-danger. For the case of the new symbol, 100% of the interviewees indicates to ignore it at first sight, however the logo stops in 95% of the cases an opinion to have a meaning, being the perception of death 68%, danger 24%, to run 8% and the red color the message of danger. Inside the public with more familiarity with terminology and the derived traditional symbol of warning of their activities in the work, they were identified the firemen. Of the analysis of the surveys it is observed that the perception of fear to the radioactive material is of 42%, continued by that of ionizing radiations with 32% of the mentions. The presented arguments are that it produces cancer 80% and it can exploit 20% for the first case and it produces cancer 100% for the second case. 98% of the public is interested one in receiving bigger information on these topics and

Health warnings promote healthier dietary decision making: Effects of positive versus negative message framing and graphic versus text-based warnings.

Science.gov (United States)

Rosenblatt, Daniel H; Bode, Stefan; Dixon, Helen; Murawski, Carsten; Summerell, Patrick; Ng, Alyssa; Wakefield, Melanie

2018-08-01

Food product health warnings have been proposed as a potential obesity prevention strategy. This study examined the effects of text-only and text-and-graphic, negatively and positively framed health warnings on dietary choice behavior. In a 2 × 5 mixed experimental design, 96 participants completed a dietary self-control task. After providing health and taste ratings of snack foods, participants completed a baseline measure of dietary self-control, operationalized as participants' frequency of choosing healthy but not tasty items and rejecting unhealthy yet tasty items to consume at the end of the experiment. Participants were then randomly assigned to one of five health warning groups and presented with 10 health warnings of a given form: text-based, negative framing; graphic, negative framing; text, positive framing; graphic, positive framing; or a no warning control. Participants then completed a second dietary decision making session to determine whether health warnings influenced dietary self-control. Linear mixed effects modeling revealed a significant interaction between health warning group and decision stage (pre- and post-health warning presentation) on dietary self-control. Negatively framed graphic health warnings promoted greater dietary self-control than other health warnings. Negatively framed text health warnings and positively framed graphic health warnings promoted greater dietary self-control than positively framed text health warnings and control images, which did not increase dietary self-control. Overall, HWs primed healthier dietary decision making behavior, with negatively framed graphic HWs being most effective. Health warnings have potential to become an important element of obesity prevention. Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Young children's perceptions of health warning labels on cigarette packages: a study in six countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Borzekowski, Dina L G; Cohen, Joanna E

2014-01-01

Health warning labels on cigarette packages are one way to reach youth thinking about initiating tobacco use. The purpose of this study was to examine awareness and understanding of current health warning labels among 5 and 6 year old children. Researchers conducted one-on-one interviews with urban and rural 5 and 6 year olds from Brazil, China, India, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Russia. Among the 2,423 participating children, 62 % were unaware of the health warnings currently featured on cigarette packages, with the lowest levels of awareness in India and the highest levels in Brazil. When shown the messages, the same percentage of participating children (62 %) showed no level of message understanding. While youth are receiving social and informational messages promoting tobacco use, health warning labels featured on cigarette packages are not effectively reaching young children with anti-smoking messages.

Implications of advanced warning messages on eliminating sun glare disturbances at signalized intersections

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Qing Li

2016-08-01

Full Text Available Due to sun glare disturbances, drivers encounter fatal threats on roadways, particularly at signalized intersections. Many studies have attempted to develop applicable solutions, such as avoiding sun positions, applying road geometric re-directions, and wearing anti-glare glasses. None of these strategies have fully solved the problem. As one of the “Connected Vehicle” practices proposed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, advanced warning messages (AWMs are capable of providing wireless information about traffic controls. AWM acts as a supplement to conventional signs and signals, which can be blocked by obstacles or natural disturbances, such as sun glare. The drivers' smart advisory system (DSAS can provide drivers with AWM. Using a driving simulator this research explores the effects of DSAS messages on driving behaviors under sun glare disturbance. Statistical analyses were applied to assess (1 the negative impacts of sun glare, (2 the compensation of the DSAS AWM to sun glare effects, and (3 the improvement in driving performance due to DSAS AWM. Four performance indexes were measured, including (1 half kinetic energy speed, (2 mean approach speed, (3 brake response time, and (4 braking distance. The effects of the socio-demographic factors, such as gender, age, educational background, and driving experience were also studied. The analytical results illustrate that the DSAS can compensate for reduced visibility due to sun glare and improve driving performance to a normal visual situation, particularly for left turn and through movement.

Italian codified hashtags for weather warning on Twitter - who is really using them?

Science.gov (United States)

Grasso, Valentina; Crisci, Alfonso; Morabito, Marco; Nesi, Paolo; Pantaleo, Gianni; Zaza, Imad; Gozzini, Bernardo

2017-04-01

During emergencies, an increasing number of messages are shared through social media platforms, becoming a primary source of information for lay people and emergency managers. Weather services and institutions have started to employ social media to deliver weather warnings even if sometimes this communication lacks in strategy. In Twitter, for example, hashtagging is very important to associate messages with certain topics; in recent years, codified hashtagging is emerging as a practical way to coordinate Twitter conversations during emergencies and quickly retrieve relevant information. In 2014, a syntax for codified hashtags for weather warning was proposed in Italy: a list of 20 hashtags, realized by combining #allertameteo (weather warning) + XXX, where final letters code the regional identification. This contribution presents a monitoring of Twitter usage of weather warning codified hashtags in Italy (since July 2015) and an analysis of different contexts. Twitter messages were retrieved using TwitterVigilance, a multi-users platform to crawl Twitter data, collect and store messages and perform quantitative analytics, about users, hashtags, tweets/retweets volumes. The Codified Hashtags data set is presented and discussed with main analytics and evaluation of regional contexts where it was successfully employed.

Development of structural health monitoring and early warning system for reinforced concrete system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Iranata, Data; Wahyuni, Endah; Murtiadi, Suryawan; Widodo, Amien; Riksakomara, Edwin; Sani, Nisfu Asrul

2015-01-01

Many buildings have been damaged due to earthquakes that occurred recently in Indonesia. The main cause of the damage is the large deformation of the building structural component cannot accommodate properly. Therefore, it is necessary to develop the Structural Health Monitoring System (SHMS) to measure precisely the deformation of the building structural component in the real time conditions. This paper presents the development of SHMS for reinforced concrete structural system. This monitoring system is based on deformation component such as strain of reinforcement bar, concrete strain, and displacement of reinforced concrete component. Since the deformation component has exceeded the limit value, the warning message can be sent to the building occupies. This warning message has also can be performed as early warning system of the reinforced concrete structural system. The warning message can also be sent via Short Message Service (SMS) through the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network. Hence, the SHMS should be integrated with internet modem to connect with GSM network. Additionally, the SHMS program is verified with experimental study of simply supported reinforced concrete beam. Verification results show that the SHMS has good agreement with experimental results

System of message for gamma-radiation monitor

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Bolic, M.D.; Koturovic, A.M.

2001-01-01

Paper describes a system of voice messages for gamma-radiation monitor based on PC. The systems reproduces recorded messages that is simpler than the process of their synthesis. Message choice is based on combination of recorded digital results and/or received reference messages or warnings. The system of generation of voice messages applies the Windows based software. The total memory array required to create independent voice system is maximum 1.7 mbyte. The monitor may be used for continuous monitoring of radioactivity level with 5-8 s period of message repetition. Another option of the system operation is based on monitor application for the environment monitoring. Period of messages in this case is equal to 5-30 min [ru

Perceptions and acceptability of pictorial health warning labels vs text only--a cross-sectional study in Lao PDR.

Science.gov (United States)

Sychareun, Vanphanom; Hansana, Visanou; Phengsavanh, Alongkone; Chaleunvong, Kongmany; Tomson, Tanja

2015-10-28

In Lao PDR, health warnings were first introduced with printed warning messages on the side of the cigarette package in 1993 and again in 2004. Lao PDR same year ratified the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC) but has not yet implemented pictorial health warnings. This paper aims to examine the perception and opinion of policymakers on "text-only" and "pictorial" health warnings and to understand lay people's perceptions on current health warnings and their opinions on the recommended types of health warnings. A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this cross-sectional study conducted in 2008. A purposive sample of 15 policymakers, and a representative sample of 1360 smokers and non-smokers were recruited. A range of different areas were covered including consumer attitudes towards current and proposed cigarette package design, views on health warning messages on the flip/slide and inserts, and views on the relative importance of the size, content and pictures of health warning messages. Descriptive statistics and content analysis were used. Policy makers and survey respondents said that the current health warning messages were inappropriate, ineffective, and too small in size. All respondents perceived pictorial health warnings as a potentially powerful element that could be added to the messages that can communicate quickly, and dramatically. The majority of policymakers and survey respondents strongly supported the implementation of pictorial health warnings. The non-smokers agreed that the graphic pictorial health warnings were generally more likely than written health warnings to stimulate thinking about the health risks of smoking, by conveying potential health effects, increasing and reinforcing awareness of the negative health effect of smoking, aiding memorability of the health effects and arousing fear of smoking among smokers. The study suggested that current warnings are too small and that content is

Perceived effectiveness of pictorial health warnings among Mexican youth and adults: a population-level intervention to reduce tobacco related inequities

Science.gov (United States)

Hammond, David; Thrasher, James; Reid, Jessica L.; Driezen, Pete; Boudreau, Christian; Santillan, Edna Arillo

2015-01-01

Purpose Pictorial health warnings on cigarette packages are a prominent and effective means of communicating the risks of smoking; however, there is little research on effective types of message content and socio-demographic effects. This study tested message themes and content of pictorial warnings in Mexico. Methods Face-to-face surveys were conducted with 544 adult smokers and 528 youth in Mexico City. Participants were randomized to view 5–7 warnings for two of 15 different health effects. Warnings for each health effect included a text-only warning and pictorial warnings with various themes: “graphic” health effects, “lived experience”, symbolic images, and testimonials. Results Pictorial health warnings were rated as more effective than text-only warnings. Pictorial warnings featuring “graphic” depictions of disease were significantly more effective than symbolic images or experiences of human suffering. Adding testimonial information to warnings increased perceived effectiveness. Adults who were female, older, had lower education, and intended to quit smoking rated warnings as more effective, although the magnitude of these differences was modest. Few interactions were observed between socio-demographics and message theme. Conclusions Graphic depictions of disease were perceived by youth and adults as the most effective warning theme. Perceptions of warnings were generally similar across socio-demographic groups. PMID:22362058

Tsunami Warning Services for the U.S. and Canadian Atlantic Coasts

Science.gov (United States)

Whitmore, P. M.; Knight, W.

2008-12-01

In January 2005, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) developed a tsunami warning program for the U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts. Within a year, this program extended further to the Atlantic coast of Canada and the Caribbean Sea. Warning services are provided to U.S. and Canadian coasts (including Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands) by the NOAA/West Coast and Alaska Tsunami Warning Center (WCATWC) while the NOAA/Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) provides services for non-U.S. entities in the Caribbean Basin. The Puerto Rico Seismic Network (PRSN) is also an active partner in the Caribbean Basin warning system. While the nature of the tsunami threat in the Atlantic Basin is different than in the Pacific, the warning system philosophy is similar. That is, initial messages are based strictly on seismic data so that information is provided to those at greatest risk as fast as possible while supplementary messages are refined with sea level observations and forecasts when possible. The Tsunami Warning Centers (TWCs) acquire regional seismic data through many agencies, such as the United States Geological Survey, Earthquakes Canada, regional seismic networks, and the PRSN. Seismic data quantity and quality are generally sufficient throughout most of the Atlantic area-of-responsibility to issue initial information within five minutes of origin time. Sea level data are mainly provided by the NOAA/National Ocean Service. Coastal tide gage coverage is generally denser along the Atlantic coast than in the Pacific. Seven deep ocean pressure sensors (DARTs), operated by the National Weather Service (NWS) National Data Buoy Center, are located in the Atlantic Basin (5 in the Atlantic Ocean, 1 in the Caribbean, and 1 in the Gulf of Mexico). The DARTs provide TWCs with the means to verify tsunami generation in the Atlantic and provide critical data with which to calibrate forecast models. Tsunami warning response criteria in the Atlantic Basin

The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) and Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) - Application in Early Warning Systems for Natural Hazard

Science.gov (United States)

Lendholt, Matthias; Hammitzsch, Martin; Wächter, Joachim

2010-05-01

The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) [1] is an XML-based data format for exchanging public warnings and emergencies between alerting technologies. In conjunction with the Emergency Data Exchange Language (EDXL) Distribution Element (-DE) [2] these data formats can be used for warning message dissemination in early warning systems for natural hazards. Application took place in the DEWS (Distance Early Warning System) [3] project where CAP serves as central message format containing both human readable warnings and structured data for automatic processing by message receivers. In particular the spatial reference capabilities are of paramount importance both in CAP and EDXL. Affected areas are addressable via geo codes like HASC (Hierarchical Administrative Subdivision Codes) [4] or UN/LOCODE [5] but also with arbitrary polygons that can be directly generated out of GML [6]. For each affected area standardized criticality values (urgency, severity and certainty) have to be set but also application specific key-value-pairs like estimated time of arrival or maximum inundation height can be specified. This enables - together with multilingualism, message aggregation and message conversion for different dissemination channels - the generation of user-specific tailored warning messages. [1] CAP, http://www.oasis-emergency.org/cap [2] EDXL-DE, http://docs.oasis-open.org/emergency/edxl-de/v1.0/EDXL-DE_Spec_v1.0.pdf [3] DEWS, http://www.dews-online.org [4] HASC, "Administrative Subdivisions of Countries: A Comprehensive World Reference, 1900 Through 1998" ISBN 0-7864-0729-8 [5] UN/LOCODE, http://www.unece.org/cefact/codesfortrade/codes_index.htm [6] GML, http://www.opengeospatial.org/standards/gml

A review of studies on community based early warning systems

OpenAIRE

Margaret Macherera; Moses J. Chimbari

2016-01-01

Community-based early warning systems involve community driven collection and analysis of information that enable warning messages to help a community to react to a hazard and reduce the resulting loss or harm. Most early warning systems are designed at the national or global level. Local communities’ capacity to predict weather conditions using indigenous knowledge has been demonstrated in studies focusing on climate change and agriculture in some African countries. This review was motivated...

Considerations and Future Research Directions for E-Cigarette Warnings-Findings from Expert Interviews.

Science.gov (United States)

Wackowski, Olivia A; Hammond, David; O'Connor, Richard J; Strasser, Andrew A; Delnevo, Cristine D

2017-07-14

Tobacco warning labels are important sources of risk information but research historically has been cigarette-centric. This qualitative study aimed to inform future direction and research on warnings for e-cigarettes. Between June and August 2016, we conducted interviews with 10 researchers with expertise in tobacco warning label research. Interviewees were registrants of a 2016 National Cancer Institute grantee meeting on tobacco warnings. Several participants agreed that the Food and Drug Administration's new nicotine addiction warning for e-cigarettes could be informative but that it might not resonate with young people. Many agreed that more than one warning would be important as e-cigarette science evolves and that research on additional warning themes (e.g., nicotine exposure, harmful constituents) and execution styles (including use of pictorials) was important. Participants were somewhat mixed about the use of reduced-risk messages within e-cigarette warnings, but agreed that research on how to communicate about cigarette/e-cigarette relative risks was needed. Overall, more research is needed on tobacco warnings for non-cigarette products, including on the message content, placement, execution and potential impact on audiences' product knowledge, risk perceptions and use intentions. This is particularly needed for products such as e-cigarettes which may have harm-reduction potential relative to cigarettes and require unique considerations.

Smokers' recall of Australian graphic cigarette packet warnings & awareness of associated health effects, 2005-2008

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Quester Pascale G

2011-04-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background In 2006, Australia introduced graphic cigarette packet warnings. The new warnings include one of 14 pictures, many depicting tobacco-related pathology. The warnings were introduced in two sets; Set A in March and Set B from November. This study explores their impact on smokers' beliefs about smoking related illnesses. This study also examines the varying impact of different warnings, to see whether warnings with visceral images have greater impact on smokers' beliefs than other images. Methods Representative samples of South Australian smokers were interviewed in four independent cross-sectional omnibus surveys; in 2005 (n = 504, 2006 (n = 525, 2007 (n = 414 and 2008 (n = 464. Results Unprompted recall of new graphic cigarette warnings was high in the months following their introduction, demonstrating that smokers' had been exposed to them. Smokers also demonstrated an increase in awareness about smoking-related diseases specific to the warning messages. Warnings that conveyed new information and had emotive images demonstrated greater impact on recall and smokers' beliefs than more familiar information and less emotive images. Conclusions Overall graphic pack warnings have had the intended impact on smokers. Some have greater impact than others. The implications for policy makers in countries introducing similar warnings are that fresh messaging and visceral images have the greatest impact.

Smokers' and e-cigarette users' perceptions of modified risk warnings for e-cigarettes

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olivia A. Wackowski

2016-12-01

Full Text Available The 2009 Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act opened the possibility for tobacco companies to apply to market their products as having “modified” or reduced risks. However, research on how to communicate comparative tobacco risks and how such messages are interpreted is limited. This study aimed to qualitatively examine perceptions of potential modified risk statements presented as warning labels for e-cigarettes. We conducted six focus groups between 2014 and 2015 with 27 adult e-cigarette users and cigarette-only smokers who provided comments on two versions of a modified risk warning for e-cigarettes: 1 “WARNING: No tobacco product is safe, but this product presents substantially lower risks to health than cigarettes” (as proposed by two companies for their smokeless tobacco products and 2 “WARNING: This product may be harmful to health, but is substantially less harmful than cigarettes” (an alternative developed by our team. Although most personally believed that e-cigarettes are safer than cigarettes and some thought the messages were true and accurate, many were skeptical and uncomfortable with the warnings because they did not “seem like a warning” and because use of the phrase “substantially lower risks” could be misleading and difficult to understand. Several thought the second warning was stronger (e.g., more active, more specific. Modified risk messages about e-cigarettes may impact perceptions and use of the product. More research is needed to identify the framing, wording and placement (e.g. within or in addition to a warning that could potentially increase population-level benefits and minimize harms.

Emergency warning for people with disabilities.

Science.gov (United States)

Putkovich, Kenneth

2013-01-01

The intent of this article is to assess the current state of Emergency Warning capabilities in the United States and make recommendations on what needs to be done to cost effectively establish a National Emergency Warning System to best serve the people of the United States, including those with disabilities. As part of this assessment, terminology will be defined, existing systems will be examined, critical needs and functions will be explained, and recommendations made for a system to deliver emergency messages to those people immediately at risk from natural and human-caused disasters in a timely and effective manner, regardless of location or situational circumstance. The assessment will include the needs and available technologies for delivering emergency warnings to people with disabilities, which are generally little understood, poorly addressed, and often ignored.

The modern hippocratic tradition. Some messages for contemporary medicine.

Science.gov (United States)

Marketos, S G; Skiadas, P K

1999-06-01

Hippocrates (5th century B.C.), the most prominent physician of antiquity, was born in the small Greek island of Kos, which is near the coast of Asia Minor. Before his era, medicine was practiced as an empirical art and had a religious nature. Hippocratic medicine represents the landmark for the evolution of Western medicine. This "father" of rational medicine assimilated the accumulated knowledge of the past and formed a diagnostic system based on clinical observation and logical reasoning. The great physician attributed diseases to natural causes, believed in the healing power of nature, and gave special emphasis to the prevention and prognosis of illnesses. He treated patients as psychosomatic entities (a holistic medical approach) in relation to their natural environment. In his treatises, Hippocrates defined the ethical principles guiding medical practice. His entire work was inspired by humanistic ideals and an undeviating dedication to the patient. Modern medicine can derive valuable lessons from the Hippocratic tradition. For the coming 21st century, medicine more than ever senses the need to combine the concepts of humanistic values and the Hippocratic messages with the technologic "imperative" (power). This bond is necessary to the improvement of medicine in the future because, currently, the enormous biomedical technology so far has contributed little to the traditionally human fields of psychosomatic and functional disturbances, posing new dilemmas and threatening scientific problems.

Social Interactions Sparked by Pictorial Warnings on Cigarette Packs

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Marissa G. Hall

2015-10-01

Full Text Available The Message Impact Framework suggests that social interactions may offer smokers the opportunity to process pictorial warnings on cigarette packs more deeply. We aimed to describe adult smokers’ social interactions about pictorial cigarette pack warnings in two longitudinal pilot studies. In Pilot Study 1, 30 smokers used cigarette packs with one of nine pictorial warnings for two weeks. In Pilot Study 2, 46 smokers used cigarette packs with one of five pictorial warnings for four weeks. Nearly all smokers (97%/96% in Pilot Study 1/2 talked about the warnings with other people, with the most common people being friends (67%/87% and spouses/significant others (34%/42%. Pilot Study 2 found that 26% of smokers talked about the warnings with strangers. Discussions about the health effects of smoking and quitting smoking were more frequent during the first week of exposure to pictorial warnings than in the week prior to beginning the study (both p < 0.05. Pictorial warnings sparked social interactions about the warnings, the health effects of smoking, and quitting smoking, indicating that pictorial warnings may act as a social intervention reaching beyond the individual. Future research should examine social interactions as a potential mediator of the impact of pictorial warnings on smoking behavior.

Graphic warning labels on plain cigarette packs: will they make a difference to adolescents?

Science.gov (United States)

McCool, Judith; Webb, Lisa; Cameron, Linda D; Hoek, Janet

2012-04-01

Graphic warning labels and plain cigarette packaging are two initiatives developed to increase quit behaviour among smokers. Although a little is known about how adolescents interpret graphic warning labels, very few studies have examined how plain cigarette packaging would affect adolescents' perceptions of cigarette smoking and smoking behaviour. We explored how teens interpret and respond to graphic warning labels and the plain packaging of cigarettes, to assess the potential these strategies may offer in deterring smoking initiation. Twelve focus group interviews with a sample of 80 14-16 year old students from a diverse range of schools in Auckland, New Zealand were undertaken between June and August 2009. Textual analysis revealed that graphic warning labels may influence adolescents by reiterating a negative image of smokers. Graphic warning on a plain cigarette pack increased the attention paid to graphic warning labels and the overall perceptions of harm caused by cigarette smoking, and reduced the social appeal of cigarette smoking. This research offers evidence on how adolescents are appraising and interpreting graphic warning labels, and explores how dominant appraisals may affect the role graphic warning labels play in preventing smoking. Not only would plain cigarette packaging enhance the salience and impact of graphic warning labels, but it would potentially bolster the overall message that cigarette smoking is harmful. In the context of a comprehensive tobacco control programme, graphic warning labels on plain cigarette packaging present an explicit message about the risks (to health and image) associated with cigarette smoking. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The new Euskalmet coastal-maritime warning system

Science.gov (United States)

Gaztelumendi, Santiago; Egaña, Joseba; Liria, Pedro; Gonzalez, Manuel; Aranda, José Antonio; Anitua, Pedro

2016-06-01

This work presents the main characteristics of the Basque Meteorology Agency (Euskalmet) maritime-coastal risk warning system, with special emphasis on the latest updates, including a clear differentiation on specific warning messages addressing sea conditions for navigation purposes in the first 2 nautical miles, and expected coastal impacts. Some details of the warning bulletin for maritime and coastal risk situations are also presented, together with other communication products and strategies used in coastal and maritime severe episodes at the Basque coast. Today, three different aspects are included in the coastal-maritime risk warning system in Basque Country, related to the main potential severe events that affecting coastal activities. - "Galerna" risk relates to a sudden wind reversal that can severely affect coastal navigation and recreational activities. - "Navigation" risk relates to severe sea state conditions for 0-2 miles, affecting different navigation activities. - "Coastal impact" risk relates to adverse wave characteristics and tidal surges that induce flooding events and different impacts in littoral areas.

On the importance of risk knowledge for an end-to-end tsunami early warning system

Science.gov (United States)

Post, Joachim; Strunz, Günter; Riedlinger, Torsten; Mück, Matthias; Wegscheider, Stephanie; Zosseder, Kai; Steinmetz, Tilmann; Gebert, Niklas; Anwar, Herryal

2010-05-01

Warning systems commonly use information provided by networks of sensors able to monitor and detect impending disasters, aggregate and condense these information to provide reliable information to a decision maker whether to warn or not, disseminates the warning message and provide this information to people at risk. Ultimate aim is to enable those in danger to make decisions (e.g. initiate protective actions for buildings) and to take action to safe their lives. This involves very complex issues when considering all four elements of early warning systems (UNISDR-PPEW), namely (1) risk knowledge, (2) monitoring and warning service, (3) dissemination and communication, (4) response capability with the ultimate aim to gain as much time as possible to empower individuals and communities to act in an appropriate manner to reduce injury, loss of life, damage to property and the environment and loss of livelihoods. Commonly most warning systems feature strengths and main attention on the technical/structural dimension (monitoring & warning service, dissemination tools) with weaknesses and less attention on social/cultural dimension (e.g. human response capabilities, defined warning chain to and knowing what to do by the people). Also, the use of risk knowledge in early warning most often is treated in a theoretical manner (knowing that it is somehow important), yet less in an operational, practical sense. Risk assessments and risk maps help to motivate people, prioritise early warning system needs and guide preparations for response and disaster prevention activities. Beyond this risk knowledge can be seen as a tie between national level early warning and community level reaction schemes. This presentation focuses on results, key findings and lessons-learnt related to tsunami risk assessment in the context of early warning within the GITEWS (German-Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning) project. Here a novel methodology reflecting risk information needs in the early warning

Terse messaging and public health in the midst of natural disasters: the case of the Boulder floods.

Science.gov (United States)

Sutton, Jeannette; League, Cedar; Sellnow, Timothy L; Sellnow, Deanna D

2015-01-01

Social media are quickly becoming the channel of choice for disseminating emergency warning messages. However, relatively little data-driven research exists to inform effective message design when using these media. The present study addresses that void by examining terse health-related warning messages sent by public safety agencies over Twitter during the 2013 Boulder, CO, floods. An examination of 5,100 tweets from 52 Twitter accounts over the course of the 5-day flood period yielded several key conclusions and implications. First, public health messages posted by local emergency management leaders are most frequently retweeted by organizations in our study. Second, emergency public health messages focus primarily on drinking water in this event. Third, terse messages can be designed in ways that include imperative/instructional and declarative/explanatory styles of content, both of which are essential for promoting public health during crises. These findings demonstrate that even terse messages delivered via Twitter ought to provide information about the hazard event, its impact, and actionable instructions for self-protection.

Developing effective warning systems: Ongoing research at Ruapehu volcano, New Zealand

Science.gov (United States)

Leonard, Graham S.; Johnston, David M.; Paton, Douglas; Christianson, Amy; Becker, Julia; Keys, Harry

2008-05-01

PurposeThis paper examines the unique challenges to volcanic risk management associated with having a ski area on an active volcano. Using a series of simulated eruption/lahar events at Ruapehu volcano, New Zealand, as a context, a model of risk management that integrates warning system design and technology, risk perceptions and the human response is explored. Principal resultsDespite increases in the observed audibility and comprehension of the warning message, recall of public education content, and people's awareness of volcanic risk, a persistent minority of the public continued to demonstrate only moderate awareness of the correct actions to take during a warning and failed to respond effectively. A relationship between level of staff competence and correct public response allowed the level of public response to be used to identify residual risk and additional staff training needs. The quality of staff awareness, action and decision-making has emerged as a critical factor, from detailed staff and public interviews and from exercise observations. Staff actions are especially important for mobilising correct public response at Ruapehu ski areas due to the transient nature of the visitor population. Introduction of education material and staff training strategies that included the development of emergency decision-making competencies improved knowledge of correct actions, and increased the proportion of people moving out of harm's way during blind tests. Major conclusionsWarning effectiveness is a function of more than good hazard knowledge and the generation and notification of an early warning message. For warning systems to be effective, these factors must be complemented by accurate knowledge of risk and risk management actions. By combining the Ruapehu findings with those of other warning system studies in New Zealand, and internationally, a practical five-step model for effective early warning systems is discussed. These steps must be based upon sound and

Perception of the mexican public about the warning symbols of ionizing radiations; Percepcion del publico mexicano sobre los simbolos de advertencia de radiacion ionizante

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Paredes, L. [ININ, Carretera Mexico-Toluca s/n, La Marquesa, C .P. 52750 Ocoyoacac, Estado de Mexico (Mexico); Ramos, L.; Avila, G.; Canales, G.; Altamirano, R. [Universidad Justo Sierra, Jacarandas 308, Col. Santa Maria la Rivera, 06000 Mexico D. F. (Mexico)]. e-mail: lpg@nuclear.inin.mx

2007-07-01

The perception and familiarization of the mexican public on the terms of 'ionizing radiation' and 'radioactive material' and the traditional warning symbol of ionizing radiation, it has been strongly influenced by the television series 'The Simpson' and their character 'Homero Simpson', which has been the means of communication that of agreement to the results of the anonymous survey carried out in the cities of Mexico, Guadalajara, Monterrey, Veracruz and Merida, it has treated these impact topics in the public opinion in a simple way in different chapters of the series, jointly with the medical common practice of carrying out studies of X rays to the patients and the signals placed in the access doors in the imagenology areas. A bigger percentage is reported to 70% of those interviewed that they have listened the terms of 'ionizing radiation' and 'radioactive material. The traditional symbol of warning of ionizing radiation, 12% recognizes it at first sight, the logo doesn't mean him anything, and only a small group that knows the safety color code associates the yellow color of the bottom with the message of warning-danger. For the case of the new symbol, 100% of the interviewees indicates to ignore it at first sight, however the logo stops in 95% of the cases an opinion to have a meaning, being the perception of death 68%, danger 24%, to run 8% and the red color the message of danger. Inside the public with more familiarity with terminology and the derived traditional symbol of warning of their activities in the work, they were identified the firemen. Of the analysis of the surveys it is observed that the perception of fear to the radioactive material is of 42%, continued by that of ionizing radiations with 32% of the mentions. The presented arguments are that it produces cancer 80% and it can exploit 20% for the first case and it produces cancer 100% for the second case. 98% of the public is

Graphic warnings and text warning labels on cigarette packages in Riyadh Kingdom of Saudi Arabia: Awareness and perceptions

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Hoda Jradi

2018-01-01

CONCLUSIONS: The study suggests that while graphic warning labels are perceived as necessary on cigarette packages the currently used messages are not clear and therefore do not serve their intended purposes. Measures should be undertaken to ensure that pictorial cigarette labels used in Saudi Arabia are culturally and ethnically appropriate and are rotated on a regular basis to ensure salience among smokers and nonsmokers alike.

THE FRENCH TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN AND NORTHEAST ATLANTIC: CENALT

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H. Hébert

2013-01-01

Full Text Available CENALT (CENtre d’ALerte aux Tsunamis is responsible for the French National Tsunami Warning Centre (NTWC. The CENALT is established in the framework of the Unesco/IOC/ICG/NEAMTWS. Its objective is to transmit a warning message in less than fifteen minutes for any events that could trigger a tsunami in the Western Mediterranean Sea and the North- Eastern Atlantic Ocean. The data collected from French installations and from institutions of European and North African countries is processed with software that permits early epicenter location of seismic events and measurements of expected tsunami impacts on the shore. On-duty analysts revise interactively all the generated information and use references of historical tsunami and earthquake databases - as well as computed tsunami scenarios – in order to disseminate the more comprehensive message possible.

Survey of Instant Messaging Applications Encryption Methods

OpenAIRE

Kabakuş, Abdullah; Kara, Resul

2015-01-01

Instant messaging applications has already taken the place of traditional Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) due to their popularity and usage easement they provide. Users of instant messaging applications are able to send both text and audio messages, different types of attachments such as photos, videos, contact information to their contacts in real time. Because of instant messaging applications use internet instead of Short Message Service Technical Reali...

Warnings on alcohol containers and advertisements: international experience and evidence on effects.

Science.gov (United States)

Wilkinson, Claire; Room, Robin

2009-07-01

In light of possible introduction of alcohol warning labels in Australia and New Zealand, this paper discusses the international experience with and evidence of effects of alcohol warning labels. The report describes international experience with providing information and warnings concerning the promotion or sale of alcoholic beverages, and considers the evidence on the effects of such information and warnings. The experience with and evaluations of the effects of tobacco warning labels are also considered. The most methodologically sound evaluations of alcohol warning labels are based on the US experience. Although these evaluations find little evidence that the introduction of the warning label in the USA had an impact on drinking behaviour, there is evidence that they led to an increase in awareness of the message they contained. In contrast, evaluations of tobacco warning labels find clear evidence of effects on behaviour. There is a need and opportunity for a rigorous evaluation of the impacts of introducing alcohol warning labels to add to the published work on their effectiveness. The experience with tobacco labels might guide the way for more effective alcohol warning labels. Alcohol warning labels are an increasingly popular alcohol policy initiative. It is clear that warning labels can be ineffective, but the tobacco experience suggests that effective warning labels are possible. Any introduction of alcohol warning labels should be evaluated in terms of effects on attitudes and behaviour.

A review of studies on community based early warning systems

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Margaret Macherera

2016-04-01

Full Text Available Community-based early warning systems involve community driven collection and analysis of information that enable warning messages to help a community to react to a hazard and reduce the resulting loss or harm. Most early warning systems are designed at the national or global level. Local communities’ capacity to predict weather conditions using indigenous knowledge has been demonstrated in studies focusing on climate change and agriculture in some African countries. This review was motivated by successes made in non-disease specific community-based early warning systems with a view to identify opportunities for developing similar systems for malaria. This article reviewed the existing community-based early warning systems documented in literature. The types of disasters that are addressed by these systems and the methodologies utilised in the development of the systems were identified. The review showed that most of the documented community-based early warning systems focus on natural disasters such as floods, drought, and landslides. Community-based early warning systems for human diseases are very few, even though such systems exist at national and regional and global levels. There is a clear gap in terms of community-based malaria early warning systems. The methodologies for the development of the community-based early warning systems reviewed mainly derive from the four elements of early warning systems; namely risk knowledge, monitoring, warning communication and response capability. The review indicated the need for the development of community based early warning systems for human diseases. Keywords: community; early warning; disaster; hazards

The development of reactions of the public to warning and emergency situations in France, Greece and The Netherlands

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wiegman, O.; Boer, Hendrik; Gutteling, Jan M.; Komilis, E.; Cadet, B.

1992-01-01

This article describes the different reactions to emergency warning messages among residents living within a 3-km radius of a hazardous chemical complex and by people living at least 10 km from an industrial site in France, Greece, and the Netherlands. Belief in warning, primary and secondary

People-centred landslide early warning systems in the context of risk management

Science.gov (United States)

Haß, S.; Asch, K.; Fernandez-Steeger, T.; Arnhardt, C.

2009-04-01

hazard assessment and emergency response. Great importance is attached to the scientific understanding of hazards and protective structures, while analysis of socio-economic impacts and risk assessment are not considered enough. The reduction of vulnerability has to be taken into greater account. Also the information needs of different stakeholders have to be identified at an early stage and should be integrated in the development of early warning systems. The content of the warning message must be simple, understandable and should cover instructions on how to react. Further the timeliness of the messages has to be guarented. In this context the aim of the landslide monitoring and early warning system SLEWS (Sensor Based Landslide Early Warning System) is to integrate the above mentioned aspects of a holistic disaster and risk management. The technology of spatial data infrastructures and web services provides the use of multiple communication channels within an early warning system. Thus people-centred early warning messages and information about slope stability can be sent in nearly real-time. It has to be underlined that the technological information process is just one element of an effective warning system. Moreover the warning system has also to be considered as a social system and has to make allowance to socio-economic and gender aspects : «[...] Develop early warning systems that are people centered, in particular systems whose warnings are timely and understandable to those at risk, which take into account the demographic, gender, cultural and livelihood characteristics of the target audiences, including guidance on how to act upon warnings, and that support effective operations by disaster managers and other decision makers » (Hyogo Framework, 2005) References : UNITED NATIONS INTERNATIONAL STRATEGY FOR DISASTER REDUCTION SECRETARIAT (UNISDR) (2006): Developing early warning systems: a checklist, Third international conference on early warning (EWC III

Geoethical considerations in early warning of flooding and landslides: Case study from Norway

Science.gov (United States)

Devoli, Graziella; Kleivane Krøgli, Ingeborg; Dahl, Mads Peter; Colleuille, Hervé; Nykjær Boje, Søren; Sund, Monica

2015-04-01

The Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE) runs the national early warning systems (EWS) for flooding and shallow landslides in Norway. The two EWSs have been operational since the late 1980s and 2013 respectively, and are based on weather forecasts, various hydro-meteorological prognosis and expert evaluation. Daily warning levels and related information to the public is prepared and presented through custom build internet platforms. In natural hazards sciences, the risk of a specific threat is defined as the product of hazard and consequence. In this context an EWS is intended to work as a mitigation measure in lowering the consequence and thus the risk of the threat. One of several factors determining the quality of such an EWS, is how warnings are communicated to the public. In contrary to what is common practice in some other countries, experts working with EWS in Norway cannot be held personally responsible for consequences of warnings being issued or not. However, the communication of warnings for flooding and landslides at NVE still implies many considerations of geoethical kind. Which are the consequences today for the forecasters when erroneous warning messages are sent because based on a poorly documented analysis? What is for example the most responsible way to describe uncertainties in warnings issued? What is the optimal compromise between avoiding false alarms and not sending out a specific warning? Is it responsible to rely on a "gut feeling"? Some authorities complain in receiving warning messages too often. Is it responsible to begin notifying these, only in cases of "high hazard level" and no longer in cases of "moderate hazard level"? Is it acceptable to issue general warnings for large geographical areas without being able to pinpoint the treat on local scale? What responsibility lies within the EWS in recommending evacuation or other practical measures to local authorities? By presenting how early warnings of flooding and

Road Accident Prevention with Instant Emergency Warning Message Dissemination in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network.

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P Gokulakrishnan

Full Text Available A Road Accident Prevention (RAP scheme based on Vehicular Backbone Network (VBN structure is proposed in this paper for Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET. The RAP scheme attempts to prevent vehicles from highway road traffic accidents and thereby reduces death and injury rates. Once the possibility of an emergency situation (i.e. an accident is predicted in advance, instantly RAP initiates a highway road traffic accident prevention scheme. The RAP scheme constitutes the following activities: (i the Road Side Unit (RSU constructs a Prediction Report (PR based on the status of the vehicles and traffic in the highway roads, (ii the RSU generates an Emergency Warning Message (EWM based on an abnormal PR, (iii the RSU forms a VBN structure and (iv the RSU disseminates the EWM to the vehicles that holds the high Risk Factor (RF and travels in High Risk Zone (HRZ. These vehicles might reside either within the RSU's coverage area or outside RSU's coverage area (reached using VBN structure. The RAP scheme improves the performance of EWM dissemination in terms of increase in notification and decrease in end-to-end delay. The RAP scheme also reduces infrastructure cost (number of RSUs by formulating and deploying the VBN structure. The RAP scheme with VBN structure improves notification by 19 percent and end-to-end delay by 14.38 percent for a vehicle density of 160 vehicles. It is also proved from the simulation experiment that the performance of RAP scheme is promising in 4-lane highway roads.

Road Accident Prevention with Instant Emergency Warning Message Dissemination in Vehicular Ad-Hoc Network.

Science.gov (United States)

Gokulakrishnan, P; Ganeshkumar, P

2015-01-01

A Road Accident Prevention (RAP) scheme based on Vehicular Backbone Network (VBN) structure is proposed in this paper for Vehicular Ad-hoc Network (VANET). The RAP scheme attempts to prevent vehicles from highway road traffic accidents and thereby reduces death and injury rates. Once the possibility of an emergency situation (i.e. an accident) is predicted in advance, instantly RAP initiates a highway road traffic accident prevention scheme. The RAP scheme constitutes the following activities: (i) the Road Side Unit (RSU) constructs a Prediction Report (PR) based on the status of the vehicles and traffic in the highway roads, (ii) the RSU generates an Emergency Warning Message (EWM) based on an abnormal PR, (iii) the RSU forms a VBN structure and (iv) the RSU disseminates the EWM to the vehicles that holds the high Risk Factor (RF) and travels in High Risk Zone (HRZ). These vehicles might reside either within the RSU's coverage area or outside RSU's coverage area (reached using VBN structure). The RAP scheme improves the performance of EWM dissemination in terms of increase in notification and decrease in end-to-end delay. The RAP scheme also reduces infrastructure cost (number of RSUs) by formulating and deploying the VBN structure. The RAP scheme with VBN structure improves notification by 19 percent and end-to-end delay by 14.38 percent for a vehicle density of 160 vehicles. It is also proved from the simulation experiment that the performance of RAP scheme is promising in 4-lane highway roads.

Women and smoking—prices and health warning messages: evidence from Spain.

Science.gov (United States)

Gil-Lacruz, Ana Isabel; Gil-Lacruz, Marta; Leeder, Stephen

2015-06-01

In Spain, fewer men are smoking every year yet the number of women smokers remains relatively high. This paper examines the impact of two anti-smoking policies (increased prices and obligatory pictorial health warning labels) on womens smoking decisions; generation cohorts are used to elucidate the determinants of those decisions. We have drawn 48,755 observations of women living in Spain from the Spanish National Health Surveys of 2001, 2003, 2006 and 2011. Among the main results, we highlight that belonging to a particular generation modulates the manner in which individual characteristics and tobacco policies determine smoking decisions. For example, women's smoking was not considered as socially acceptable until the 1960s and therefore older women have lower smoking rates. However, for the younger female cohorts (generations X and Y) smoking was seen as an act of rebellion and modernity, so women belonging to these groups, irrespective of educational level, are more likely to smoke. The price of cigarettes and pictorial health warning labels on cigarette packets also influence the smoking behaviour of Spanish women. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

DISTANT EARLY WARNING SYSTEM for Tsunamis - A wide-area and multi-hazard approach

Science.gov (United States)

Hammitzsch, Martin; Lendholt, Matthias; Wächter, Joachim

2010-05-01

The DEWS (Distant Early Warning System) [1] project, funded under the 6th Framework Programme of the European Union, has the objective to create a new generation of interoperable early warning systems based on an open sensor platform. This platform integrates OGC [2] SWE [3] compliant sensor systems for the rapid detection of hazardous events, like earthquakes, sea level anomalies, ocean floor occurrences, and ground displacements in the case of tsunami early warning. Based on the upstream information flow DEWS focuses on the improvement of downstream capacities of warning centres especially by improving information logistics for effective and targeted warning message aggregation for a multilingual environment. Multiple telecommunication channels will be used for the dissemination of warning messages. Wherever possible, existing standards have been integrated. The Command and Control User Interface (CCUI), a rich client application based on Eclipse RCP (Rich Client Platform) [4] and the open source GIS uDig [5], integrates various OGC services. Using WMS (Web Map Service) [6] and WFS (Web Feature Service) [7] spatial data are utilized to depict the situation picture and to integrate a simulation system via WPS (Web Processing Service) [8] to identify affected areas. Warning messages are compiled and transmitted in the OASIS [9] CAP (Common Alerting Protocol) [10] standard together with addressing information defined via EDXL-DE (Emergency Data Exchange Language - Distribution Element) [11]. Internal interfaces are realized with SOAP [12] web services. Based on results of GITEWS [13] - in particular the GITEWS Tsunami Service Bus [14] - the DEWS approach provides an implementation for tsunami early warning systems but other geological paradigms are going to follow, e.g. volcanic eruptions or landslides. Therefore in future also multi-hazard functionality is conceivable. The specific software architecture of DEWS makes it possible to dock varying sensors to the

What it Takes to Get Passed On: Message Content, Style, and Structure as Predictors of Retransmission in the Boston Marathon Bombing Response.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeannette Sutton

Full Text Available Message retransmission is a central aspect of information diffusion. In a disaster context, the passing on of official warning messages by members of the public also serves as a behavioral indicator of message salience, suggesting that particular messages are (or are not perceived by the public to be both noteworthy and valuable enough to share with others. This study provides the first examination of terse message retransmission of official warning messages in response to a domestic terrorist attack, the Boston Marathon Bombing in 2013. Using messages posted from public officials' Twitter accounts that were active during the period of the Boston Marathon bombing and manhunt, we examine the features of messages that are associated with their retransmission. We focus on message content, style, and structure, as well as the networked relationships of message senders to answer the question: what characteristics of a terse message sent under conditions of imminent threat predict its retransmission among members of the public? We employ a negative binomial model to examine how message characteristics affect message retransmission. We find that, rather than any single effect dominating the process, retransmission of official Tweets during the Boston bombing response was jointly influenced by various message content, style, and sender characteristics. These findings suggest the need for more work that investigates impact of multiple factors on the allocation of attention and on message retransmission during hazard events.

Effectiveness of pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs among Lebanese school and university students.

Science.gov (United States)

Alaouie, Hala; Afifi, Rema A; Haddad, Pascale; Mahfoud, Ziyad; Nakkash, Rima

2015-03-01

Pictorial health warnings are more effective than text warnings in enhancing motivation to quit and not to start smoking among youth. In Lebanon, packs still have only a very small text warning. The aim of this study was to evaluate the perceived effectiveness of pictorial health warnings on cigarette packs among Lebanese youth. This was a cross-sectional study including school students (n=1412) aged 13-18 years recruited from 28 schools and university students (n=1217) aged 18-25 years recruited from 7 universities. A variety of warnings were adapted from other countries. In all, 4 warnings were tested among school students and 18 among university students. All pictorial warnings were considered more effective than the current text warning on message-related and impact-related variables, including intentions to quit or not to start smoking among school and university students. Selected examples related to the top-ranked pictorial warnings are: among male non-smoking school students, 81% agreed that the 'lung' warning had more impact on their intentions not to start smoking as compared to 57% for the current text warning (pnegative economic consequences of smoking, and to find that such a warning was effective among specific sociodemographic groups. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://group.bmj.com/group/rights-licensing/permissions.

Communication of emergency public warnings: A social science perspective and state-of-the-art assessment

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Mileti, D.S. (Colorado State Univ., Fort Collins, CO (USA)); Sorensen, J.H. (Oak Ridge National Lab., TN (USA))

1990-08-01

More than 200 studies of warning systems and warning response were reviewed for this social science perspective and state-of-the-art assessment of communication of emergency public warnings. The major findings are as follows. First, variations in the nature and content of warnings have a large impact on whether or not the public heeds the warning. Relevant factors include the warning source; warning channel; the consistency, credibility, accuracy, and understandability of the message; and the warning frequency. Second, characteristics of the population receiving the warning affect warning response. These include social characteristics such as gender, ethnicity and age, social setting characteristics such as stage of life or family context, psychological characteristics such as fatalism or risk perception, and knowledge characteristics such as experience or training. Third, many current myths about public response to emergency warning are at odds with knowledge derived from field investigations. Some of these myths include the keep it simple'' notion, the cry wolf'' syndrome, public panic and hysteria, and those concerning public willingness to respond to warnings. Finally, different methods of warning the public are not equally effective at providing an alert and notification in different physical and social settings. Most systems can provide a warning given three or more hours of available warning time. Special systems such as tone-alert radios are needed to provide rapid warning. 235 refs., 8 figs., 2 tabs.

Tsunami early warning and decision support

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

T. Steinmetz

2010-09-01

Full Text Available An innovative newly developed modular and standards based Decision Support System (DSS is presented which forms part of the German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS. The GITEWS project stems from the effort to implement an effective and efficient Tsunami Early Warning and Mitigation System for the coast of Indonesia facing the Sunda Arc along the islands of Sumatra, Java and Bali. The geological setting along an active continental margin which is very close to densely populated areas is a particularly difficult one to cope with, because potential tsunamis' travel times are thus inherently short. National policies require an initial warning to be issued within the first five minutes after an earthquake has occurred. There is an urgent requirement for an end-to-end solution where the decision support takes the entire warning chain into account. The system of choice is based on pre-computed scenario simulations and rule-based decision support which is delivered to the decision maker through a sophisticated graphical user interface (GUI using information fusion and fast information aggregation to create situational awareness in the shortest time possible. The system also contains risk and vulnerability information which was designed with the far end of the warning chain in mind – it enables the decision maker to base his acceptance (or refusal of the supported decision also on regionally differentiated risk and vulnerability information (see Strunz et al., 2010. While the system strives to provide a warning as quickly as possible, it is not in its proper responsibility to send and disseminate the warning to the recipients. The DSS only broadcasts its messages to a dissemination system (and possibly any other dissemination system which is operated under the responsibility of BMKG – the meteorological, climatological and geophysical service of Indonesia – which also hosts the tsunami early warning center. The system is to be seen

Development of SNS Stream Analysis Based on Forest Disaster Warning Information Service System

Science.gov (United States)

Oh, J.; KIM, D.; Kang, M.; Woo, C.; Kim, D.; Seo, J.; Lee, C.; Yoon, H.; Heon, S.

2017-12-01

Forest disasters, such as landslides and wildfires, cause huge economic losses and casualties, and the cost of recovery is increasing every year. While forest disaster mitigation technologies have been focused on the development of prevention and response technologies, they are now required to evolve into evacuation and border evacuation, and to develop technologies fused with ICT. In this study, we analyze the SNS (Social Network Service) stream and implement a system to detect the message that the forest disaster occurred or the forest disaster, and search the keyword related to the forest disaster in advance in real time. It is possible to detect more accurate forest disaster messages by repeatedly learning the retrieved results using machine learning techniques. To do this, we designed and implemented a system based on Hadoop and Spark, a distributed parallel processing platform, to handle Twitter stream messages that open SNS. In order to develop the technology to notify the information of forest disaster risk, a linkage of technology such as CBS (Cell Broadcasting System) based on mobile communication, internet-based civil defense siren, SNS and the legal and institutional issues for applying these technologies are examined. And the protocol of the forest disaster warning information service system that can deliver the SNS analysis result was developed. As a result, it was possible to grasp real-time forest disaster situation by real-time big data analysis of SNS that occurred during forest disasters. In addition, we confirmed that it is possible to rapidly propagate alarm or warning according to the disaster situation by using the function of the forest disaster warning information notification service. However, the limitation of system application due to the restriction of opening and sharing of SNS data currently in service and the disclosure of personal information remains a problem to be solved in the future. Keyword : SNS stream, Big data, Machine

A Bayesian decision approach to rainfall thresholds based flood warning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. L. V. Martina

2006-01-01

Full Text Available Operational real time flood forecasting systems generally require a hydrological model to run in real time as well as a series of hydro-informatics tools to transform the flood forecast into relatively simple and clear messages to the decision makers involved in flood defense. The scope of this paper is to set forth the possibility of providing flood warnings at given river sections based on the direct comparison of the quantitative precipitation forecast with critical rainfall threshold values, without the need of an on-line real time forecasting system. This approach leads to an extremely simplified alert system to be used by non technical stakeholders and could also be used to supplement the traditional flood forecasting systems in case of system failures. The critical rainfall threshold values, incorporating the soil moisture initial conditions, result from statistical analyses using long hydrological time series combined with a Bayesian utility function minimization. In the paper, results of an application of the proposed methodology to the Sieve river, a tributary of the Arno river in Italy, are given to exemplify its practical applicability.

Factors influencing message dissemination through social media

Science.gov (United States)

Zheng, Zeyu; Yang, Huancheng; Fu, Yang; Fu, Dianzheng; Podobnik, Boris; Stanley, H. Eugene

2018-06-01

Online social networks strongly impact our daily lives. An internet user (a "Netizen") wants messages to be efficiently disseminated. The susceptible-infected-recovered (SIR) dissemination model is the traditional tool for exploring the spreading mechanism of information diffusion. We here test our SIR-based dissemination model on open and real-world data collected from Twitter. We locate and identify phase transitions in the message dissemination process. We find that message content is a stronger factor than the popularity of the sender. We also find that the probability that a message will be forwarded has a threshold that affects its ability to spread, and when the probability is above the threshold the message quickly achieves mass dissemination.

Messages of distinction: the HIV/AIDS media campaign in Thailand.

Science.gov (United States)

Lyttleton, C

1996-03-01

In predominantly rural Thailand, television is a primary source of HIV/AIDS knowledge. Since 1990, HIV/AIDS warning messages have been aired regularly and repeatedly on television as part of the national strategy to minimize transmission of HIV. The education and prevention messages chosen do more than suggest measures to avoid infection. Within a logic of risk, these messages also define characteristics of people who are signified as threatening agents of infection. In Thailand, prostitutes and drug users are portrayed as the feared Other. Because commercial sex is so widespread, the demarcation of prostitutes as a high risk group signals a diffuse threat not easily subject to conceptual distancing. It is the pervasive and often fear-based associations born of the media material that, in large part, establish the basis for emergent practice when thoughts or actions are triggered by consideration of HIV/AIDS.

Health warnings on tobacco packaging in Italy: do they describe all possible smoking-related conditions?

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Vittoria Colamesta

2014-06-01

Full Text Available This report aims to evaluate the adherence between the health warnings on tobacco products in Italy and the smoking-related conditions known in the scientific literature. The Legislative Decree 2003 and 2012 established the general and the additional warnings on tobacco packaging. Regarding the smoking-related conditions, the health damages presented in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC report are reported. Also a narrative review was performed. Respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, adverse reproductive outcomes and childhood neurobehavioral disorders are well reported in the textual health warning. Also there is at least one message indicating that the exposure of secondhand smoke is harmful. Conversely, several smoking-related cancers and other adverse health effects (diabetes, hip fractures, low bone density in postmenopausal women, rheumatoid arthritis, mental decline, acne and allergy, etc are not considered. The health warnings represent an important mean for communicating that may change smokers’ attitudes and behaviours, therefore, it’s important to implement them, also considering the introduction of graphical warnings, to maintain their effectiveness over time.

Citizens’ adaptive or avoiding behavioral response to an emergency message on their mobile phone

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Gutteling, J.M.; Terpstra, T.; Kerstholt, J.H.

2017-01-01

Since November 2012, Dutch civil defense organizations employ NL-Alert, a cellular broadcast-based warning system to inform the public. Individuals receive a message on their mobile phone about the actual threat, as well as some advice how to deal with the situation at hand. This study reports on

Source Similarity and Social Media Health Messages: Extending Construal Level Theory to Message Sources.

Science.gov (United States)

Young, Rachel

2015-09-01

Social media users post messages about health goals and behaviors to online social networks. Compared with more traditional sources of health communication such as physicians or health journalists, peer sources are likely to be perceived as more socially close or similar, which influences how messages are processed. This experimental study uses construal level theory of psychological distance to predict how mediated health messages from peers influence health-related cognition and behavioral intention. Participants were exposed to source cues that identified peer sources as being either highly attitudinally and demographically similar to or different from participants. As predicted by construal level theory, participants who perceived sources of social media health messages as highly similar listed a greater proportion of beliefs about the feasibility of health behaviors and a greater proportion of negative beliefs, while participants who perceived sources as more dissimilar listed a greater proportion of positive beliefs about the health behaviors. Results of the study could be useful in determining how health messages from peers could encourage individuals to set realistic health goals.

Tornado Warning Perception and Response: Integrating the Roles of Visual Design, Demographics, and Hazard Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Schumann, Ronald L; Ash, Kevin D; Bowser, Gregg C

2018-02-01

Recent advancements in severe weather detection and warning dissemination technologies have reduced, but not eliminated, large-casualty tornado hazards in the United States. Research on warning cognition and behavioral response by the public has the potential to further reduce tornado-related deaths and injuries; however, less research has been conducted in this area compared to tornado research in the physical sciences. Extant research in this vein tends to bifurcate. One branch of studies derives from classic risk perception, which investigates cognitive, affective, and sociocultural factors in relation to concern and preparation for uncertain risks. Another branch focuses on psychological, social, and cultural factors implicated in warning response for rapid onset hazards, with attention paid to previous experience and message design. Few studies link risk perceptions with cognition and response as elicited by specific examples of warnings. The present study unites risk perception, cognition, and response approaches by testing the contributions of hypothesized warning response drivers in one set of path models. Warning response is approximated by perceived fear and intended protective action as reported by survey respondents when exposed to hypothetical tornado warning scenarios. This study considers the roles of hazard knowledge acquisition, information-seeking behaviors, previous experience, and sociodemographic factors while controlling for the effects of the visual warning graphic. Findings from the study indicate the primacy of a user's visual interpretation of a warning graphic in shaping tornado warning response. Results also suggest that information-seeking habits, previous tornado experience, and local disaster culture play strong influencing roles in warning response. © 2017 Society for Risk Analysis.

Earthquake Early Warning in Japan - Result of recent two years -

Science.gov (United States)

Shimoyama, T.; Doi, K.; Kiyomoto, M.; Hoshiba, M.

2009-12-01

Japan Meteorological Agency(JMA) started to provide Earthquake Early Warning(EEW) to the general public in October 2007. It was followed by provision of EEW to a limited number of users who understand the technical limit of EEW and can utilize it for automatic control from August 2006. Earthquake Early Warning in Japan definitely means information of estimated amplitude and arrival time of a strong ground motion after fault rupture occurred. In other words, the EEW provided by JMA is defined as a forecast of a strong ground motion before the strong motion arrival. EEW of JMA is to enable advance countermeasures to disasters caused by strong ground motions with providing a warning message of anticipating strong ground motion before the S wave arrival. However, due to its very short available time period, there should need some measures and ideas to provide rapidly EEW and utilize it properly. - EEW is issued to general public when the maximum seismic intensity 5 lower (JMA scale) or greater is expected. - EEW message contains origin time, epicentral region name, and names of areas (unit is about 1/3 to 1/4 of one prefecture) where seismic intensity 4 or greater is expected. Expected arrival time is not included because it differs substantially even in one unit area. - EEW is to be broadcast through the broadcasting media(TV, radio and City Administrative Disaster Management Radio), and is delivered to cellular phones through cell broadcast system. For those who would like to know the more precise estimation and smaller earthquake information at their point of their properties, JMA allows designated private companies to provide forecast of strong ground motion, in which the estimation of a seismic intensity as well as arrival time of S-wave are contained, at arbitrary places under the JMA’s technical assurance. From October, 2007 to August, 2009, JMA issued 11 warnings to general public expecting seismic intensity “5 lower” or greater, including M=7.2 inland

A Walk through TRIDEC's intermediate Tsunami Early Warning System

Science.gov (United States)

Hammitzsch, M.; Reißland, S.; Lendholt, M.

2012-04-01

The management of natural crises is an important application field of the technology developed in the project Collaborative, Complex, and Critical Decision-Support in Evolving Crises (TRIDEC), co-funded by the European Commission in its Seventh Framework Programme. TRIDEC is based on the development of the German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS) and the Distant Early Warning System (DEWS) providing a service platform for both sensor integration and warning dissemination. In TRIDEC new developments in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) are used to extend the existing platform realising a component-based technology framework for building distributed tsunami warning systems for deployment, e.g. in the North-eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and Connected Seas (NEAM) region. The TRIDEC system will be implemented in three phases, each with a demonstrator. Successively, the demonstrators are addressing challenges, such as the design and implementation of a robust and scalable service infrastructure supporting the integration and utilisation of existing resources with accelerated generation of large volumes of data. These include sensor systems, geo-information repositories, simulation tools and data fusion tools. In addition to conventional sensors also unconventional sensors and sensor networks play an important role in TRIDEC. The system version presented is based on service-oriented architecture (SOA) concepts and on relevant standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). In this way the system continuously gathers, processes and displays events and data coming from open sensor platforms to enable operators to quickly decide whether an early warning is necessary and to send personalized warning messages to the authorities and the population at large through a wide range of communication channels. The system

Nudging Online Security Behaviour with Warning Messages: Results from an online experiment

OpenAIRE

VAN BAVEL RENE; RODRIGUEZ PRIEGO NURIA

2016-01-01

This study is part of a larger effort to better understand online behaviour. We tested the effect on people’s security behaviour of different ways of warning them about cybersecurity threats with an online experiment (n=5,065) in Germany, Sweden, Poland, the UK and Spain. Participants had to make a purchase in a mock online store, and their behaviour was observed through four behavioural measures. Results show that making users aware of the steps they can take to minimise their exposure to ri...

The religious message in action - a case study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

René Gothóni

1975-01-01

Full Text Available We understand a religious message to be the product of a religious movement. In studying such a message, it is very much to the purpose to place it in the context in which it operates. The cultural and social context of a religious message is some religious movement. Hence, the message should be examined against that framework. Each message has a certain structure, and its detection is of prime importance. Messages are not only part of the tradition, but themselves unique in their respective communicative situations. Thus, in our view, structural analysis does not have analytical use-value unless the message's symbols are set into their communicative context. The aim of this paper is dual: On the one hand, we intend to analyze and clarify the structure of a religious message of the Laestadian movement, how the message operates, also how the members of that movement respond to the codes of the message, and what kind of functions it fulfills; on the other, to develop and test an analytical model which would combine structural and interactional analysis.

Community Based Warning and Evacuation System against Debris Flow in the Upper Jeneberang River, Gowa, South Sulawesi

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Sutikno Hardjosuwarno

2008-07-01

Full Text Available Gigantic collapse of the Caldera wall of Mt. Bawakaraeng (2,830 m in March 2004 had supplied the sediment volume of 230 million to the most upper stream of Jeneberang River, which flowed down to the lower reach in the form of debris flow which is triggered by rainfall. The purpose of the research is to provide a system which is able to forecast the occurrence of debris flow, to identify the weak points along the river course, to identify the hazard areas and how to inform effectively and efficiently the warning messages to the inhabitants in the dangerous area by using the existing modern equipment combined with the traditional one. The standard rainfall which is used to judge the occurrence of debris flow was established by Yano method. It is based on the historical data of rainfall that trigger and not trigger to the occurrence of debris flow which is widely used in Japan so far. The hazard area was estimated by Two-Dimensional Simulation Model for debris flow, the debris flow arrival time at each point in the river were estimated by dividing their distance from reference point by debris flow velocity, where the check dam no. 7-1 in Manimbahoi was designated as reference point. The existing evacuation routes were checked by field survey, the strength and coverage of sound for kentongan and manual siren were examined using sound pressure level at the location of the existing monitoring post and the effectiveness of warning and evacuation were evaluated by comparing the warning and evacuation time against the debris flow arrival time. It was resulted that debris flow occurrence was triggered by short duration of high rainfall intensity, long duration of low rainfall intensity and the outbreak of natural dam which is formed by land slide or bank collapses. The hazard area of upper Jeneberang River are mostly located on the river terraces where the local inhabitants earn their living through cultivating the river terraces as paddy fields, dry

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center's Response to the Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami

Science.gov (United States)

Weinstein, S. A.; Becker, N. C.; Shiro, B.; Koyanagi, K. K.; Sardina, V.; Walsh, D.; Wang, D.; McCreery, C. S.; Fryer, G. J.; Cessaro, R. K.; Hirshorn, B. F.; Hsu, V.

2011-12-01

The largest Pacific basin earthquake in 47 years, and also the largest magnitude earthquake since the Sumatra 2004 earthquake, struck off of the east coast of the Tohoku region of Honshu, Japan at 5:46 UTC on 11 March 2011. The Tohoku earthquake (Mw 9.0) generated a massive tsunami with runups of up to 40m along the Tohoku coast. The tsunami waves crossed the Pacific Ocean causing significant damage as far away as Hawaii, California, and Chile, thereby becoming the largest, most destructive tsunami in the Pacific Basin since 1960. Triggers on the seismic stations at Erimo, Hokkaido (ERM) and Matsushiro, Honshu (MAJO), alerted Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) scientists 90 seconds after the earthquake began. Four minutes after its origin, and about one minute after the earthquake's rupture ended, PTWC issued an observatory message reporting a preliminary magnitude of 7.5. Eight minutes after origin time, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued its first international tsunami message in its capacity as the Northwest Pacific Tsunami Advisory Center. In accordance with international tsunami warning system protocols, PTWC then followed with its first international tsunami warning message using JMA's earthquake parameters, including an Mw of 7.8. Additional Mwp, mantle wave, and W-phase magnitude estimations based on the analysis of later-arriving seismic data at PTWC revealed that the earthquake magnitude reached at least 8.8, and that a destructive tsunami would likely be crossing the Pacific Ocean. The earthquake damaged the nearest coastal sea-level station located 90 km from the epicenter in Ofunato, Japan. The NOAA DART sensor situated 600 km off the coast of Sendai, Japan, at a depth of 5.6 km recorded a tsunami wave amplitude of nearly two meters, making it by far the largest tsunami wave ever recorded by a DART sensor. Thirty minutes later, a coastal sea-level station at Hanasaki, Japan, 600 km from the epicenter, recorded a tsunami wave amplitude of

Explaining Intentions to Seek Help for Depressive Symptoms in the Context of Responsibility Message Framing.

Science.gov (United States)

Lueck, Jennifer; Yzer, Marco

2018-08-01

U.S. college students are disproportionally affected by depression but typically do not seek help. To advance understanding of the role of health messages in shaping college students' help-seeking intentions, we used a reasoned action approach to experimentally investigate help-seeking intentions for depressive symptoms. Due to negative interpretation biases among those who suffer from depression, scholars have previously warned against attempts to decrease feelings of responsibility for one's depression in health messages. We tested the determinants of help-seeking intentions as a function of exposure to depression help-seeking messages that differed in responsibility cues. Findings revealed that in our sample low responsibility health message framing did not affect determinants of help-seeking intentions. We identified instrumental attitude (β = .53) and descriptive norms (β = .24) as determinants of intentions to seek help (R 2  = .42) across message conditions and across levels of depression. These findings indicate potentially important targets for messages that seek to increase help-seeking among depressed college students.

Diagnosis and Early Warning of Wind Turbine Faults Based on Cluster Analysis Theory and Modified ANFIS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Quan Zhou

2017-07-01

Full Text Available The construction of large-scale wind farms results in a dramatic increase of wind turbine (WT faults. The failure mode is also becoming increasingly complex. This study proposes a new model for early warning and diagnosis of WT faults to solve the problem of Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA systems, given that the traditional threshold method cannot provide timely warning. First, the characteristic quantity of fault early warning and diagnosis analyzed by clustering analysis can obtain in advance abnormal data in the normal threshold range by considering the effects of wind speed. Based on domain knowledge, Adaptive Neuro-fuzzy Inference System (ANFIS is then modified to establish the fault early warning and diagnosis model. This approach improves the accuracy of the model under the condition of absent and sparse training data. Case analysis shows that the effect of the early warning and diagnosis model in this study is better than that of the traditional threshold method.

Information Dissemination Analysis of Different Media towards the Application for Disaster Pre-Warning

OpenAIRE

Zhang, Nan; Huang, Hong; Su, Boni; Zhao, Jinlong; Zhang, Bo

2014-01-01

Knowing the information dissemination mechanisms of different media and having an efficient information dissemination plan for disaster pre-warning plays a very important role in reducing losses and ensuring the safety of human beings. In this paper we established models of information dissemination for six typical information media, including short message service (SMS), microblogs, news portals, cell phones, television, and oral communication. Then, the information dissemination capability ...

Flood warnings in coastal areas: how do social and behavioural patterns influence alert services?

Science.gov (United States)

Pescaroli, G.; Magni, M.

2015-01-01

Many studies discuss the economic and technical aspects of flood warnings. Less attention has been given to the social and psychological patterns that affect alert services. In particular, the literature focuses on warnings activated in river basins or marine environments without providing clear evidence of relevance to Mediterranean coastal areas, even though these are subjected to growing flood risk related to climate change. This paper is a first attempt to bridge this gap. Our research develops an in- depth analysis of the village of Cesenatico on the Adriatic Sea coast. Here the municipality adopted two complementary warning systems: a siren and an alert via Short Message Service (SMS). The analysis focuses on a survey conducted in 2011 and 2012 with 228 participants. The relationships between social and behavioural variables and warning services are investigated, and so are flood preparedness and information dissemination. Qualitative evidence from informal interviews is used to support the understanding of key responses. The conclusions show how different social and behavioural patterns can influence the effectiveness and use of warning systems, regardless of the technology adopted and the structural mitigation measures implemented. Education, training and accountability are seen to be critical elements for improvement. Finally, the statistical output is used to suggest new questions and new directions for research.

Traditional Bullying as a Potential Warning Sign of Cyberbullying

Science.gov (United States)

Kowalski, Robin M.; Morgan, Chad A.; Limber, Susan P.

2012-01-01

Although traditional bullying and cyberbullying share features in common, they differ in important ways. For example, cyberbullying is often characterized by perceived anonymity and can occur any time of the day or night. Conversely, perpetrators of traditional bullying are known to the victim, and most traditional bullying occurs at school. Yet,…

How soon is too soon? When to cancel a warning after a damaging tsunami

Science.gov (United States)

Fryer, G. J.; Becker, N. C.; Wang, D.; Weinstein, S.; Richards, K.

2012-12-01

Following an earthquake a tsunami warning center (TWC) must determine if a coastal evacuation is necessary and must do so fast enough for the warning to be useful to affected coastlines. Once a damaging tsunami has arrived, the TWC must decide when to cancel its warning, a task often more challenging than the initial hazard assessment. Here we demonstrate the difficulties by investigating the impact of the Tohoku tsunami of 11 March 2011 on the State of Hawaii, which relies on the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) for tsunami hazard guidance. PTWC issued a Tsunami Watch for Hawaii at 10 March 1956 HST (10 minutes after the earthquake) and upgraded to a Tsunami Warning at 2131 HST. The tsunami arrived in Hawaii just before 0300 HST the next day, reached a maximum runup of over 5 m, and did roughly $50 million in damage throughout the state. PTWC downgraded the Warning to an Advisory at 0730 HST, and canceled the Advisory at 1140 HST. The timing of the downgrade was appropriate—by then it was safe for coastal residents to re-enter the evacuation zone but not to enter the water—but in retrospect PTWC cancelled its Advisory too early. By late morning tide gauges throughout the state had all registered maximum wave heights of 30 cm or less for a couple of hours, so PTWC cancelled. The Center was unaware, however, of ocean behavior at locations without instruments. At Ma'alaea Harbor on the Island of Maui, for example, sea level oscillations exposed the harbor bottom every 20 minutes for several hours after the cancellation. At Waikiki on Oahu, lifeguards rescued 25 swimmers (who had either ignored or were unaware of the cancellation message's caution about hazardous currents) in the hours after the cancellation and performed CPR on one near-drowning victim. Fortunately, there were no deaths. Because of dangerous surges, ocean safety officials closed Hanauma Bay, a popular snorkeling spot on Oahu, for a full day after the tsunami hit. They reassessed the bay the

Adolescents' attention to responsibility messages in magazine alcohol advertisements: an eye-tracking approach.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomsen, Steven R; Fulton, Kristi

2007-07-01

To investigate whether adolescent readers attend to responsibility or moderation messages (e.g., "drink responsibly") included in magazine advertisements for alcoholic beverages and to assess the association between attention and the ability to accurately recall the content of these messages. An integrated head-eye tracking system (ASL Eye-TRAC 6000) was used to measure the eye movements, including fixations and fixation duration, of a group of 63 adolescents (ages 12-14 years) as they viewed six print advertisements for alcoholic beverages. Immediately after the eye-tracking sessions, participants completed a masked-recall exercise. Overall, the responsibility or moderation messages were the least frequently viewed textual or visual areas of the advertisements. Participants spent an average of only .35 seconds, or 7% of the total viewing time, fixating on each responsibility message. Beverage bottles, product logos, and cartoon illustrations were the most frequently viewed elements of the advertisements. Among those participants who fixated at least once on an advertisement's warning message, only a relatively small percentage were able to recall its general concept or restate it verbatim in the masked recall test. Voluntary responsibility or moderation messages failed to capture the attention of teenagers who participated in this study and need to be typographically modified to be more effective.

Enhanced chemical weapon warning via sensor fusion

Science.gov (United States)

Flaherty, Michael; Pritchett, Daniel; Cothren, Brian; Schwaiger, James

2011-05-01

Torch Technologies Inc., is actively involved in chemical sensor networking and data fusion via multi-year efforts with Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA). The objective of these efforts is to develop innovative concepts and advanced algorithms that enhance our national Chemical Warfare (CW) test and warning capabilities via the fusion of traditional and non-traditional CW sensor data. Under Phase I, II, and III Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) contracts with DPG, Torch developed the Advanced Chemical Release Evaluation System (ACRES) software to support non real-time CW sensor data fusion. Under Phase I and II SBIRs with DTRA in conjunction with the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center (ECBC), Torch is using the DPG ACRES CW sensor data fuser as a framework from which to develop the Cloud state Estimation in a Networked Sensor Environment (CENSE) data fusion system. Torch is currently developing CENSE to implement and test innovative real-time sensor network based data fusion concepts using CW and non-CW ancillary sensor data to improve CW warning and detection in tactical scenarios.

Readability Comparison of Pro- and Anti-Cancer Screening Online Messages in Japan

Science.gov (United States)

Okuhara, Tsuyoshi; Ishikawa, Hirono; Okada, Masahumi; Kato, Mio; Kiuchi, Takahiro

2016-01-01

Background: Cancer screening rates are lower in Japan than those in western countries. Health professionals publish pro-cancer screening messages on the internet to encourage audiences to undergo cancer screening. However, the information provided is often difficult to read for lay persons. Further, anti-cancer screening activists warn against cancer screening with messages on the Internet. We aimed to assess and compare the readability of pro- and anti-cancer screening online messages in Japan using a measure of readability. Methods: We conducted web searches at the beginning of September 2016 using two major Japanese search engines (Google.jp and Yahoo!.jp). The included websites were classified as “anti”, “pro”, or “neutral” depending on the claims, and “health professional” or “non-health professional” depending on the writers. Readability was determined using a validated measure of Japanese readability. Statistical analysis was conducted using two-way ANOVA. Results: In the total 159 websites analyzed, anti-cancer screening online messages were generally easier to read than pro-cancer screening online messages, Messages written by health professionals were more difficult to read than those written by non-health professionals. Claim × writer interaction was not significant. Conclusion: When health professionals prepare pro-cancer screening materials for publication online, we recommend they check for readability using readability assessment tools and improve text for easy comprehension when necessary. PMID:28125867

Education as a Determinant of Response to Cyclone Warnings: Evidence from Coastal Zones in India

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Upasna Sharma

2013-06-01

Full Text Available Education is often considered a means for enhancing adaptive capacity, based on the consideration that formal education is likely to improve the ability of individuals to evaluate risks and respond to warning information. We explore the relation between the level and nature of education and enhanced ability to respond to tropical cyclone risk. We make a distinction between formal school-based education and nonformal education in the form of traditional knowledge of environmental precursors and conditions that may be associated with tropical cyclone occurrence. We evaluate two possible routes through which education could lead to enhanced ability to respond to tropical cyclone risk; first, education, both formal and nonformal, may lead to a better ability to access, understand, and interpret warning information and hence lead to an appropriate response to the warning; and second, formal education may be associated with greater income levels and socioeconomic status and thus with greater resources for evacuating in response to cyclone warning. We find that the hypotheses regarding the link between formal education and adaptive capacity are actually not well supported by empirical data. On the other hand nonformal education in the form of traditional knowledge for predicting cyclones based on environmental precursors emerged as a significant determinant of the ability to understand and interpret warning information and provides a strong case for preserving and promoting a hazard-specific traditional knowledge base along with formal education.

Do warning signs on electronic gaming machines influence irrational cognitions?

Science.gov (United States)

Monaghan, Sally; Blaszczynski, Alex; Nower, Lia

2009-08-01

Electronic gaming machines are popular among problem gamblers; in response, governments have introduced "responsible gaming" legislation incorporating the mandatory display of warning signs on or near electronic gaming machines. These signs are designed to correct irrational and erroneous beliefs through the provision of accurate information on probabilities of winning and the concept of randomness. There is minimal empirical data evaluating the effectiveness of such signs. In this study, 93 undergraduate students were randomly allocated to standard and informative messages displayed on an electronic gaming machine during play in a laboratory setting. Results revealed that a majority of participants incorrectly estimated gambling odds and reported irrational gambling-related cognitions prior to play. In addition, there were no significant between-group differences, and few participants recalled the content of messages or modified their gambling-related cognitions. Signs placed on electronic gaming machines may not modify irrational beliefs or alter gambling behaviour.

Flood warnings in coastal areas: how do experience and information influence responses to alert services?

Science.gov (United States)

Pescaroli, G.; Magni, M.

2015-04-01

Many studies discuss the economic and technical aspects of flood warnings. Less attention has been given to the social and behavioural patterns that affect alert services. In particular, the literature focuses on warnings activated in river basins or marine environments without providing clear evidence on Mediterranean coastal areas, even though these are subjected to growing flood risk related to climate change. This paper is a first attempt to bridge this gap. Our research develops an in-depth analysis of the village of Cesenatico on the Adriatic Sea coast. Here the municipality adopted two complementary warning systems: a siren and an alert via short message service (SMS). The analysis focuses on a survey conducted in 2011 and 2012 with 228 participants. The relationships between social and behavioural variables and warning services are investigated as well as flood preparedness and information dissemination. Qualitative evidence from informal interviews is used to support the understanding of key responses. The conclusions show how different social and behavioural patterns can influence the effectiveness and use of warning systems, regardless of the technology adopted and the structural mitigation measures implemented. Education, training and accountability are seen to be critical elements for implementation. Finally, the statistical output is used to suggest new questions and new directions for research.

Development of a Global Agricultural Hotspot Detection and Early Warning System

Science.gov (United States)

Lemoine, G.; Rembold, F.; Urbano, F.; Csak, G.

2015-12-01

The number of web based platforms for crop monitoring has grown rapidly over the last years and anomaly maps and time profiles of remote sensing derived indicators can be accessed online thanks to a number of web based portals. However, while these systems make available a large amount of crop monitoring data to the agriculture and food security analysts, there is no global platform which provides agricultural production hotspot warning in a highly automatic and timely manner. Therefore a web based system providing timely warning evidence as maps and short narratives is currently under development by the Joint Research Centre. The system (called "HotSpot Detection System of Agriculture Production Anomalies", HSDS) will focus on water limited agricultural systems worldwide. The automatic analysis of relevant meteorological and vegetation indicators at selected administrative units (Gaul 1 level) will trigger warning messages for the areas where anomalous conditions are observed. The level of warning (ranging from "watch" to "alert") will depend on the nature and number of indicators for which an anomaly is detected. Information regarding the extent of the agricultural areas concerned by the anomaly and the progress of the agricultural season will complement the warning label. In addition, we are testing supplementary detailed information from other sources for the areas triggering a warning. These regard the automatic web-based and food security-tailored analysis of media (using the JRC Media Monitor semantic search engine) and the automatic detection of active crop area using Sentinel 1, upcoming Sentinel-2 and Landsat 8 imagery processed in Google Earth Engine. The basic processing will be fully automated and updated every 10 days exploiting low resolution rainfall estimates and satellite vegetation indices. Maps, trend graphs and statistics accompanied by short narratives edited by a team of crop monitoring experts, will be made available on the website on a

Improving Type Error Messages in OCaml

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Arthur Charguéraud

2015-12-01

Full Text Available Cryptic type error messages are a major obstacle to learning OCaml or other ML-based languages. In many cases, error messages cannot be interpreted without a sufficiently-precise model of the type inference algorithm. The problem of improving type error messages in ML has received quite a bit of attention over the past two decades, and many different strategies have been considered. The challenge is not only to produce error messages that are both sufficiently concise and systematically useful to the programmer, but also to handle a full-blown programming language and to cope with large-sized programs efficiently. In this work, we present a modification to the traditional ML type inference algorithm implemented in OCaml that, by significantly reducing the left-to-right bias, allows us to report error messages that are more helpful to the programmer. Our algorithm remains fully predictable and continues to produce fairly concise error messages that always help making some progress towards fixing the code. We implemented our approach as a patch to the OCaml compiler in just a few hundred lines of code. We believe that this patch should benefit not just to beginners, but also to experienced programs developing large-scale OCaml programs.

Children’s Understanding of No Diving Warning Signs: Implications for Preventing Childhood Injury

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barbara A. Morrongiello

2016-07-01

Full Text Available The current study examined children’s understanding of No Diving warning signs. Normally-developing 7 to 10 year olds were asked questions to assess their understanding of text, images, and main messages on No Diving warning signs. These structured interviews were audio recorded and responses were later coded. Results revealed that children understood the behavior advised against (diving, why it is prohibited (can hit head on the bottom, and what can happen (serious injury including hospitalization. They understood that breaking your neck results in limitations in mobility and can occur from diving, but they did not anticipate that such an injury is likely to occur. There were no gender and few age differences, but diving experience was associated with children significantly downplaying their risk of injury. The findings suggest that having No Diving warning signs explicitly mention a broken neck, may serve to remind children of this potential consequence at the time of decision making. Active adult supervision is particularly important for children who have prior positive diving experiences.

Slope Failure Prediction and Early Warning Awareness Education for Reducing Landslides Casualty in Malaysia

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Koay, S. P.; Tay, L. T.; Fukuoka, H.; Koyama, T.; Sakai, N.; Jamaludin, S. B.; Lateh, H.

2015-12-01

Northeast monsoon causes heavy rain in east coast of Peninsular Malaysia from November to March, every year. During this monsoon period, besides the happening of flood along east coast, landslides also causes millions of Malaysian Ringgit economical losses. Hence, it is essential to study the prediction of slope failure to prevent the casualty of landslides happening. In our study, we introduce prediction method of the accumulated rainfall affecting the stability of the slope. If the curve, in the graph, which is presented by rainfall intensity versus accumulated rainfall, crosses over the critical line, the condition of the slope is considered in high risk where the data are calculated and sent from rain gauge in the site via internet. If the possibility of slope failure is going high, the alert message will be sent out to the authorities for decision making on road block or setting the warning light at the road side. Besides road block and warning light, we propose to disseminate short message, to pre-registered mobile phone user, to notify the public for easing the traffic jam and avoiding unnecessary public panic. Prediction is not enough to prevent the casualty. Early warning awareness of the public is very important to reduce the casualty of landslides happening. IT technology does not only play a main role in disseminating information, early warning awareness education, by using IT technology, should be conducted, in schools, to give early warning awareness on natural hazard since childhood. Knowing the pass history on landslides occurrence will gain experience on the landslides happening. Landslides historical events with coordinate information are stored in database. The public can browse these historical events via internet. By referring to such historical landslides events, the public may know where did landslides happen before and the possibility of slope failure occurrence again is considered high. Simulation of rainfall induced slope failure mechanism

Building a Communication, Education, an Outreach Program for the ShakeAlert National Earthquake Early Warning Program - Recommendations for Public Alerts Via Cell Phones

Science.gov (United States)

DeGroot, R. M.; Long, K.; Strauss, J. A.

2017-12-01

The United States Geological Survey (USGS) and its partners are developing the ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning System for the West Coast of the United States. To be an integral part of successful implementation, ShakeAlert engagement programs and materials must integrate with and leverage broader earthquake risk programs. New methods and products for dissemination must be multidisciplinary, cost effective, and consistent with existing hazards education and communication efforts. The ShakeAlert Joint Committee for Communication, Education, and Outreach (JCCEO), is identifying, developing, and cultivating partnerships with ShakeAlert stakeholders including Federal, State, academic partners, private companies, policy makers, and local organizations. Efforts include developing materials, methods for delivery, and reaching stakeholders with information on ShakeAlert, earthquake preparedness, and emergency protective actions. It is essential to develop standards to ensure information communicated via the alerts is consistent across the public and private sector and achieving a common understanding of what actions users take when they receive a ShakeAlert warning. In February 2017, the JCCEO convened the Warning Message Focus Group (WMFG) to provide findings and recommendations to the Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions on the use of earthquake early warning message content standards for public alerts via cell phones. The WMFG represents communications, education, and outreach stakeholders from various sectors including ShakeAlert regional coordinators, industry, emergency managers, and subject matter experts from the social sciences. The group knowledge was combined with an in-depth literature review to ensure that all groups who could receive the message would be taken into account. The USGS and the participating states and agencies acknowledge that the implementation of ShakeAlert is a collective effort requiring the participation of hundreds of

Radiating Messages: An International Perspective.

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Walker, Janet

2003-01-01

Negative messages about the detrimental impacts of divorce on children prompted urgent calls in the United Kingdom for a reinstatement of traditional family values. Suggests that although the effects of divorce are real, care should be taken to avoid exaggeration, thus moving the debate to one centered on providing better support, advice, and…

Israeli Arab and Jewish youth knowledge and opinion about alcohol warning labels: pre-intervention data.

Science.gov (United States)

Weiss, S

1997-01-01

This article presents baseline data on the opinion toward alcohol beverage warning labels and on levels of knowledge of the risks discussed in the contents of the labels prior to the labels' introduction, and on levels of knowledge of additional alcohol-related hazards not included in the proposed warning labels, among a sample of 3065 adolescents of four religions living in the northern region of Israel. About 2220 Arab participants (Moslems, Christians and Druze) and 845 Jewish respondents answered in the winter of 1996 a Hebrew version of an American questionnaire, which had been used to measure levels of knowledge of the label in the United States. More respondents were in favour of warning labels on alcohol containers than on advertisements. Arabs as a group were more in favour of warning labels on alcohol containers than Jews. The initial knowledge levels among the participants were not very high, especially concerning the item 'Drinking impairs the ability to operate machinery' (74.4%) which is included on the proposed warning label, and concerning two hazards which are not included: 'Drinking increases risk of cancer' (54.6%) and 'Drinking increases risk of high blood pressure' (60.4%). Abstainers knew more than drinkers that 'Pregnant women should not drink', 'Drinking increases risk of cancer' and 'Alcohol in combination with other drugs is hazardous'. Implications for public health are discussed and alternative warning messages that might be used to inform the Israeli public of several less well-known hazards are suggested.

Accuracy and Efficiency of Recording Pediatric Early Warning Scores Using an Electronic Physiological Surveillance System Compared With Traditional Paper-Based Documentation.

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Sefton, Gerri; Lane, Steven; Killen, Roger; Black, Stuart; Lyon, Max; Ampah, Pearl; Sproule, Cathryn; Loren-Gosling, Dominic; Richards, Caitlin; Spinty, Jean; Holloway, Colette; Davies, Coral; Wilson, April; Chean, Chung Shen; Carter, Bernie; Carrol, E D

2017-05-01

Pediatric Early Warning Scores are advocated to assist health professionals to identify early signs of serious illness or deterioration in hospitalized children. Scores are derived from the weighting applied to recorded vital signs and clinical observations reflecting deviation from a predetermined "norm." Higher aggregate scores trigger an escalation in care aimed at preventing critical deterioration. Process errors made while recording these data, including plotting or calculation errors, have the potential to impede the reliability of the score. To test this hypothesis, we conducted a controlled study of documentation using five clinical vignettes. We measured the accuracy of vital sign recording, score calculation, and time taken to complete documentation using a handheld electronic physiological surveillance system, VitalPAC Pediatric, compared with traditional paper-based charts. We explored the user acceptability of both methods using a Web-based survey. Twenty-three staff participated in the controlled study. The electronic physiological surveillance system improved the accuracy of vital sign recording, 98.5% versus 85.6%, P < .02, Pediatric Early Warning Score calculation, 94.6% versus 55.7%, P < .02, and saved time, 68 versus 98 seconds, compared with paper-based documentation, P < .002. Twenty-nine staff completed the Web-based survey. They perceived that the electronic physiological surveillance system offered safety benefits by reducing human error while providing instant visibility of recorded data to the entire clinical team.

The evolution of health warning labels on cigarette packs: the role of precedents, and tobacco industry strategies to block diffusion

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Hiilamo, Heikki; Crosbie, Eric; Glantz, Stanton A

2013-01-01

Objective To analyse the evolution and diffusion of health warnings on cigarette packs around the world, including tobacco industry attempts to block this diffusion. Methods We analysed tobacco industry documents and public sources to construct a database on the global evolution and diffusion of health warning labels from 1966 to 2012, and also analysed industry strategies. Results Health warning labels, especially labels with graphic elements, threaten the tobacco industry because they are a low-cost, effective measure to reduce smoking. Multinational tobacco companies did not object to voluntary innocuous warnings with ambiguous health messages, in part because they saw them as offering protection from lawsuits and local packaging regulations. The companies worked systematically at the international level to block or weaken warnings once stronger more specific warnings began to appear in the 1970s. Since 1985 in Iceland, the tobacco industry has been aware of the effectiveness of graphic health warning labels (GWHL). The industry launched an all-out attack in the early 1990s to prevent GHWLs, and was successful in delaying GHWLs internationally for nearly 10 years. Conclusions Beginning in 2005, as a result of the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), GHWLs began to spread. Effective implementation of FCTC labelling provisions has stimulated diffusion of strong health warning labels despite industry opposition. PMID:23092884

The Effects of Antismoking Messages From Family, School, and Mass Media on Smoking Behavior and Smoking Intention Among Chinese Adolescents.

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Yu, Shaohua; Koplan, Jeffrey; Eriksen, Michael P; Yao, Shuo; Redmon, Pamela; Song, Julia; Uretsky, Elanah; Huang, Cheng

2015-01-01

The prevalence of adolescent smoking has been increasing rapidly in China. Expanding adolescent exposure to antismoking messages may be an effective approach to prevent tobacco use among this population. Using a cross-sectional sample of 8,444 high school students in four Chinese cities, this study assessed the relation between self-reported exposure to antismoking messages from families, schools, and mass media and the rate of past 30-day smoking and smoking intention among junior and senior high school students. Results from logistic regression suggested that antismoking messages delivered via school and media inhibited both tobacco use and the intention to smoke. The effects of familial warnings about harmful effects of smoking, in contrast, were at best insignificant.

Developing mobile phone text messages for tobacco risk communication among college students: a mixed methods study

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Alexander V. Prokhorov

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Engaging young adults for the purpose of communicating health risks associated with nicotine and tobacco use can be challenging since they comprise a population heavily targeted with appealing marketing by the evolving tobacco industry. The Food and Drug Administration seeks novel ways to effectively communicate risks to warn about using these products. This paper describes the first step in developing a text messaging program delivered by smartphones that manipulate three messaging characteristics (i.e., depth, framing, and appeal. Methods Perceptions of community college students were described after previewing text messages designed to inform about risks of using conventional and new tobacco products. Thirty-one tobacco users and nonusers, aged 18–25 participated in five focus discussions held on two community college campuses. Attendees reviewed prototype messages and contributed feedback about text message structure and content. Qualitative data were coded and analyzed using NVivo Version 10. Results Most participants were female and two-thirds were ethnic minorities. A variety of conventional and new tobacco products in the past month were used by a third of participants. Three identified domains were derived from the qualitative data. These included perceived risks of using tobacco products, receptivity to message content, and logistical feedback regarding the future message campaign. Conclusion Overall, participants found the messages to be interesting and appropriate. A gap in awareness of the risks of using new tobacco products was revealed. Feedback on the prototype messages was incorporated into message revisions. These findings provided preliminary confirmation that the forthcoming messaging program will be appealing to young adults.

Developing mobile phone text messages for tobacco risk communication among college students: a mixed methods study.

Science.gov (United States)

Prokhorov, Alexander V; Machado, Tamara C; Calabro, Karen S; Vanderwater, Elizabeth A; Vidrine, Damon J; Pasch, Keryn P; Marani, Salma K; Buchberg, Meredith; Wagh, Aditya; Russell, Sophia C; Czerniak, Katarzyna W; Botello, Gabrielle C; Dobbins, Mackenzie H; Khalil, Georges E; Perry, Cheryl L

2017-01-31

Engaging young adults for the purpose of communicating health risks associated with nicotine and tobacco use can be challenging since they comprise a population heavily targeted with appealing marketing by the evolving tobacco industry. The Food and Drug Administration seeks novel ways to effectively communicate risks to warn about using these products. This paper describes the first step in developing a text messaging program delivered by smartphones that manipulate three messaging characteristics (i.e., depth, framing, and appeal). Perceptions of community college students were described after previewing text messages designed to inform about risks of using conventional and new tobacco products. Thirty-one tobacco users and nonusers, aged 18-25 participated in five focus discussions held on two community college campuses. Attendees reviewed prototype messages and contributed feedback about text message structure and content. Qualitative data were coded and analyzed using NVivo Version 10. Most participants were female and two-thirds were ethnic minorities. A variety of conventional and new tobacco products in the past month were used by a third of participants. Three identified domains were derived from the qualitative data. These included perceived risks of using tobacco products, receptivity to message content, and logistical feedback regarding the future message campaign. Overall, participants found the messages to be interesting and appropriate. A gap in awareness of the risks of using new tobacco products was revealed. Feedback on the prototype messages was incorporated into message revisions. These findings provided preliminary confirmation that the forthcoming messaging program will be appealing to young adults.

Vrancea early warning system for Bucharest and industrial objectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ionescu, C.; Marmureanu, A.; Grigore, A.; Tataru, D.

2005-01-01

Romania is an earthquake prone area and it is of crucial importance to obtain quantitative information needed for seismic risk mitigation and related public policies and seismic safety measures. The most damaging earthquakes in Romania concentrate in the Vrancea region, located at the sharp bend of the Eastern Carpathians Arc, in a well confined focal volume at intermediate depths between 60 km and 200 km.Vrancea earthquakes are documented for at least a millennium (since 985 a.c.) and represent very peculiar characteristics. They are a permanent threat for large urban areas on the Romanian territory and extended areas in Europe. Bucharest is among the cities mostly affected by destructive earthquakes. The early warning system in Romania is to provide individuals and communities exposed to disaster risk given by strong Vrancea earthquakes, with accurate information about an impending hazard as early as possible, to act in a timely and appropriate manner to reduce probability of suffering, personal damage, death and property losses. The purpose of this early system is to issue messages at sites of interest before the destructive seismic energy arrives. Early warning system is a technological instrument to detect, monitor and submit warnings/alerts. It needs to become part of a management information system for decision - making in the context of national institutional frameworks for disaster management and as a part of national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction. (authors)

Vrancea early warning system for Bucharest and industrial objectives

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ionescu, Constantin; Marmureanu, Alexandru; Wenzel, Friedemann; Bonjer, K. P.

2004-01-01

Romania is an earthquake prone area and it is of crucial importance to obtain quantitative information needed for seismic risk mitigation and related public policies and seismic safety measures. The most damaging earthquakes in Romania concentrate in the Vrancea region, located at the sharp bend of the Eastern Carpathians Arc, in a well confined focal volume at intermediate depths between 60 km and 200 km. Vrancea earthquakes are documented for at least a millennium (since 985 a.c.) and represent very peculiar characteristics. They are a permanent threat for large urban areas on the Romanian territory and extended areas in Europe. Bucharest is among the mega cities mostly affected by destructive earthquakes. The early warning system in Romania is to provide individuals and communities exposed to disaster risk due to strong Vrancea earthquakes, with accurate information about an impending hazard as early as possible, to act in a timely and appropriate manner to reduce probability of suffering, personal damage, death and property losses. The purpose of this early system is to issue messages at sites of interest before the destructive seismic energy arrives. Early warning system is a technological instrument to detect, monitor and issue warnings/alerts. It needs to become part of a management information system for decision - making in the context of national institutional frameworks for disaster management and as a part of national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction. (authors)

Towards a certification process for tsunami early warning systems

Science.gov (United States)

Löwe, Peter; Wächter, Jochen; Hammitzsch, Martin

2013-04-01

The natural disaster of the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 was followed by an information catastrophe. Crucial early warning information could not be delivered to the communities under imminent threat, resulting in over 240,000 casualties in 14 countries. This tragedy sparked the development of a new generation of integrated modular Tsunami Early Warning Systems (TEWS). While significant advances were accomplished in the past years, recent events, like the Chile 2010 and the Tohoku 2011 tsunami demonstrate that the key technical challenge for Tsunami Early Warning research on the supranational scale still lies in the timely issuing of status information and reliable early warning messages in a proven workflow. A second challenge stems from the main objective of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of UNESCO (IOC) Tsunami Programme, the integration of national TEWS towards ocean-wide networks: Each of the increasing number of integrated Tsunami Early Warning Centres has to cope with the continuing evolution of sensors, hardware and software while having to maintain reliable inter-center information exchange services. To avoid future information catastrophes, the performance of all components, ranging from individual sensors, to Warning Centers within their particular end-to-end Warning System Environments, and up to federated Systems of Tsunami Warning Systems has to be regularly validated against defined criteria. Since 2004, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) has built up expertise in the field of TEWS. Within GFZ, the Centre for GeoInformation Technology (CeGIT) has focused its work on the geoinformatics aspects of TEWS in two projects already, being the German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS) and the Distant Early Warning System (DEWS). This activity is continued in the TRIDEC project (Collaborative, Complex, and Critical Decision Processes in Evolving Crises) funded under the European Union's seventh Framework Programme (FP7

Study of the capability for rapid warnings of solar flare radiation hazards to aircraft. Part I. Forecasts and warnings of solar flare radiation hazards. Part II. An FAA polar flight solar cosmic radiation forecast/warning communication system study. Technical memo

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sauer, H.H.; Stonehocker, G.H.

1977-04-01

The first part of the report provides background information on the occurrence of solar activity and the consequent sporadic production of electromagnetic and particle emissions from the sun. A summary is given of the current procedures for the forecasting of solar activity together with procedures used to verify these forecasts as currently available. A summary of current forecasting of radiation hazards as provided in support of the Concorde SST program is also given. The second part of the report describes a forecast message distribution system developed in conjunction with solar cosmic radiation forecasts and warnings of the Space Environment Laboratory of NOAA for the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA) Office of Aviation Medicine. The study analyzes the currently available and future aeronautical telecommunication system facilities to determine an optimum system to distribute forecasts to the preflight planning centers in the international flight service stations for polar-flying subsonic and supersonic transport (SST) type aircraft. Also recommended for the system are timely and reliable distribution of warnings to individual in-flight aircraft in polar areas by the responsible air traffic control authority

Distributed GIS for automated natural hazard zonation mapping Internet-SMS warning towards sustainable society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Devanjan Bhattacharya

2014-12-01

Full Text Available Today, open systems are needed for real time analysis and warnings on geo-hazards and over time can be achieved using Open Source Geographical Information System (GIS-based platform such as GeoNode which is being contributed to by developers around the world. To develop on an open source platform is a very vital component for better disaster information management as far as spatial data infrastructures are concerned and this would be extremely vital when huge databases are to be created and consulted regularly for city planning at different scales, particularly satellite images and maps of locations. There is a big need for spatially referenced data creation, analysis, and management. Some of the salient points that this research would be able to definitely contribute with GeoNode, being an open source platform, are facilitating the creation, sharing, and collaborative use of geospatial data. The objective is development of an automated natural hazard zonation system with Internet-short message service (SMS warning utilizing geomatics for sustainable societies. A concept of developing an internet-resident geospatial geohazard warning system has been put forward in this research, which can communicate alerts via SMS. There has been a need to develop an automated integrated system to categorize hazard and issue warning that reaches users directly. At present, no web-enabled warning system exists which can disseminate warning after hazard evaluation at one go and in real time. The objective of this research work has been to formalize a notion of an integrated, independent, generalized, and automated geo-hazard warning system making use of geo-spatial data under popular usage platform. In this paper, a model of an automated geo-spatial hazard warning system has been elaborated. The functionality is to be modular in architecture having GIS-graphical user interface (GUI, input, understanding, rainfall prediction, expert, output, and warning modules. A

Real Time Assessment of Young Adults' Attitudes toward Tobacco Messages.

Science.gov (United States)

Hébert, Emily T; Vandewater, Elizabeth A; Businelle, Michael S; Harrell, Melissa B; Kelder, Steven H; Perry, Cheryl L

2018-01-01

We used ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to examine young adults' attitudes towards pro-tobacco messages encountered in real time and their association with intentions to use tobacco. Young adults (N = 92, ages 18-29) recorded sightings of marketing or social media related to tobacco in real time via mobile app for 28 days. Participants reported message characteristics, their attitudes towards the message, and intentions to use the depicted product for each submission. We used generalized linear mixed models to examine factors related to attitude towards message and intentions to use tobacco. Messages depicting e-cigarettes (p < .001) or hookah (p < .05) were associated with significantly more favorable attitudes compared with traditional cigarettes. Positive attitude towards the message was significantly associated with intention to use the depicted product (p < .001). Messages depicting e-cigarettes and hookah were significantly associated with higher intention to use. Message source was not significantly related to attitudes towards the message or product use intentions. Marketing featuring e-cigarettes and hookah is an important target for future regulation. Given that pro-tobacco and e-cigarette messages are prevalent online, future research should consider the Internet and social media as important venues for counter-marketing and intervention efforts.

An Examination of Adolescent Recall of Anti-Smoking Messages: Attitudes, Message Type, and Message Perceptions.

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Bigsby, Elisabeth; Monahan, Jennifer L; Ewoldsen, David R

2017-04-01

Delayed message recall may be influenced by currently held accessible attitudes, the nature of the message, and message perceptions (perception of bias and message elaboration). This study examined the potential of message perceptions to mediate the influence of valenced attitude accessibility and message type on unaided recall of anti-smoking Public Service Announcements (PSAs). In a field experiment, ninth grade students (N = 244) watched three PSAs and responded to items on laptop computers. Twelve weeks later, follow-up telephone surveys were conducted to assess unaided recall. Both valenced attitude accessibility and message type were associated with message perceptions. However, only perception of message bias partially mediated the relationship between message type and unaided recall.

Research on early-warning index of the spatial temperature field in concrete dams.

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Yang, Guang; Gu, Chongshi; Bao, Tengfei; Cui, Zhenming; Kan, Kan

2016-01-01

Warning indicators of the dam body's temperature are required for the real-time monitoring of the service conditions of concrete dams to ensure safety and normal operations. Warnings theories are traditionally targeted at a single point which have limitations, and the scientific warning theories on global behavior of the temperature field are non-existent. In this paper, first, in 3D space, the behavior of temperature field has regional dissimilarity. Through the Ward spatial clustering method, the temperature field was divided into regions. Second, the degree of order and degree of disorder of the temperature monitoring points were defined by the probability method. Third, the weight values of monitoring points of each regions were explored via projection pursuit. Forth, a temperature entropy expression that can describe degree of order of the spatial temperature field in concrete dams was established. Fifth, the early-warning index of temperature entropy was set up according to the calculated sequential value of temperature entropy. Finally, project cases verified the feasibility of the proposed theories. The early-warning index of temperature entropy is conducive to the improvement of early-warning ability and safety management levels during the operation of high concrete dams.

Why should health be a central argument in climate negotiations? Can a MOOC help to bring the message across?

Science.gov (United States)

Sauerborn, Rainer

There are four key messages from health for climate negotiations. Two positive ones include (i) health as a motivator for action and policy and (ii) huge health co-benefits to be included in the cost-benefit trade-offs of climate negotiations. Two warning messages: (iii) there are health-based absolute limits of adaptations and (iv) hotter average temperatures will cut work productivity of farmers and other outdoor workers as well as workers in non-air conditioned factories in poor countries. This paper will examine how massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been used in the run-up to this COP to disseminate these four messages to the audience of high-level policy-makers. This required a departure from the classic MOOC format in several ways: duration, focus on decision-making rationale, policy-relevant messages presented in big brush, leaving "traceable accounts" to evidence in two layers of resources provided: essential and "deep dive".

Highway-rail intersection GPS-based in-vehicle warning systems - literature review and recommendations.

Science.gov (United States)

2012-12-31

In 2008, there were 2,395 incidents at highway-rail intersections (level crossings) in the United States, resulting in 939 injuries and 287 fatalities. Crossing elimination, grade separation, and the implementation of traditional warning devices are ...

Information dissemination analysis of different media towards the application for disaster pre-warning.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhang, Nan; Huang, Hong; Su, Boni; Zhao, Jinlong; Zhang, Bo

2014-01-01

Knowing the information dissemination mechanisms of different media and having an efficient information dissemination plan for disaster pre-warning plays a very important role in reducing losses and ensuring the safety of human beings. In this paper we established models of information dissemination for six typical information media, including short message service (SMS), microblogs, news portals, cell phones, television, and oral communication. Then, the information dissemination capability of each medium concerning individuals of different ages, genders, and residential areas was simulated, and the dissemination characteristics were studied. Finally, radar graphs were used to illustrate comprehensive assessments of the six media; these graphs show directly the information dissemination characteristics of all media. The models and the results are essential for improving the efficiency of information dissemination for the purpose of disaster pre-warning and for formulating emergency plans which help to reduce the possibility of injuries, deaths and other losses in a disaster.

An exploratory study of drinkers views of health information and warning labels on alcohol containers.

Science.gov (United States)

Thomson, Lisa M; Vandenberg, Brian; Fitzgerald, John L

2012-03-01

To identify general and specific features of health information warning labels on alcohol beverage containers that could potentially inform the development and implementation of a new labelling regime in Australia. Mixed methods, including a cross-sectional population survey and a qualitative study of knowledge, attitudes and behaviours regarding alcohol beverage labelling. The population survey used computer-assisted telephone interviews of 1500 persons in Victoria, Australia to gauge the level of support for health information and warning labels. The qualitative study used six focus groups to test the suitability of 12 prototype labels that were placed in situ on a variety of alcohol beverage containers. The telephone survey found 80% to 90% support for a range of information that could potentially be mandated by government authorities for inclusion on labels (nutritional information, alcohol content, health warning, images). Focus group testing of the prototype label designs found that labels should be integrated with other alcohol-related health messages, such as government social advertising campaigns, and specific labels should be matched appropriately to specific consumer groups and beverage types. There are high levels of public support for health information and warning labels on alcohol beverages. This study contributes much needed empirical guidance for developing alcohol beverage labelling strategies in an Australian context. © 2011 Australasian Professional Society on Alcohol and other Drugs.

The Association between Potential Exposure to Magazine Ads with Voluntary Health Warnings and the Perceived Harmfulness of Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS).

Science.gov (United States)

Shang, Ce; Weaver, Scott R; Zahra, Nahleen; Huang, Jidong; Cheng, Kai-Wen; Chaloupka, Frank J

2018-03-23

(1) Background: Several brands of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) carry voluntary health warning messages. This study examined how potential exposure to ENDS magazine ads with these voluntary health warnings were associated with the perceived harmfulness of ENDS. (2) Methods: Risk perception measures and self-reported exposure to ENDS ads were obtained from the 2014 Georgia State University (GSU) Tobacco Products and Risk Perceptions Survey of a nationally representative sample of U.S. adults. We examined the association between potential exposure to magazine ads with warnings and the perceived harms of ENDS relative to cigarettes, using binary logistic regressions and controlling for general ENDS ad exposure and socio-demographic characteristics. (3) Results: Potential exposure to ENDS magazine ads with warnings was associated with a lower probability of considering ENDS to be more or equally harmful compared to cigarettes, particularly among non-smokers (OR = 0.16; 95% CI: 0.04-0.77). In addition, ad exposure, ENDS use history, race/ethnicity, gender, education, and income were also associated with harm perceptions. (4) Conclusions: This study did not find evidence that magazine ads with warnings increased misperceptions that ENDS are equally or more harmful than cigarettes. With more ENDS advertisements carrying warnings, more research is needed to determine how the warnings in advertisements convey relative harm information to consumers and the public.

Banking Crisis Early Warning Model based on a Bayesian Model Averaging Approach

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Taha Zaghdoudi

2016-08-01

Full Text Available The succession of banking crises in which most have resulted in huge economic and financial losses, prompted several authors to study their determinants. These authors constructed early warning models to prevent their occurring. It is in this same vein as our study takes its inspiration. In particular, we have developed a warning model of banking crises based on a Bayesian approach. The results of this approach have allowed us to identify the involvement of the decline in bank profitability, deterioration of the competitiveness of the traditional intermediation, banking concentration and higher real interest rates in triggering bank crisis.

Smoker reactions to a "radio message" that Light cigarettes are as dangerous as Regular cigarettes.

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Kozlowski, L T; Goldberg, M E; Sweeney, C T; Palmer, R F; Pillitteri, J L; Yost, B A; White, E L; Stine, M M

1999-03-01

The purpose of this study was to examine in a systematic, controlled fashion the reactions of smokers to scientifically correct information about the risks of smoking Light cigarettes (about 6-15 mg tar by the FTC method). Random-digit dialing, computer-assisted telephone interviews were used to locate daily smokers of Light cigarettes. In an experimental design, smokers were randomly assigned to listen (n = 293) or not (n = 275) to a persuasive simulated radio message on the risks of Light cigarettes; 108 of those who did not listen to the message in the first part of the interview were played the message in the second part, to evaluate some repeated-measures effects. Those who heard the message were more likely to report that one Light cigarette could give a smoker the same amount of tar as one Regular cigarette and that Light cigarettes were more dangerous: 55% said the message made them think more about quitting and 46% said the message increased the amount they wanted to quit; 42% said that after hearing the message they thought Light cigarettes were more dangerous. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, structural equation modeling analysis indicated that the message acted to increase intention to quit smoking by increasing the desire to quit smoking. Seventy-three per cent of the smokers agreed that it was important to play such messages widely on the radio; 77% agreed that there should be a warning on packs that vent blocking increases tar; 61% agreed that the location of filter vents should be marked. The majority of smokers of Light cigarettes seem to value being informed that Light cigarettes are as dangerous for them as Regular cigarettes, and this information increases their intentions to quit smoking.

Training warning flags

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Miller, Richard C.

2003-01-01

Problems in accredited training programmes at US nuclear stations have resulted in several programmes having their accreditation status designated as probationary. A limited probationary period allows time for problem resolution before the programmes are again reviewed by the National Nuclear Accrediting Board. A careful study of these problems has resulted in the identification of several 'Training Warning Flags' that singularly, or in concert, may indicate or predict degraded training programme effectiveness. These training warning flags have been used by several US nuclear stations as a framework for self-assessments, as a reference in making changes to training programmes, and as a tool in considering student and management feedback on training activities. Further analysis and consideration of the training warning flags has developed precursors for each of the training warning flags. Although more subjective than the training warning flags, the precursors may represent early indicators of factors that may lead to or contribute to degraded training programme effectiveness. Used as evaluative tools, the training warning flags and the precursors may help identify areas for improvements in training programmes and help prioritize training programme improvement efforts. (author)

Research on Vegetable Pest Warning System Based on Multidimensional Big Data

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Changzhen Zhang

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Pest early warning technology is part of the prerequisite for the timely and effective control of pest outbreaks. Traditional pest warning system with artificial mathematical statistics, radar, and remote sensing has some deficiency in many aspects, such as higher cost, weakness of accuracy, low efficiency, and so on. In this study, Pest image data was collected and information about four major vegetable pests (Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius, Phyllotreta striolata (Fabricius, Plutella xylostella (Linnaeus, and Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande (Thysanoptera, Thripidae in southern China was extracted. A multi-sensor network system was constructed to collect small-scale environmental data on vegetable production sites. The key factors affecting the distribution of pests were discovered by multi-dimensional information, such as soil, environment, eco-climate, and meteorology of vegetable fields, and finally, the vegetable pest warning system that is based on multidimensional big data (VPWS-MBD was implemented. Pest and environmental data from Guangzhou Dongsheng Bio-Park were collected from June 2017 to February 2018. The number of pests is classified as level I (0–56, level II (57–131, level III (132–299, and level IV (above 300 by K-Means algorithm. The Pearson correlation coefficient and the grey relational analysis algorithm were used to calculate the five key influence factors of rainfall, soil temperature, air temperature, leaf surface humidity, and soil moisture. Finally, Back Propagation (BP Neural Network was used for classification prediction. The result shows: I-level warning accuracy was 96.14%, recall rate was 97.56%; II-level pest warning accuracy was 95.34%, the recall rate was 96.45%; III-level pest warning accuracy of 100%, the recall rate was 96.28%; IV-level pest warning accuracy of 100%, recall rate was 100%. It proves that the early warning system can effectively predict vegetable pests and achieve the early warning of

Development of an Earthquake Early Warning System Using Real-Time Strong Motion Signals.

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Yih-Min; Kanamori, Hiroo

2008-01-09

As urbanization progresses worldwide, earthquakes pose serious threat to livesand properties for urban areas near major active faults on land or subduction zonesoffshore. Earthquake Early Warning (EEW) can be a useful tool for reducing earthquakehazards, if the spatial relation between cities and earthquake sources is favorable for suchwarning and their citizens are properly trained to respond to earthquake warning messages.An EEW system forewarns an urban area of forthcoming strong shaking, normally with afew sec to a few tens of sec of warning time, i.e., before the arrival of the destructive Swavepart of the strong ground motion. Even a few second of advanced warning time willbe useful for pre-programmed emergency measures for various critical facilities, such asrapid-transit vehicles and high-speed trains to avoid potential derailment; it will be alsouseful for orderly shutoff of gas pipelines to minimize fire hazards, controlled shutdown ofhigh-technological manufacturing operations to reduce potential losses, and safe-guardingof computer facilities to avoid loss of vital databases. We explored a practical approach toEEW with the use of a ground-motion period parameter τc and a high-pass filtered verticaldisplacement amplitude parameter Pd from the initial 3 sec of the P waveforms. At a givensite, an earthquake magnitude could be determined from τ c and the peak ground-motionvelocity (PGV) could be estimated from Pd. In this method, incoming strong motion acceleration signals are recursively converted to ground velocity and displacement. A Pwavetrigger is constantly monitored. When a trigger occurs, τ c and Pd are computed. Theearthquake magnitude and the on-site ground-motion intensity could be estimated and thewarning could be issued. In an ideal situation, such warnings would be available within 10sec of the origin time of a large earthquake whose subsequent ground motion may last fortens of seconds.

Emergency Message Dissemination System for Smartphones During Natural Disasters

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Wu, Xian; Mazurowski, Maciej; Chen, Zhen; Meratnia, Nirvana

This paper revolves around the concept of utilizing the modern smartphone communication capabilities to transmit messages through an ad hoc network during a disaster, which renders the traditional cellular base station inaccessible. Due to dynamic and decentralized nature of the considered

Punctuation and Capitalization in Text Messages Sent from Traditional Mobile Phones versus Smartphones: Implications for Higher Education

Science.gov (United States)

Johnson, Genevieve

2016-01-01

Technology often mediates, and thus influences, written language conventions such as punctuation and capitalization. Fifty university students sent two text messages, one with an alphanumeric multi-press keypad mobile phone (i.e., Nokia 1101) and another with a full QWERTY keypad smartphone (i.e., Apple iPhone 4). Compared to text messages sent…

Open Source Seismic Software in NOAA's Next Generation Tsunami Warning System

Science.gov (United States)

Hellman, S. B.; Baker, B. I.; Hagerty, M. T.; Leifer, J. M.; Lisowski, S.; Thies, D. A.; Donnelly, B. K.; Griffith, F. P.

2014-12-01

The Tsunami Information technology Modernization (TIM) is a project spearheaded by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to update the United States' Tsunami Warning System software currently employed at the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (Eva Beach, Hawaii) and the National Tsunami Warning Center (Palmer, Alaska). This entirely open source software project will integrate various seismic processing utilities with the National Weather Service Weather Forecast Office's core software, AWIPS2. For the real-time and near real-time seismic processing aspect of this project, NOAA has elected to integrate the open source portions of GFZ's SeisComP 3 (SC3) processing system into AWIPS2. To provide for better tsunami threat assessments we are developing open source tools for magnitude estimations (e.g., moment magnitude, energy magnitude, surface wave magnitude), detection of slow earthquakes with the Theta discriminant, moment tensor inversions (e.g. W-phase and teleseismic body waves), finite fault inversions, and array processing. With our reliance on common data formats such as QuakeML and seismic community standard messaging systems, all new facilities introduced into AWIPS2 and SC3 will be available as stand-alone tools or could be easily integrated into other real time seismic monitoring systems such as Earthworm, Antelope, etc. Additionally, we have developed a template based design paradigm so that the developer or scientist can efficiently create upgrades, replacements, and/or new metrics to the seismic data processing with only a cursory knowledge of the underlying SC3.

Songs and storytelling: bringing health messages to life in Uganda.

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Silver, D

2001-01-01

In villages without doctors and hospitals in the remote eastern Ugandan district of Pallisa, traditional birth attendants and mothers are solving the most serious health problems through the teaching power of songs and stories. The village's rich oral tradition was enlisted as the principal means not only for transmitting these important health messages, but also for supporting their practice throughout the community. Utilizing existing community traditions such as songs and storytelling offers culturally appropriate ways of enhancing the communications component of the health care system to make it serve the poor majority in a readily comprehensible, credible, affordable, and accessible form. These non-formal active-learning methods are highly compatible with and promotive of the general principles of primary health care, especially for their empowering, participatory and sustainable qualities. It is only a natural extension for health educators to more fully employ the use of the time-honored oral traditions of songs and storytelling as a vehicle for communicating health messages. For students in the health professions, awareness of these proven principles for engaging people at the local levels will contribute to more effective training, strategic program design, and advocacy.

Crafting safe and effective suicide prevention media messages: outcomes from a workshop in Australia.

Science.gov (United States)

Ftanou, Maria; Skehan, Jaelea; Krysinska, Karolina; Bryant, Marc; Spittal, Matthew J; Pirkis, Jane

2018-01-01

Suicide and suicide-related behaviours are major public health concerns in Australia and worldwide. One universal intervention that has received an increased focus as a means of preventing suicide is the use of media campaigns. There is, however, a lack of understanding of the kinds of campaign messages that are safe and effective. The current paper aims to expand on this knowledge. The study objectives were to: (1) explore what suicide prevention experts consider to be essential characteristics of effective and safe suicide media campaigns; (2) develop suicide prevention media messages; and (3) explore the impact that these messages might have on different audiences. We conducted a workshop in July 2015 which was attended by 21 experts (professionals with knowledge about suicide prevention and/or media campaigns, and people with a lived experience of suicide). The experts were split into three groups, and each group developed a suicide prevention message for one of the following target audiences: people at risk of suicide; family and peers of people at risk of suicide; and people bereaved by suicide. The three groups generally agreed that these messages had to include two key characteristics: (1) validate or reflect the target group's issues and needs; and (2) promote help-seeking behaviours. They noted, however, that messages that might have a positive impact for one target audience might inadvertently have a negative impact for other target audiences. In particular, they were concerned that messages designed for family and peers about being supportive and looking for warning signs might leave those who had been bereaved by suicide feeling isolated, guilty or traumatised. Workshop participants highlighted that gaps exist in relation to the use of appropriate language, were unsure of how to create destigmatising messages without normalising or sensationalising suicide and commented on the lack of evaluative evidence for the efficacy of media campaigns. Developing

Development of a Low Cost Earthquake Early Warning System in Taiwan

Science.gov (United States)

Wu, Y. M.

2017-12-01

The National Taiwan University (NTU) developed an earthquake early warning (EEW) system for research purposes using low-cost accelerometers (P-Alert) since 2010. As of 2017, a total of 650 stations have been deployed and configured. The NTU system can provide earthquake information within 15 s of an earthquake occurrence. Thus, this system may provide early warnings for cities located more than 50 km from the epicenter. Additionally, the NTU system also has an onsite alert function that triggers a warning for incoming P-waves greater than a certain magnitude threshold, thus providing a 2-3 s lead time before peak ground acceleration (PGA) for regions close to an epicenter. Detailed shaking maps are produced by the NTU system within one or two minutes after an earthquake. Recently, a new module named ShakeAlarm has been developed. Equipped with real-time acceleration signals and the time-dependent anisotropic attenuation relationship of the PGA, ShakingAlarm can provide an accurate PGA estimation immediately before the arrival of the observed PGA. This unique advantage produces sufficient lead time for hazard assessment and emergency response, which is unavailable for traditional shakemap, which are based on only the PGA observed in real time. The performance of ShakingAlarm was tested with six M > 5.5 inland earthquakes from 2013 to 2016. Taking the 2016 M6.4 Meinong earthquake simulation as an example, the predicted PGA converges to a stable value and produces a predicted shake map and an isocontour map of the predicted PGA within 16 seconds of earthquake occurrence. Compared with traditional regional EEW system, ShakingAlarm can effectively identify possible damage regions and provide valuable early warning information (magnitude and PGA) for risk mitigation.

The overlap between cyberbullying and traditional bullying.

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Waasdorp, Tracy E; Bradshaw, Catherine P

2015-05-01

Cyberbullying appears to be on the rise among adolescents due in part to increased access to electronic devices and less online supervision. Less is known about how cyberbullying differs from traditional bullying which occurs in person and the extent to which these two forms overlap. Our first aim was to examine the overlap of traditional bullying (relational, verbal, and physical) with cyberbullying. The second aim examined student- and school-level correlates of cyber victimization as compared to traditional victims. The final aim explored details of the cyberbullying experience (e.g., who sent the message, how was the message sent, and what was the message about). Data came from 28,104 adolescents (grades, 9-12) attending 58 high schools. Approximately 23% of the youth reported being victims of any form of bullying (cyber, relational, physical, and verbal) within the last month, with 25.6% of those victims reporting being cyberbullied. The largest proportion (50.3%) of victims reported they were victimized by all four forms, whereas only 4.6% reported being only cyberbullied. Multilevel analyses indicated that as compared to those who were only traditionally bullied, those who were cyberbullied were more likely to have externalizing (odds ratio = 1.44) and internalizing symptoms (odds ratio = 1.25). Additional analyses examined detailed characteristics of the cyberbullying experiences, indicating a relatively high level of overlap between cyber and traditional bullying. Implications for preventive interventions targeting youth involved with cyberbullying and its overlap with other forms of bullying are discussed. Copyright © 2015 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Effects of cautionary messages and vulnerability factors on viewers' perceptions of alcohol advertisements.

Science.gov (United States)

Proctor, Dwayne C; Babor, Thomas F; Xuan, Ziming

2005-09-01

This study examined how individual difference vulnerability factors affect college students' perceptions of beer commercial actors' age, attractiveness and drinking. We were also interested in whether viewers' exposure to a cautionary message would affect their perceptions of the actors' drinking behavior. Three groups of college students were exposed to the same set of two alcohol advertisements. After watching the ads, each group received a different cautionary message prior to answering questions about the ad's content: (1) a neutral message (viewed by 42% [n = 119] of the sample), (2) a U.S. federal warning (viewed by 31% [n = 89]) and (3) an industry message (viewed by 27% [n = 76]). We also examined three putative vulnerability factors: age (underage 21 or not), gender and family history of alcohol problems (yes or no) as well as the effects of quantity-frequency of alcohol consumption, episodic heavy drinking, severity of alcohol dependence, disinhibition sensation seeking and the eight factors of the Alcohol Expectancy Scale. The cautionary messages had no effect on viewers' perceptions of characters' age, attractiveness and drinking behavior. Although neither of the commercials depicted the physical act of drinking, the student raters nevertheless perceived the characters to be heavy episodic drinkers. Those reporting more alcohol dependence symptoms perceived increased drinking for the male characters, as did females and viewers with expectancies for social and physical pleasure. Perceptions of the drinking in beer commercials are based in part on the character depicted in the ad and in part on the demographic and personal vulnerability factors of the viewer.

Text-Messaging Practices and Links to General Spelling Skill: A Study of Australian Children

Science.gov (United States)

Bushnell, Catherine; Kemp, Nenagh; Martin, Frances Heritage

2011-01-01

This study investigated 10- to 12-year-old Australian children's text-messaging practices and their relationship to traditional spelling ability. Of the 227 children tested, 82% reported sending text-messages; a median of 5 per day. Use of predictive and multi-press entry methods was roughly equal. Children produced a wide range of text-message…

The Impact of Cigarette Plain Packaging on Health Warning Salience and Perceptions: Implications for Public Health Policy.

Science.gov (United States)

Auemaneekul, Naruemon; Silpasuwan, Pimpan; Sirichotiratana, Nithat; Satitvipawee, Pratana; Sompopcharoen, Malinee; Viwatwongkasem, Chukiat; Sujirarat, Dusit

2015-11-01

The study employed a mixed methods design using focus group interviews with 6 student groups and self-administered questionnaires with 1239 students. The participants were nonsmoking, current smokers, and quit-smoking teenagers from secondary schools and colleges. Focus group revealed that although nonsmoking teenagers perceived fear appeals to warning messages, current smokers did not perceive fear appeals to health. Black and white backgrounds of the cigarette package were chosen as the best color for plain packaging. However, most participants suggested various pictorials and a bigger size of pictorial warnings for greater and more effective fear appeal. Odds ratio showed that males had 2.43 times the odds to perceive intention not to smoke. Teenagers who had never smoked and those who had quit smoking had 13.27 and 3.61 times the odds, respectively, to perceive intention not to smoke. © 2015 APJPH.

Increasing the Operational Value of Event Messages

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Zhenping; Savkli, Cetin; Smith, Dan

2003-01-01

Assessing the health of a space mission has traditionally been performed using telemetry analysis tools. Parameter values are compared to known operational limits and are plotted over various time periods. This presentation begins with the notion that there is an incredible amount of untapped information contained within the mission s event message logs. Through creative advancements in message handling tools, the event message logs can be used to better assess spacecraft and ground system status and to highlight and report on conditions not readily apparent when messages are evaluated one-at-a-time during a real-time pass. Work in this area is being funded as part of a larger NASA effort at the Goddard Space Flight Center to create component-based, middleware-based, standards-based general purpose ground system architecture referred to as GMSEC - the GSFC Mission Services Evolution Center. The new capabilities and operational concepts for event display, event data analyses and data mining are being developed by Lockheed Martin and the new subsystem has been named GREAT - the GMSEC Reusable Event Analysis Toolkit. Planned for use on existing and future missions, GREAT has the potential to increase operational efficiency in areas of problem detection and analysis, general status reporting, and real-time situational awareness.

Twitter weather warnings: Communicating risk in 140 characters-the impact of imperative and declarative message style on weather risk perception and behavioral intentions.

Science.gov (United States)

Rainear, Adam M; Lachlan, Kenneth A; Spence, Patric R

Understanding how individuals utilize risk messages is important for protecting lives and gaining compliance toward safe behaviors. Recent advances in technology afford users with timeliness when needing to acquire information, and research investigating imperative and declarative message styles suggests utilizing both strategies is most effective. Similarly, the element of time can play a role when an individual engages in certain behaviors. This study employed an experimental design to better understand how imperative and declarative tweets, and time can contribute to risk perceptions and behavioral intentions. Results indicate the most negative affect is experienced after receiving an imperative-only tweet in a short-lead time condition, whereas a tweet utilizing both message styles in a long-lead time condition induces the most fear. Future research should investigate stylistic message elements on new media platforms to better understand how messages can be effectively sent and received by the intended audience within character-limited platforms.

The lower effectiveness of text-only health warnings in China compared to pictorial health warnings in Malaysia.

Science.gov (United States)

Elton-Marshall, Tara; Xu, Steve Shaowei; Meng, Gang; Quah, Anne C K; Sansone, Genevieve C; Feng, Guoze; Jiang, Yuan; Driezen, Pete; Omar, Maizurah; Awang, Rahmat; Fong, Geoffrey T

2015-11-01

In 2009, China changed its health warnings on cigarette packs from side-only text warnings to two text-only warnings on 30% of the bottom of the front and back of the pack. Also in 2009, Malaysia changed from similar text warnings to pictorial health warnings consistent with Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) Article 11 Guidelines. To measure the impact of the change in health warnings in China and to compare the text-only health warnings to the impact of the pictorial health warnings introduced in Malaysia. We measured changes in key indicators of warning effectiveness among a longitudinal cohort sample of smokers from Waves 1 to 3 (2006-2009) of the International Tobacco Control (ITC) China Survey and from Waves 3 to 4 (2008-2009) of the ITC Malaysia Survey. Each cohort consisted of representative samples of adult (≥18 years) smokers from six cities in China (n=6575) and from a national sample in Malaysia (n=2883). Generalised Estimating Equations (GEE) were used to examine the impact of the health warnings on subsequent changes in salience of warnings, cognitive and behavioural outcomes. Compared to Malaysia, the weak text-only warning labels in China led to a significant change in only two of six key indicators of health warning effectiveness: forgoing cigarettes and reading the warning labels. The change to pictorial health warnings in Malaysia led to significant and substantial increases in five of six indicators (noticing, reading, forgoing, avoiding, thinking about quitting). The delay in implementing pictorial health warnings in China constitutes a lost opportunity for increasing knowledge and awareness of the harms of cigarettes, and for motivating smokers to quit. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

49 CFR 234.259 - Warning time.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Warning time. 234.259 Section 234.259..., Inspection, and Testing Inspections and Tests § 234.259 Warning time. Each crossing warning system shall be tested for the prescribed warning time at least once every 12 months and when the warning system is...

Geoethical issues involved in Tsunami Warning System concepts and operations

Science.gov (United States)

Charalampakis, Marinos; Papadopoulos, Gerassimos A.; Tinti, Stefano

2016-04-01

The main goal of a Tsunami Warning System (TWS) is to mitigate the effect of an incoming tsunami by alerting coastal population early enough to allow people to evacuate safely from inundation zones. Though this representation might seem oversimplified, nonetheless, achieving successfully this goal requires a positive synergy of geoscience, communication, emergency management, technology, education, social sciences, politics. Geoethical issues arise always when there is an interaction between geoscience and society, and TWS is a paradigmatic case where interaction is very strong and is made critical because a) the formulation of the tsunami alert has to be made in a time as short as possible and therefore on uncertain data, and b) any evaluation error (underestimation or overestimation) can lead to serious (and sometimes catastrophic) consequences involving wide areas and a large amount of population. From the geoethical point of view three issues are critical: how to (i) combine forecasts and uncertainties reasonably and usefully, (ii) cope and possibly solve the dilemma whether it is better over-alerting or under-alerting population and (iii) deal with responsibility and liability of geoscientists, TWS operators, emergency operators and coastal population. The discussion will be based on the experience of the Hellenic National Tsunami Warning Center (HL-NTWC, Greece), which operates on 24/7 basis as a special unit of the Institute of Geodynamics, National Observatory of Athens, and acts also as Candidate Tsunami Service Provider (CTSP) in the framework of the North-Eastern Atlantic, the Mediterranean and connected seas Tsunami Warning System (NEAMTWS) of the IOC/UNESCO. Since August 2012, when HL-NTWC was officially declared as operational, 14 tsunami warning messages have been disseminated to a large number of subscribers after strong submarine earthquakes occurring in Greece and elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean. It is recognized that the alerting process

Impact of Substance Messages in Music Videos on Youth: Beware the Influence of Connectedness and Its Potential Prevention-Shielding Effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Russell, Cristel Antonia; Régnier-Denois, Véronique; Chapoton, Boris; Buhrau, Denise

2017-09-01

Two studies were conducted to investigate the role of connectedness with music videos in affecting youths' beliefs about substances (alcohol and tobacco) embedded therein and the potential for a prevention message to limit the impact of these images. The first study used cross-sectional data from a national sample of 1,023 adolescents (54.3% male) to evaluate the relationship between youths' consumption of music videos and their beliefs about the consequences of consuming alcohol and tobacco. A controlled experiment with 151 participants (57% male) then tested whether exposure to smoking in a video affects youths' smoking beliefs and the preventive potential of a pre-video warning. Connectedness to music videos, not overall amount of viewing, is the main correlate of beliefs about the positive outcomes of consuming alcohol/tobacco. A single exposure to a music video with smoking images can increase beliefs that smoking leads to positive consequences, and connected viewers are especially receptive to these images. Alerting youths to the presence of substance messages in a video leads to differential results as a function of connectedness. Many youths spend hours every day watching music videos in which positive visuals about drinking and smoking abound. Rather than the quantity of viewing, it is the degree to which youths immerse themselves in these music videos that enhances their beliefs that smoking and drinking have positive consequences. Interventions that warn youths about the presence of substances in music videos can minimize their influence, but youths highly connected with the music video content are especially resistant to warnings.

Novel store–carry–forward scheme for message dissemination in vehicular ad-hoc networks

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Truc D.T. Nguyen

2017-12-01

Full Text Available To improve traffic safety in intelligent transportation systems, vehicles formed by vehicular ad-hoc networks (VANETs conventionally disseminate warning messages to their nearby vehicles as soon as a dangerous situation occurs. In this paper, we propose a novel scheme employing a novel story–carry–forward (SCF mechanism to tackle the network partition and broadcast storm problems, which are two major challenges in VANETs. The experimental result in the Veins simulation framework shows that the proposed SCF scheme significantly mitigates broadcast storms relative to other schemes, and maintains good coverage across various traffic densities.

Designing Anti-Binge Drinking Prevention Messages: Message Framing vs. Evidence Type.

Science.gov (United States)

Kang, Hannah; Lee, Moon J

2017-09-27

We investigated whether presenting anti-binge drinking health campaign messages in different message framing and evidence types influences college students' intention to avoid binge drinking, based on prospect theory (PT) and exemplification theory. A 2 (message framing: loss-framed message/gain-framed message) X 2 (evidence type: statistical/narrative) between-subjects factorial design with a control group was conducted with 156 college students. College students who were exposed to the loss-framed message condition exhibited a higher level of intention to avoid binge drinking in the near future than those who did not see any messages (the control group). This finding was mainly among non-binge drinkers. Regardless of evidence type, those who were exposed to the messages exhibited a higher level of intention to avoid binge drinking than those in the control group. This is also mainly among non-binge drinkers. We also found the main effects of message framing and evidence type on attitude toward the message and the main effect of message framing on attitude toward drinking.

Encouraging children to eat more fruit and vegetables: Health vs. descriptive social norm-based messages.

Science.gov (United States)

Sharps, Maxine; Robinson, Eric

2016-05-01

Traditional intervention approaches to promote fruit and vegetable consumption outline the health benefits of eating fruit and vegetables. More recently, social norm-based messages describing the healthy eating habits of others have been shown to increase fruit and vegetable intake in adults. Here we report two experimental studies which investigated whether exposure to descriptive social norm-based messages about the behaviour of other children and health-based messages increased fruit and vegetable intake in young children. In both studies children were exposed to messages whilst playing a board-game. After exposure to the messages, children were able to consume fruit and vegetables, as well as high calorie snack foods. Although findings were inconsistent across the two individual studies, in a pooled analysis we found evidence that both health messages and descriptive social norm-based messages increased children's fruit and vegetable intake, relative to control condition messages (p norm-based messages can be used to promote meaningful changes to children's dietary behaviour warrants further study. Copyright © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Advanced Messaging Concept Development Basic Safety Message

Data.gov (United States)

Department of Transportation — Contains all Basic Safety Messages (BSMs) collected during the Advanced Messaging Concept Development (AMCD) field testing program. For this project, all of the Part...

Parent opinions about use of text messaging for immunization reminders.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahlers-Schmidt, Carolyn Rose; Chesser, Amy K; Paschal, Angelia M; Hart, Traci A; Williams, Katherine S; Yaghmai, Beryl; Shah-Haque, Sapna

2012-06-06

Adherence to childhood immunization schedules is a function of various factors. Given the increased use of technology as a strategy to increase immunization coverage, it is important to investigate how parents perceive different forms of communication, including traditional means and text-message reminders. To examine current forms of communication about immunization information, parents' satisfaction levels with these communication modes, perceived barriers and benefits to using text messaging, and the ideal content of text messages for immunization reminders. Structured interviews were developed and approved by two Institutional Review Boards. A convenience sample of 50 parents was recruited from two local pediatric clinics. The study included a demographics questionnaire, the shortened form of the Test of Functional Health Literacy for Adults (S-TOFHLA), questions regarding benefits and barriers of text communication from immunization providers, and preferred content for immunization reminders. Content analyses were performed on responses to barriers, benefits, and preferred content (all Cohen's kappas > 0.70). Respondents were mostly female (45/50, 90%), white non-Hispanic (31/50, 62%), between 20-41 years (mean = 29, SD 5), with one or two children (range 1-9). Nearly all (48/50, 96%) had an S-TOFHLA score in the "adequate" range. All parents (50/50, 100%) engaged in face-to-face contact with their child's physician at appointments, 74% (37/50) had contact via telephone, and none of the parents (0/50, 0%) used email or text messages. Most parents were satisfied with the face-to-face (48/50, 96%) and telephone (28/50, 75%) communication. Forty-nine of the 50 participants (98%) were interested in receiving immunization reminders by text message, and all parents (50/50, 100%) were willing to receive general appointment reminders by text message. Parents made 200 comments regarding text-message reminders. Benefits accounted for 63.5% of comments (127/200). The

Development of an Earthquake Early Warning System Using Real-Time Strong Motion Signals

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hiroo Kanamori

2008-01-01

Full Text Available As urbanization progresses worldwide, earthquakes pose serious threat to livesand properties for urban areas near major active faults on land or subduction zonesoffshore. Earthquake Early Warning (EEW can be a useful tool for reducing earthquakehazards, if the spatial relation between cities and earthquake sources is favorable for suchwarning and their citizens are properly trained to respond to earthquake warning messages.An EEW system forewarns an urban area of forthcoming strong shaking, normally with afew sec to a few tens of sec of warning time, i.e., before the arrival of the destructive Swavepart of the strong ground motion. Even a few second of advanced warning time willbe useful for pre-programmed emergency measures for various critical facilities, such asrapid-transit vehicles and high-speed trains to avoid potential derailment; it will be alsouseful for orderly shutoff of gas pipelines to minimize fire hazards, controlled shutdown ofhigh-technological manufacturing operations to reduce potential losses, and safe-guardingof computer facilities to avoid loss of vital databases. We explored a practical approach toEEW with the use of a ground-motion period parameter τc and a high-pass filtered verticaldisplacement amplitude parameter Pd from the initial 3 sec of the P waveforms. At a givensite, an earthquake magnitude could be determined from τc and the peak ground-motionvelocity (PGV could be estimated from Pd. In this method, incoming strong motion acceleration signals are recursively converted to ground velocity and displacement. A Pwavetrigger is constantly monitored. When a trigger occurs, τc and Pd are computed. Theearthquake magnitude and the on-site ground-motion intensity could be estimated and thewarning could be issued. In an ideal situation, such warnings would be available within 10sec of the origin time of a large earthquake whose subsequent ground motion may last fortens of seconds.

Heatwave Early Warning Systems and Adaptation Advice to Reduce Human Health Consequences of Heatwaves

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Bertil Forsberg

2011-12-01

Full Text Available Introduction: With climate change, there has been an increase in the frequency, intensity and duration of heatwave events. In response to the devastating mortality and morbidity of recent heatwave events, many countries have introduced heatwave early warning systems (HEWS. HEWS are designed to reduce the avoidable human health consequences of heatwaves through timely notification of prevention measures to vulnerable populations. Objective: To identify the key characteristics of HEWS in European countries to help inform modification of current, and development of, new systems and plans. Methods: We searched the internet to identify HEWS policy or government documents for 33 European countries and requested information from relevant organizations. We translated the HEWS documents and extracted details on the trigger indicators, thresholds for action, notification strategies, message intermediaries, communication and dissemination strategies, prevention strategies recommended and specified target audiences. Findings and Conclusions: Twelve European countries have HEWS. Although there are many similarities among the HEWS, there also are differences in key characteristics that could inform improvements in heatwave early warning plans.

Raw and real: an innovative communication approach to smokeless tobacco control messaging in low and middle-income countries.

Science.gov (United States)

Turk, Tahir; Chaturvedi, Pankaj; Murukutla, Nandita; Mallik, Vaishakhi; Sinha, Praveen; Mullin, Sandra

2017-07-01

The evidence on the efficacy of tobacco control messages in low and middle-income country (LMIC) settings is limited but growing. Low message salience and disengagement, in the face of tobacco control messages, are possible barriers to self-efficacy and cessation-related behaviours of tobacco users. Although adaptations of existing pretested graphic and emotional appeals have been found to impact on behaviours, more personalised, culturally relevant and compelling appeals may more fully engage message receivers to elicit optimal behavioural responses. The objective of these case studies is to use lessons learnt from high-income country tobacco control communication programmes, and adapt practical approaches to provide cost-effective, culturally nuanced, graphic and personalised messages from tobacco victims to achieve the optimal behavioural impact for population-level communication campaigns in the resource-constrained settings of LMICs. The 'raw and real' messaging approach, which emanated from message pretesting in India, outlines creative and production processes for the production of tobacco victim testimonials, given the need to source patients, facing life-threatening conditions. This cost-efficient approach uses real tobacco victims, doctors and family members in a cinéma vérité style approach to achieve more personalised and culturally resonant messages. The methodological approach, used for the development of a number of patient testimonial messages initially in India, and later adapted for tobacco cessation, smoke-free and graphic health warning communication campaigns in other countries, is outlined. Findings from campaigns evaluated to date are encouraging as a result of the simple fact that true stories of local people's suffering are simply too difficult to ignore. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/.

Alcohol warnings in TV beer advertisements.

Science.gov (United States)

Slater, M D; Domenech, M M

1995-05-01

Mandated warnings are among the few steps Congress has taken to influence the use of legal substances such as alcohol. The usefulness of such warnings in discouraging abuse of alcohol is, however, controversial. This study examines the impact of televised warnings on probable antecedents of belief change not examined in previous research: confidence in beliefs about beer risks or benefits, and cognitive responses to the advertisements. The present study (N = 75 male and female college students) tests four of the warnings recommended in Senate Bill 674 (1993--the "Thurmond bill") edited into randomly sampled television beer advertisements, using a between-subjects treatment-and-control experimental design. The four advertisements or advertisement/warning pairs were counterbalanced and analyzed as a repeated measures factor. The study indicated, as hypothesized, that subjects exposed to warnings tended to have less confidence in their generally skeptical assessments of beer risks--a likely precursor to belief change in resistant populations. Repeated exposure to the advertisements alone also appeared to lead to increased confidence in generally positive assessments of beer benefits, whereas repeated exposure to warnings led to decreased confidence in such assessments. Repeated exposure to warnings also may have primed negative reactions to subsequent beer advertisements. These results suggest mechanisms by which alcohol warnings may over time influence beliefs. Measures used here may serve as useful criterion variables in future studies on warnings. Further attention to optimizing warning content and presentation is recommended.

Instant Messaging for Creating Interactive and Collaborative m-Learning Environments

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Kadirire

2007-06-01

Full Text Available 'Instant Messaging' (IM and 'Presence,' which is essentially the ability of being able to detect if other users are logged in on the network and send them messages in real time, has become one of the most popular applications of the Internet, causing people to want to stay connected to the Internet for inordinate amounts of time, a phenomena that also fosters a sense of "online community," that perhaps no other application has done previously (Alvestrand, 2002. This research looks at the use of mobile devices to send instant messages that can carry much more information than the short message service (SMS messages, but would be free to use, notwithstanding the price of getting online. We present a prototype IM system that can be used as a viable means of communicating and learning in higher education establishments. There is some evidence to show that learning using mobile devices reduces the formality of the learning experience, and helps engage reluctant learners and raise their self-confidence. In order for the learning process to be successful in online distance learning, unlike in the traditional face-to-face learning, attention must be paid to developing the participants' sense of community within their particular group. Instant messaging – or IM – is a natural medium for online community building and asynchronous/ synchronous peer discussions.

Predictors of Quitting Attempts Among Tobacco Users in Bangladesh After a Communication Campaign to Launch Graphic Warning Labels on Packaging.

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Turk, Tahir; Newton, Fiona; Choudhury, Sohel; Islam, Md Shafiqul

2018-06-01

Tobacco use contributes to an estimated 14.6% of male and 5.7% of female deaths in Bangladesh. We examine the determinants of tobacco-related quit attempts among Bangladeshis with and without awareness of the synergized "People Behind the Packs" (PBTP) communication campaign used to support the introduction of pack-based graphic warning labels (GWLs) in 2016. Data from 1,796 adults were collected using multistage sampling and a cross-sectional face-to-face survey. Analyses used a normalized design weight to ensure representativeness to the national population of smokers within Bangladesh. For the overall sample, the multivariable logistic regression model revealed quit attempts were associated with having seen the pack-based GWLs, recalling ≥1 PBTP campaign message, higher levels of self-efficacy to quit, and recognizing more potential side-effects associated with using tobacco products. Conversely, the likelihood of quitting attempts were lower among dual tobacco users (relative to smokers) and those using tobacco at least daily (vs. less than daily). The hierarchical multivariable logistic regression model among those aware of ≥1 PBTP campaign message indicated quitting attempts were positively associated with recalling more of the campaign messages and discussing them with others. This national evaluation of pack-based GWLs and accompanying PBTP campaign within Bangladesh supports the efficacy of using synergized communication messages when introducing such labels. That quit attempts are more likely among those discussing PBTP campaign messages with others and recalling more PBTP campaign messages highlights the importance of ensuring message content is both memorable and engaging.

Availability and Reliability of Disaster Early Warning Systems and the IT Infrastructure Library

Science.gov (United States)

Wächter, J.; Loewe, P.

2012-12-01

The Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 caused an information catastrophy. Crucial early warning information could not be delivered to the communities under imminent threat, resulting in over 240,000 casualties in 14 countries. This tragedy sparked the development of a new generation of integrated modular Tsunami Early Warning Systems (TEWS). While significant advances were accomplished in the past years, recent events, like the Chile 2010 and the Tohoku 2011 tsunami demonstrate that the key technical challenge for Tsunami Early Warning research on the supranational scale still lies in the timely issuing of status information and reliable early warning messages. A key challenge stems from the main objective of the IOC Tsunami Programme, the integration of national TEWS towards ocean-wide networks: Each of the increasing number of integrated Tsunami Early Warning Centres has to cope with the continuing evolution of sensors, hardware and software while having to maintain reliable inter-center information exchange services. To avoid future information catastrophes, the performance of all components, ranging from sensors to Warning Centers, has to be regularly validated against defined criteria. This task is complicated by the fact that in term of ICT system life cycles tsunami are very rare event resulting in very difficult framing conditions to safeguard the availability and reliability of TWS. Since 2004, GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ) has built up expertise in the field of TEWS. Within GFZ, the Centre for GeoInformation Technology (CEGIT) has focused its work on the geoinformatics aspects of TEWS in two projects already: The German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Distant Early Warning System (DEWS), a European project funded under the sixth Framework Programme (FP6). These developments are continued in the TRIDEC project (Collaborative, Complex, and Critical

Instructors' Use of Trigger Warnings and Behavior Warnings in Abnormal Psychology

Science.gov (United States)

Boysen, Guy A.; Wells, Anna Mae; Dawson, Kaylee J.

2016-01-01

College students have been increasingly demanding warnings and accommodations in relation to course topics they believe will elicit strong, negative emotions. These "trigger warnings" are highly relevant to Abnormal Psychology because of the sensitive topics covered in the course (e.g., suicide, trauma, sex). A survey of Abnormal…

When message-frame fits salient cultural-frame, messages feel more persuasive.

Science.gov (United States)

Uskul, Ayse K; Oyserman, Daphna

2010-03-01

The present study examines the persuasive effects of tailored health messages comparing those tailored to match (versus not match) both chronic cultural frame and momentarily salient cultural frame. Evidence from two studies (Study 1: n = 72 European Americans; Study 2: n = 48 Asian Americans) supports the hypothesis that message persuasiveness increases when chronic cultural frame, health message tailoring and momentarily salient cultural frame all match. The hypothesis was tested using a message about health risks of caffeine consumption among individuals prescreened to be regular caffeine consumers. After being primed for individualism, European Americans who read a health message that focused on the personal self were more likely to accept the message-they found it more persuasive, believed they were more at risk and engaged in more message-congruent behaviour. These effects were also found among Asian Americans who were primed for collectivism and who read a health message that focused on relational obligations. The findings point to the importance of investigating the role of situational cues in persuasive effects of health messages and suggest that matching content to primed frame consistent with the chronic frame may be a way to know what to match messages to.

Warning Triggers in Environmental Hazards: Who Should Be Warned to Do What and When?

Science.gov (United States)

Cova, Thomas J; Dennison, Philip E; Li, Dapeng; Drews, Frank A; Siebeneck, Laura K; Lindell, Michael K

2017-04-01

Determining the most effective public warnings to issue during a hazardous environmental event is a complex problem. Three primary questions need to be answered: Who should take protective action? What is the best action? and When should this action be initiated? Warning triggers provide a proactive means for emergency managers to simultaneously answer these questions by recommending that a target group take a specified protective action if a preset environmental trigger condition occurs (e.g., warn a community to evacuate if a wildfire crosses a proximal ridgeline). Triggers are used to warn the public across a wide variety of environmental hazards, and an improved understanding of their nature and role promises to: (1) advance protective action theory by unifying the natural, built, and social themes in hazards research into one framework, (2) reveal important information about emergency managers' risk perception, situational awareness, and threat assessment regarding threat behavior and public response, and (3) advance spatiotemporal models for representing the geography and timing of disaster warning and response (i.e., a coupled natural-built-social system). We provide an overview and research agenda designed to advance our understanding and modeling of warning triggers. © 2016 Society for Risk Analysis.

A Feasibility Study for Earthquake Early Warning in a School in Southern Italy

Science.gov (United States)

Emolo, A.; Martino, C.; Picozzi, M.; Zollo, A.; Elia, L.; Festa, G.; Colombelli, S.; Caruso, A.; Brondi, P.; Miranda, N.

2015-12-01

We present the results of a feasibility study on the application of earthquake early-warning procedures in the high school ITIS E. Majorana, Somma Vesuviana, Naples, located about 80 km far from the seismogenic Irpinia region. The study was performed in the framework of the European REAKT project. The school was equipped with an EEWS composed of: a small seismic network of accelerometers, the PRESToPlus software platform, and an actuator, named Sentinel. The Sentinel is made up of low-cost hardware (i.e., Arduino®) programmed to accomplish three main tasks: 1) listen and interpret messages delivered by the EEW system PRESToPlus on the ground motion severity expected at the target site; 2) provides different warnings as alert levels by the control of different hardware (i.e., alarm bells, emergency lights, and so on); 3) declare the end of the most threatening condition, which will assist the emergency coordinator starting the evacuation plan defined by the current legislation. The Sentinel was developed within REAKT in close collaboration with the students and the teachers of the school. The EEW system and the Sentinel were successfully tested during some blind drills performed during normal school activities.

Warning Signs of Bullying

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... of Aggressive Behavior Print Share Warning Signs for Bullying There are many warning signs that may indicate ... Get help right away . Signs a Child is Bullying Others Kids may be bullying others if they: ...

EVALUATING EFFECTIVENESS OF MOBILE BROWSER SECURITY WARNINGS

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ronak Shah

2016-09-01

Full Text Available This work precisely evaluates whether browser security warnings are as ineffective as proposed by popular sentiments and past writings. This research used different kinds of Android mobile browsers as well as desktop browsers to evaluate security warnings. Security experts and developers should give emphasis on making a user aware of security warnings and should not neglect aim of communicating this to users. Security experts and system architects should emphasis the goal of communicating security information to end users. In most of the browsers, security warnings are not emphasized, and browsers simply do not show warnings, or there are a number of ways to hide those warnings of malicious sites. This work precisely finds that how inconsistent browsers really are in prompting security warnings. In particular, majority of the modern mobile web browsers are vulnerable to these security threats. We find inconsistency in SSL warnings among web browsers. Based on this work, we make recommendations for warning designers and researchers.

Cute Boys or Game Boys? The Embodiment of Femininity and Masculinity in Young Norwegians’ Text Message Love-Projects

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lin Prøitz

2005-01-01

Full Text Available By looking at young Norwegians’ text messages in sexual romantic negotiations, this article examines whether text messages may provide a site for performing femininity and masculinity in ways that subvert traditional conceptions of these constructs. Although various studies on gender, sexuality and media [1] have consistently indicated gender specific usage/performances which in this article is indicated and supported by the study’s young informants’ own formulations, the discourse analysis approach employed a more complex image. Here, I focus on how the young people indicate and translate their modes and body-language into texts, paying particular attention to how signs of femininity and masculinity emerge in text message love-projects, I argue that especially for young males, text messages in love-projects offer a site where in particular young males may perform masculinity in counter-traditional ways. The article is a part of a long study of young Norwegian’s usages, self-understanding and gender performances through text message communication. [[1] Döring, Hellwig and Klimsa, 2004, Hareide 2002, Johnsen 2000, Lee and Sohn, 2004, Ling 1998, 1999, 2002, 2004, 2005, Skog 2000, 2002

Future Developments for the Earthquake Early Warning System following the 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake

Science.gov (United States)

Yamada, M.; Mori, J. J.

2011-12-01

The 2011 off the Pacific Coast of Tohoku Earthquake (Mw9.0) caused significant damage over a large area of northeastern Honshu. An earthquake early warning was issued to the public in the Tohoku region about 8 seconds after the first P-arrival, which is 31 seconds after the origin time. There was no 'blind zone', and warnings were received at all locations before S-wave arrivals, since the earthquake was fairly far offshore. Although the early warning message was properly reported in Tohoku region which was the most severely affected area, a message was not sent to the more distant Tokyo region because the intensity was underestimated. . This underestimation was because the magnitude determination in the first few seconds was relatively small (Mj8.1)., and there was no consideration of a finite fault with a long length. Another significant issue is that warnings were sometimes not properly provided for aftershocks. Immediately following the earthquake, the waveforms of some large aftershocks were contaminated by long-period surface waves from the mainshock, which made it difficult to pick P-wave arrivals. Also, correctly distinguishing and locating later aftershocks was sometimes difficult, when multiple events occurred within a short period of time. This masinhock begins with relatively small moment release for the first 10 s . Since the amplitude of the initial waveforms is small, most methods that use amplitudes and periods of the P-wave (e.g. Wu and Kanamori, 2005) cannot correctly determine the size of the4 earthquake in the first several seconds. The current JMA system uses the peak displacement amplitude for the magnitude estimation, and the magnitude saturated at about M8 1 minute after the first P-wave arrival. . Magnitudes of smaller earthquakes can be correctly identified from the first few seconds of P- or S-wave arrivals, but this M9 event cannot be characterized in such a short time. The only way to correctly characterize the size of the Tohoku

Messages Are Everywhere: Reading Perceptions, Habits, and Preferences of Undergraduates

Science.gov (United States)

Nadelson, Louis S.; Villagómez, Amanda; Konkol, Danielle; Haskell, Chris; McCulley, Meleah; Campbell, Denise

2013-01-01

As society continues to evolve, so do the methods that are used for text-based communication. Electronic books, mobile phone text messaging, and an array of internet-based texts are now combined with traditional print forms of text, broadly expanding text-based communication. However, student perceptions of reading may still be limited to…

Sequencing the threat and recommendation components of persuasive messages differentially improves the effectiveness of high- and low-distressing imagery in an anti-alcohol message in students.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Stephen L; West, Charlotte

2015-05-01

Distressing imagery is often used to improve the persuasiveness of mass-reach health promotion messages, but its effectiveness may be limited because audiences avoid attending to content. Prior self-affirmation or self-efficacy inductions have been shown to reduce avoidance and improve audience responsiveness to distressing messages, but these are difficult to introduce into a mass-reach context. Reasoning that a behavioural recommendation may have a similar effect, we reversed the traditional threat-behavioural recommendation health promotion message sequence. 2 × 2 experimental design: Factor 1, high- and low-distress images; Factor 2, threat-recommendation and recommendation-threat sequences. Ninety-one students were exposed to an identical text message accompanied by high- or low-distress imagery presented in threat-recommendation and recommendation-threat sequences. For the high-distress message, greater persuasion was observed for the recommendation-threat than the threat-recommendation sequence. This was partially mediated by participants' greater self-exposure to the threat component of the message, which we attribute to the effect of sequence in reducing attentional avoidance. For the low-distress message, greater persuasion was observed for the threat-recommendation sequence, which was not mediated by reading time allocated to the threat. Tailoring message sequence to suit the degree of distress that message developers wish to induce provides a tool that could improve persuasive messages. These findings provide a first step in this process and discuss further steps needed to consolidate and expand these findings. Statement of contribution What is already known on this subject? Health promotion messages accompanied by distressing imagery might, under some circumstances, persuade individuals to engage in healthier behaviour. Audiences can respond defensively to distressing imagery, but may be less inclined to do so when an easily followed behavioural

Development of earthquake early warning system using real time signal of broadband seismogram

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Gunawan, Hendar; Puspito, Nanang T.; Ibrahim, Gunawan; Harjadi, Prih

2012-01-01

Earthquake pose serious threat of live and properties for urban area near subduction zone offshore and active fault on land. Jakarta and Bandung is an example of big city that no system of Earthquake early warning (EEW) event very high urbanization, and has many important infra structure in the area. The capital city is potentially high risk ground shaking. EEW can be usefull tool for reducing earthquake hazard, if spatial relation between cities and earthquake source is favorable for such warning and their citizens are properly trained to response early warning message. An EEW and rapid response system can provide the critical information needed to minimized lost of live and property and direct rescue. Earthquake ground shaking with magnitude M>6.0 from zone of Megathrust, southern of West Java should potentially damage in the area of west java especially Bandung and Jakarta City. This research development of EEW parameter such as amplitude displacement (Pd), rapid magnitude determination (M) and Peak ground Velocity (PGV). We explore the practical approach to EEW with the use of Broadband seismogram signal. Time effective EEW which epicenter from megathrust zone has potential to provide EEW in the area of west java such as Jakarta first ground shaking more or less 60 second later and strong shaking 118 second after EEW Alarm on CISI Station. EEW notification at potentially damage in the area of west java can be predicted from the characteristic of Pd > 0.5 cm, M> 6 and PGV > 10 cm/sec. GIS as a tool for presentation of hazard mapping in the affected area.

Visions of Students Today: A Message from the Editors

Science.gov (United States)

Wentzell, G. W.; Richlin, L.; Cox. M. D.

2012-01-01

In Michael Wesch's (2007) now widely seen video "A Vision of Students Today" (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dGCJ46vyR9o), a camera pans across a large, traditional classroom where college students hold up messages about themselves as members of the current generation of learners, who have been dubbed Millennials (Howe & Strauss, 2000). The video…

A Visualized Message Interface (VMI) for intelligent messaging services

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Endo, T.; Kasahara, H.; Nakagawa, T.

1984-01-01

In CCITT, Message Handling Systems (MHS) have been studied from the viewpoint of communications protocol standardization. In addition to MHS services, Message Processing (MP) services, such as image processing, filing and retrieving services, will come into increasing demand in office automation field. These messaging services, including MHS services, can be thought of as Intelligent Messaging (IM) services. IM services include many basic services, optional user facilities and service parameters. Accordingly, it is necessary to deal with these parameters and MP procedures in as systematic and user-friendly a manner as possible. As one step towards realizing a user-friendly IM services interface, the characteristics of IM service parameters are studied and a Visualized Message Interface (VMI) which resembles a conventional letter exchange format is presented. The concept of VMI formation is discussed using the generic document structure concept as well as a Screen Interface and Protocol Interface conversion package

Observed activation status of lane departure warning and forward collision warning of Honda vehicles at dealership service centers.

Science.gov (United States)

Reagan, Ian J; McCartt, Anne T

2016-11-16

There are little objective data on whether drivers with lane departure warning and forward collision warning systems actually use them, but self-report data indicate that lane departure warning may be used less and viewed less favorably than forward collision warning. The current study assessed whether the systems were turned on when drivers brought their vehicles to dealership service stations and whether the observational protocol is a feasible method for collecting similar data on various manufacturers' systems. Observations of 2013-2015 Honda Accords, 2014-2015 Odysseys, and 2015 CR-Vs occurred at 2 U.S. Honda dealerships for approximately 4 weeks during Summer 2015. Of the 265 vehicles observed to have the 2 systems, 87 (32.8%) had lane departure warning turned on. Accords were associated with a 66% increase in the likelihood that lane departure warning was turned on compared with Odysseys, but the rate was still only about 40% in Accords. In contrast, forward collision warning was turned on in all but one of the observed vehicles. Observations found that the activation rate was much higher for forward collision warning than lane departure warning. The observation method worked well and appears feasible for extending to other manufacturers.

The Use of Facebook Advertising for Communicating Public Health Messages: A Campaign Against Drinking During Pregnancy in New Zealand.

Science.gov (United States)

Parackal, Mathew; Parackal, Sherly; Eusebius, Shobhit; Mather, Damien

2017-08-10

Social media is gaining recognition as a platform for delivering public health messages. One area attracting attention from public health researchers and professionals is Facebook's advertising channel. This channel is reported to have a broad reach and generate high user engagement with the disseminated campaign materials. However, to date, no study has examined the communication process via this channel which this study aimed to address. The specific objectives of the study were to (1) examine user engagement for a public health campaign based on the metadata provided by Facebook, (2) analyze comments generated by the campaign materials using text mining, and (3) investigate the relationship between the themes identified in the comments and the message and the sentiments prevalent in the themes that exhibited significant relationships. This study examined a New Zealand public health pilot campaign called "Don't Know? Don't Drink," which warned against drinking alcohol during pregnancy. The campaign conveyed the warning through a video and three banner ads that were delivered as news feeds to women aged 18-30 years. Thematic analysis using text mining performed on the comments (n=819) identified four themes. Logistic regression was used to identify meaning-making themes that exhibited association with the message. The users' engagement was impressive with the video receiving 203,754 views. The combined likes and shares for the promotional materials (video and banner ads) amounted to 6125 and 300, respectively. The logistic regression analysis showed two meaning-making themes, namely, risk of pregnancy (P=.003) and alcohol and culture (PFacebook's advertising channel. ©Mathew Parackal, Sherly Parackal, Shobhit Eusebius, Damien Mather. Originally published in JMIR Public Health and Surveillance (http://publichealth.jmir.org), 10.08.2017.

The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) adaption in National Early Warning Alerting Systems of China

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Chao

2017-04-01

The Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) [1] is an XML-based data format for exchanging public warnings and emergencies between alerting technologies. In China, from local communities to entire nations, there was a patchwork of specialized hazard public alerting systems. And each system was often designed just for certain emergency situations and for certain communications media. Application took place in the NEWAS (National Early Warning Alerting Systems) [2]project where CAP serves as central message to integrate all kind of hazard situations, including the natural calamity, accident disaster, public health emergency , social safety etc. Officially operated on May 2015, NEWAS now has completed docking work with 14 departments including civil administration, safety supervision, forestry, land, water conservancy, earthquake, traffic, meteorology, agriculture, tourism, food and drug supervision, public security and oceanic administration. Thus, several items in CAP has been modified, redefined and extended according to the various grading standards and publishing strategies, as well as the characteristics of Chinese Geocoding. NEWAS successfully delivers information to end users through 4 levels (i.e. State, province, prefecture and county) structure and by various means. [1] CAP, http://www.oasis-emergency.org/cap [2] http://www.12379.cn/

MyShake: A smartphone seismic network for earthquake early warning and beyond.

Science.gov (United States)

Kong, Qingkai; Allen, Richard M; Schreier, Louis; Kwon, Young-Woo

2016-02-01

Large magnitude earthquakes in urban environments continue to kill and injure tens to hundreds of thousands of people, inflicting lasting societal and economic disasters. Earthquake early warning (EEW) provides seconds to minutes of warning, allowing people to move to safe zones and automated slowdown and shutdown of transit and other machinery. The handful of EEW systems operating around the world use traditional seismic and geodetic networks that exist only in a few nations. Smartphones are much more prevalent than traditional networks and contain accelerometers that can also be used to detect earthquakes. We report on the development of a new type of seismic system, MyShake, that harnesses personal/private smartphone sensors to collect data and analyze earthquakes. We show that smartphones can record magnitude 5 earthquakes at distances of 10 km or less and develop an on-phone detection capability to separate earthquakes from other everyday shakes. Our proof-of-concept system then collects earthquake data at a central site where a network detection algorithm confirms that an earthquake is under way and estimates the location and magnitude in real time. This information can then be used to issue an alert of forthcoming ground shaking. MyShake could be used to enhance EEW in regions with traditional networks and could provide the only EEW capability in regions without. In addition, the seismic waveforms recorded could be used to deliver rapid microseism maps, study impacts on buildings, and possibly image shallow earth structure and earthquake rupture kinematics.

New symbol launched to warn public about radiation dangers. Supplementary symbol aims to help reduce needless deaths and injuries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

Full text: With radiating waves, a skull and crossbones and a running person, a new ionizing radiation warning symbol is being introduced to supplement the traditional international symbol for radiation, the three cornered trefoil. The new symbol is being launched today by the IAEA and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to help reduce needless deaths and serious injuries from accidental exposure to large radioactive sources. It will serve as a supplementary warning to the trefoil, which has no intuitive meaning and little recognition beyond those educated in its significance. 'I believe the international recognition of the specific expertise of both organizations will ensure that the new standard will be accepted and applied by governments and industry to improve the safety of nuclear applications, protection of people and the environment', said Ms. Eliana Amaral, Director, Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety, IAEA. The new symbol is aimed at alerting anyone, anywhere to the potential dangers of being close to a large source of ionizing radiation, the result of a five-year project conducted in 11 countries around the world. The symbol was tested with different population groups - mixed ages, varying educational backgrounds, male and female - to ensure that its message of 'danger- stay away' was crystal clear and understood by all. 'We can't teach the world about radiation,' said Carolyn Mac Kenzie, an IAEA radiation specialist who helped develop the symbol, 'but we can warn people about dangerous sources for the price of sticker.' The new symbol, developed by human factor experts, graphic artists, and radiation protection experts, was tested by the Gallup Institute on a total of 1 650 individuals in Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, China, India, Thailand, Poland, Ukraine and the United States. The symbol is intended for IAEA Category 1, 2 and 3 sources defined as dangerous sources capable of death or serious injury

New symbol launched to warn public about radiation dangers. Supplementary symbol aims to help reduce needless deaths and injuries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

Full text: With radiating waves, a skull and crossbones and a running person, a new ionizing radiation warning symbol is being introduced to supplement the traditional international symbol for radiation, the three cornered trefoil. The new symbol is being launched today by the IAEA and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to help reduce needless deaths and serious injuries from accidental exposure to large radioactive sources. It will serve as a supplementary warning to the trefoil, which has no intuitive meaning and little recognition beyond those educated in its significance. 'I believe the international recognition of the specific expertise of both organizations will ensure that the new standard will be accepted and applied by governments and industry to improve the safety of nuclear applications, protection of people and the environment', said Ms. Eliana Amaral, Director, Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety, IAEA. The new symbol is aimed at alerting anyone, anywhere to the potential dangers of being close to a large source of ionizing radiation, the result of a five-year project conducted in 11 countries around the world. The symbol was tested with different population groups - mixed ages, varying educational backgrounds, male and female - to ensure that its message of 'danger- stay away' was crystal clear and understood by all. 'We can't teach the world about radiation,' said Carolyn Mac Kenzie, an IAEA radiation specialist who helped develop the symbol, 'but we can warn people about dangerous sources for the price of sticker.' The new symbol, developed by human factor experts, graphic artists, and radiation protection experts, was tested by the Gallup Institute on a total of 1 650 individuals in Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, China, India, Thailand, Poland, Ukraine and the United States. The symbol is intended for IAEA Category 1, 2 and 3 sources defined as dangerous sources capable of death or serious injury

New symbol launched to warn public about radiation dangers. Supplementary symbol aims to help reduce needless deaths and injuries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

Full text: With radiating waves, a skull and crossbones and a running person, a new ionizing radiation warning symbol is being introduced to supplement the traditional international symbol for radiation, the three cornered trefoil. The new symbol is being launched today by the IAEA and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to help reduce needless deaths and serious injuries from accidental exposure to large radioactive sources. It will serve as a supplementary warning to the trefoil, which has no intuitive meaning and little recognition beyond those educated in its significance. 'I believe the international recognition of the specific expertise of both organizations will ensure that the new standard will be accepted and applied by governments and industry to improve the safety of nuclear applications, protection of people and the environment', said Ms. Eliana Amaral, Director, Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety, IAEA. The new symbol is aimed at alerting anyone, anywhere to the potential dangers of being close to a large source of ionizing radiation, the result of a five-year project conducted in 11 countries around the world. The symbol was tested with different population groups - mixed ages, varying educational backgrounds, male and female - to ensure that its message of 'danger- stay away' was crystal clear and understood by all. 'We can't teach the world about radiation,' said Carolyn Mac Kenzie, an IAEA radiation specialist who helped develop the symbol, 'but we can warn people about dangerous sources for the price of sticker.' The new symbol, developed by human factor experts, graphic artists, and radiation protection experts, was tested by the Gallup Institute on a total of 1 650 individuals in Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, China, India, Thailand, Poland, Ukraine and the United States. The symbol is intended for IAEA Category 1, 2 and 3 sources defined as dangerous sources capable of death or serious injury

New symbol launched to warn public about radiation dangers. Supplementary symbol aims to help reduce needless deaths and injuries

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

2007-01-01

Full text: With radiating waves, a skull and crossbones and a running person, a new ionizing radiation warning symbol is being introduced to supplement the traditional international symbol for radiation, the three cornered trefoil. The new symbol is being launched today by the IAEA and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) to help reduce needless deaths and serious injuries from accidental exposure to large radioactive sources. It will serve as a supplementary warning to the trefoil, which has no intuitive meaning and little recognition beyond those educated in its significance. 'I believe the international recognition of the specific expertise of both organizations will ensure that the new standard will be accepted and applied by governments and industry to improve the safety of nuclear applications, protection of people and the environment', said Ms. Eliana Amaral, Director, Division of Radiation, Transport and Waste Safety, IAEA. The new symbol is aimed at alerting anyone, anywhere to the potential dangers of being close to a large source of ionizing radiation, the result of a five-year project conducted in 11 countries around the world. The symbol was tested with different population groups - mixed ages, varying educational backgrounds, male and female - to ensure that its message of 'danger- stay away' was crystal clear and understood by all. 'We can't teach the world about radiation,' said Carolyn Mac Kenzie, an IAEA radiation specialist who helped develop the symbol, 'but we can warn people about dangerous sources for the price of sticker.' The new symbol, developed by human factor experts, graphic artists, and radiation protection experts, was tested by the Gallup Institute on a total of 1 650 individuals in Brazil, Mexico, Morocco, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, China, India, Thailand, Poland, Ukraine and the United States. The symbol is intended for IAEA Category 1, 2 and 3 sources defined as dangerous sources capable of death or serious injury

Does the Screening Status of Message Characters Affect Message Effects?

Science.gov (United States)

Alber, Julia M.; Glanz, Karen

2018-01-01

Public health messages can be used to increase awareness about colorectal cancer screenings. Free or inexpensive images for creating health messages are readily available, yet little is known about how a pictured individual's engagement in the behavior of interest affects message outcomes. Participants (N = 360), aged 50 to 75 years, completed an…

Commodification of Religious Tradition: Critical Study on Religious Tradition Tourism Haul at Pasar Kliwon Surakarta

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Muhammad Ferri Setiawan

2017-02-01

Full Text Available The policy on tourism development program of Surakarta especially on the calendar of the event takes advantage from religious tradition as tourism commodity. The purpose of this study is to describe the religious tradition haul, the programs by the tourism department of Surakarta, and how commodification through a well implemented marketing communications process, messaging, and other media, as well as responses from the audience regarding the marketing of haul tradition in general toward creating a leading tourism object. Haul which is a tradition for commemorating the death of clerics (ulama who are followed by some local communities in Surakarta, especially those in Pasar Kliwon Regency, is utilized in tourism. Through critical study, the cultural values that are supposed to be preserved, changed into marketing values to attract visitors. The used media are the advertisement and the calendar of events. The local community gain advantages economically from this policy, but they object to it socio-culturally. Meanwhile, the tourists are generally interested in haul tradition.

DMS message design workshops.

Science.gov (United States)

2009-03-01

This report summarizes the training conducted statewide regarding the design and display of messages on : dynamic message signs. The training is based on the Dynamic Message Sign Message Design and Display : Manual (0-4023-P3). Researchers developed ...

Managing Gradual Typing with Message-Safety in Dart

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Ernst, Erik; Møller, Anders; Schwarz, Mathias Romme

. This supports evolution from a dynamically typed programto a strictly statically typed form. We present a formal model of Dart that elucidates how a core of the language and its standard type system works. This allows us to characterize message-safe programs and present a theorem stating that such programs......This paper establishes a notion of message-safe programs as a natural intermediate point between dynamically typed and statically typed Dart programs. Unlike traditional static type checking, the type system in the Dart programming language is unsound by design. The rationale has been...... that this allows compile-time detection of likely errors and enables code completion in integrated development environments, without being restrictive on programmers. We show that, despite unsoundness, judicious use of type annotations can ensure useful properties of the runtime behavior of Dart programs...

30 CFR 56.14214 - Train warnings.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... Safety Practices and Operational Procedures § 56.14214 Train warnings. A warning that is audible above the surrounding noise level shall be sounded— (a) Immediately prior to moving trains; (b) When trains... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Train warnings. 56.14214 Section 56.14214...

30 CFR 57.14214 - Train warnings.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... Equipment Safety Practices and Operational Procedures § 57.14214 Train warnings. A warning that is audible above the surrounding noise level shall be sounded— (a) Immediately prior to moving trains; (b) When... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Train warnings. 57.14214 Section 57.14214...

Early Warning System Ghana: how to successfully implement a disaster early warning system in a data scarce region

Science.gov (United States)

Udo, Job; Jungermann, Nicole

2016-04-01

Ghana is a country frequently struck by natural disasters like floods and droughts. Timely warning or detection of such disasters will mitigate the negative impact on lives and property. However, local data and monitoring systems necessary to provide such a warning are hardly available. The availability and improvement of internet, mobile phones and satellites has provided new possibilities for disaster warning systems in data scarce regions such as Ghana. Our presentation describes the development of an early warning system (EWS) in Ghana completely based on satellite based open data. The EWS provides a flood or drought hazard warning on sub-catchment level and links the warning to a more detailed flood or drought risk map, to enable the disaster coordinator to send warnings or relieve more efficiently to areas that have the highest risk. This is especially relevant because some areas for which the system is implemented are very remote. The system is developed and tested to be robust and operational especially in remote areas. This means that the necessary information is also available under limited internet conditions and not dependent on local computer facilities. In many rural areas in Ghana communities rely on indigenous knowledge when it comes to flood or drought disaster forecasting. The EWS has a feature that allows indigenous knowledge indicators to be taken into account in the warning and makes easy comparison possible with the satellite based warnings.

Reliability and effectiveness of early warning systems for natural hazards: Concept and application to debris flow warning

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Sättele, Martina; Bründl, Michael; Straub, Daniel

2015-01-01

Early Warning Systems (EWS) are increasingly applied to mitigate the risks posed by natural hazards. To compare the effect of EWS with alternative risk reduction measures and to optimize their design and operation, their reliability and effectiveness must be quantified. In the present contribution, a framework approach to the evaluation of threshold-based EWS for natural hazards is presented. The system reliability is classically represented by the Probability of Detection (POD) and Probability of False Alarms (PFA). We demonstrate how the EWS effectiveness, which is a measure of risk reduction, can be formulated as a function of POD and PFA. To model the EWS and compute the reliability, we develop a framework based on Bayesian Networks, which is further extended to a decision graph, facilitating the optimization of the warning system. In a case study, the framework is applied to the assessment of an existing debris flow EWS. The application demonstrates the potential of the framework for identifying the important factors influencing the effectiveness of the EWS and determining optimal warning strategies and system configurations. - Highlights: • Warning systems are increasingly applied measures to reduce natural hazard risks. • Bayesian Networks (BN) are powerful tools to quantify warning system's reliability. • The effectiveness is defined to assess the optimality of warning systems. • By extending BNs to decision graphs, the optimal warning strategy is identified. • Sensors positioning significantly influence the effectiveness of warning systems

A Distributed Architecture for Tsunami Early Warning and Collaborative Decision-support in Crises

Science.gov (United States)

Moßgraber, J.; Middleton, S.; Hammitzsch, M.; Poslad, S.

2012-04-01

The presentation will describe work on the system architecture that is being developed in the EU FP7 project TRIDEC on "Collaborative, Complex and Critical Decision-Support in Evolving Crises". The challenges for a Tsunami Early Warning System (TEWS) are manifold and the success of a system depends crucially on the system's architecture. A modern warning system following a system-of-systems approach has to integrate various components and sub-systems such as different information sources, services and simulation systems. Furthermore, it has to take into account the distributed and collaborative nature of warning systems. In order to create an architecture that supports the whole spectrum of a modern, distributed and collaborative warning system one must deal with multiple challenges. Obviously, one cannot expect to tackle these challenges adequately with a monolithic system or with a single technology. Therefore, a system architecture providing the blueprints to implement the system-of-systems approach has to combine multiple technologies and architectural styles. At the bottom layer it has to reliably integrate a large set of conventional sensors, such as seismic sensors and sensor networks, buoys and tide gauges, and also innovative and unconventional sensors, such as streams of messages from social media services. At the top layer it has to support collaboration on high-level decision processes and facilitates information sharing between organizations. In between, the system has to process all data and integrate information on a semantic level in a timely manner. This complex communication follows an event-driven mechanism allowing events to be published, detected and consumed by various applications within the architecture. Therefore, at the upper layer the event-driven architecture (EDA) aspects are combined with principles of service-oriented architectures (SOA) using standards for communication and data exchange. The most prominent challenges on this layer

Happiness and Depression in the Traditionally Bullied and Cyberbullied 12-Year-Old

Science.gov (United States)

Uusitalo-Malmivaara, Lotta; Lehto, Juhani E.

2016-01-01

This study investigated the overall happiness, school-related happiness, and depression of traditionally bullied and cyberbullied 12-year-old Finnish students. Among the more than 700 participants, traditional bullying (26%) was more frequent than cyberbullying (18%). Receiving insulting text messages or being the subject of offensive comments on…

Cigarette Graphic Warning Labels Are Not Created Equal: They Can Increase or Decrease Smokers' Quit Intentions Relative to Text-Only Warnings.

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Abigail T; Peters, Ellen; Shoben, Abigail B; Meilleur, Louise R; Klein, Elizabeth G; Tompkins, Mary Kate; Romer, Daniel; Tusler, Martin

2017-10-01

Cigarette graphic-warning labels elicit negative emotion. Research suggests negative emotion drives greater risk perceptions and quit intentions through multiple processes. The present research compares text-only warning effectiveness to that of graphic warnings eliciting more or less negative emotion. Nationally representative online panels of 736 adult smokers and 469 teen smokers/vulnerable smokers were randomly assigned to view one of three warning types (text-only, text with low-emotion images, or text with high-emotion images) four times over 2 weeks. Participants recorded their emotional reaction to the warnings (measured as arousal), smoking risk perceptions, and quit intentions. Primary analyses used structural equation modeling. Participants in the high-emotion condition reported greater emotional reaction than text-only participants (bAdult = 0.21; bTeen = 0.27, p's labels with images that elicit more negative emotional reaction are associated with increased risk perceptions and quit intentions in adults and teens relative to text-only warnings. However, graphic warnings containing images which evoke little emotional reaction can backfire and reduce risk perceptions and quit intentions versus text-only warnings. This research is the first to directly manipulate two emotion levels in sets of nine cigarette graphic warning images and compare them with text-only warnings. Among adult and teen smokers, high-emotion graphic warnings were associated with increased risk perceptions and quit intentions versus text-only warnings. Low-emotion graphic warnings backfired and tended to reduce risk perceptions and quit intentions versus text-only warnings. Policy makers should be aware that merely placing images on cigarette packaging is insufficient to increase smokers' risk perceptions and quit intentions. Low-emotion graphic warnings will not necessarily produce desired population-level benefits relative to text-only or high-emotion warnings. © The Author 2016

A comparison of different informative vibrotactile forward collision warnings: does the warning need to be linked to the collision event?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Rob Gray

Full Text Available Recent research demonstrates that auditory and vibrotactile forward collision warnings presenting a motion signal (e.g., looming or apparent motion across the body surface can facilitate speeded braking reaction times (BRTs. The purpose of the present study was to expand on this work by directly comparing warning signals in which the motion conveyed was constant across all collision events with signals in which the speed of motion was dependent on the closing velocity (CV. Two experiments were conducted using a simulated car-following task and BRTs were measured. In Experiment 1, increasing intensity (looming vibrotactile signals were presented from a single tactor attached to the driver's waist. When the increase in intensity was CV-linked, BRTs were significantly faster as compared to a no-warning condition, however, they were not significantly different from constant intensity and CV-independent looming warnings. In Experiment 2, a vertical array of three tactors was used to create motion either towards (upwards or away (downwards from the driver's head. When the warning signal presented upwards motion that was CV-linked, BRTs were significantly faster than all other warning types. Downwards warnings led to a significantly higher number of brake activations in false alarm situations as compared to upwards moving warnings. The effectiveness of dynamic tactile collision warnings would therefore appear to depend on both the link between the warning and collision event and on the directionality of the warning signal.

[Enlightenment of adverse reaction monitoring on safety evaluation of traditional Chinese medicines].

Science.gov (United States)

Song, Hai-bo; Du, Xiao-xi; Ren, Jing-tian; Yang, Le; Guo, Xiao-xin; Pang, Yu

2015-04-01

The adverse reaction monitoring is important in warning the risks of traditional Chinese medicines at an early stage, finding potential quality problems and ensuring the safe clinical medication. In the study, efforts were made to investigate the risk signal mining techniques in line with the characteristics of traditional Chinese medicines, particularly the complexity in component, processing, compatibility, preparation and clinical medication, find early risk signals of traditional Chinese medicines and establish a traditional Chinese medicine safety evaluation system based on adverse reaction risk signals, in order to improve the target studies on traditional Chinese medicine safety, effective and timely control risks and solve the existing frequent safety issue in traditional Chinese medicines.

Red warning for air pollution in China: Exploring residents' perceptions of the first two red warnings in Beijing.

Science.gov (United States)

Zhao, Hanping; Wang, Fangping; Niu, Chence; Wang, Han; Zhang, Xiaoxue

2018-02-01

Air pollution early warnings have been issued in China to mitigate the effects of high pollution days. Public perceptions and views about early warning signals can affect individual behaviors and play a major role in the public's response to air pollution risks. This study examined public attitudes and responses to the first two red warnings for air pollution in Beijing in 2015. An online survey was sent out, and 664 respondents (response rate = 90%) provided their perspectives on the red warnings. Descriptive statistics, sign tests and binary logit models were used to analyze the data. More than half of the respondents reported that their life and work were affected by the red warning in December 2015. In contrast to their perceptions about the second red warning period, the public thought that the first red warning should have been issued earlier and that the number of consecutive days of warnings should have been reduced. The respondents also recommended that instead of reducing the number of red warnings, the red warning emergency measures should be adjusted. Specifically, the public preferred the installation of air purifiers in schools rather than closing schools and strengthening road flushing and dust pollution controls over restrictions on driving. Data analyses were conducted to examine the affected groups and different groups' perceptions of the necessity of implementing emergency measures. The results indicated that men and more educated respondents were more likely to be affected by driving limitations, and men were less supportive of these limitations. The age and education of respondents were significantly negatively associated with the opinion that schools should be closed, whereas wealthier respondents were more supportive of school closings. The finding of a negative attitude among the public toward the first two red warnings may be used to help local governments modify protective measures and pollution mitigation initiatives to increase

[Impact of cigarette packages warning labels in relation to tobacco-smoking dependence and motivation to quit].

Science.gov (United States)

Mannocci, Alice; Antici, Daniele; Boccia, Antonio; La Torre, Giuseppe

2012-01-01

) reduced the number cigarettes per day, and 5% (12 smokers) attempted to quit. Forty-five percent of smokers did not know the real impact of light cigarettes on their health, and 49% decided to smoke light cigarettes after having read the warnings. Women were more susceptible to immediate consequences of smoking (appearance of wrinkles; p<0.001), and were more prone to switch to light cigarettes (p=0.002). Smoking dependence, computed with Fagerstrom's test, showed significant differences by age groups (higher in smokers aged 30-45 years; p=0.001), and in smokers who were not interested to deepen knowledge of smoking effects (p=0.009). Individuals more motivated to quit were younger smokers (p=0.012). Smokers aged ≥ 45 years (OR=2.54; 95%CI 1.05-6.17), more motivated to quit (OR=2.92; 95%CI 1.17-7.30), those who reported they do not like the smoking smell on their own clothes (OR=3.6; 95%CI 1.4-9.0), those who reported warning messages are important (OR=4.93; 95%CI 1.55-15.71), those who changed their own smoking behavior due the warnings (OR=3.31; 95%CI 1.10-9.99) were more likely to reduce daily number of cigarettes due the health warnings. Forty-seven percent thought that health warnings with text and images could have a higher impact in comparison to text-only warnings. Moreover, women were more motivated to change cigarette brand if a brand should introduce pictorial warnings (OR=2.54; 95%CI 1.41-4.56). our study showed some positive effects of the introduction of health warnings on cigarette packages. In fact, almost all were informed on tobacco effects, 14% of them reduced the amount of daily smoking, and 5% attempted to quit. Many smokers still believe that switching to lighter cigarettes (e.g. those with less nicotine and tar contents) reduces smoking-related diseases. More than 50% of smokers recognized the importance of health warnings in communicating health risks of smoking, while women were more impressed than men by shocking pictorial warnings.

The TRIDEC Project: Future-Saving FOSS GIS Applications for Tsunami Early Warning

Science.gov (United States)

Loewe, P.; Wächter, J.; Hammitzsch, M.

2011-12-01

The Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 killed over 240,000 people in 14 countries and inundated the affected shorelines with waves reaching heights up to 30m. This natural disaster coincided with an information catastrophy, as potentially life-saving early warning information existed, yet no means were available to deliver it to the communities under imminent threat. Tsunami Early Warning Capabilities have improved in the meantime by continuing development of modular Tsunami Early Warning Systems (TEWS). However, recent tsunami events, like the Chile 2010 and the Tohoku 2011 tsunami demonstrate that the key challenge for ongoing TEWS research on the supranational scale still lies in the timely issuing of reliable early warning messages. Since 2004, the GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences has built up expertise in the field of TEWS. Within GFZ, the Centre for GeoInformation Technology (CEGIT) has focused its work on the geoinformatics aspects of TEWS in two projects already: The German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS) funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Distant Early Warning System (DEWS), a European project funded under the sixth Framework Programme (FP6). These developments are continued in the TRIDEC project (Collaborative, Complex, and Critical Decision Processes in Evolving Crises) funded under the European Union's seventh Framework Programme (FP7). This ongoing project focuses on real-time intelligent information management in Earth management and its long-term application. All TRIDEC developments are based on Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) components and industry standards where-ever possible. Tsunami Early Warning in TRIDEC is also based on mature system architecture models to ensure long-term usability and the flexibility to adapt to future generations of Tsunami sensors. All open source software produced by the project consortium are foreseen to be published on FOSSLAB, a publicly available

Reducing online identity disclosure using warnings.

Science.gov (United States)

Carpenter, Sandra; Zhu, Feng; Kolimi, Swapna

2014-09-01

In an experimental design, we tested whether written warnings can reduce the amount of identity information exposure online. A psychological attack on information privacy that has been shown to be effective in previous research was launched. This attack took advantage of the fact that people respond to certain types of requests in a relatively automatic, or mindless, fashion. The experiment manipulated the word that was used in the alert header: "warning", "caution", or "hazard". All warnings proved to be effective in reducing disclosure, but "hazard" proved to be most effective. Also warnings were more effective in reducing disclosure of driver's license numbers than email addresses. The discussion (a) provides tentative conclusions why these patterns were obtained, (b) suggests how to design warnings in cyber-environments, and (c) addresses future possibilities for research on this topic. Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

Getting Your Message Across: Mobile Phone Text Messaging

Science.gov (United States)

Beecher, Constance C.; Hayungs, Lori

2017-01-01

Want to send a message that 99% of your audience will read? Many Extension professionals are familiar with using social media tools to enhance Extension programming. Extension professionals may be less familiar with the use of mobile phone text-based marketing tools. The purpose of this article is to introduce SMS (short message system) marketing…

Connected motorcycle crash warning interfaces.

Science.gov (United States)

2016-01-15

Crash warning systems have been deployed in the high-end vehicle market segment for some time and are trickling down to additional motor vehicle industry segments each year. The motorcycle segment, however, has no deployed crash warning system to dat...

The design of the light-flash warning light

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Junli

2018-05-01

In today's society, the warning light has been used widely in people's daily life and various industries and agricultures. It is important to protect people's life and security. Light-flashing warning light is a kind of warning light control equipment which can control warning light automatically open and work in the state of blinking after dark, and it can automatically shut down after the dawn. It can achieve the flashing light automatic control and dual function. At present, light-flashing warning lights are mainly used in the projects of municipal construction. It is helpful to warn people and vehicles that passed in the construction site and ensure personal safety through using light-flashing warning light. Its design is simple, its performance is stable and it is also very convince to use it.

Effect of Graphic Cigarette Warnings on Smoking Intentions in Young Adults

Science.gov (United States)

Blanton, Hart; Snyder, Leslie B.; Strauts, Erin; Larson, Joy G.

2014-01-01

Introduction Graphic warnings (GWs) on cigarette packs are widely used internationally and perhaps will be in the US but their impact is not well understood. This study tested support for competing hypotheses in different subgroups of young adults defined by their history of cigarette smoking and individual difference variables (e.g., psychological reactance). One hypothesis predicted adaptive responding (GWs would lower smoking-related intentions) and another predicted defensive responding (GWs would raise smoking-related intentions). Methods Participants were an online sample of 1,169 Americans ages 18–24, who were randomly assigned either to view nine GWs designed by the FDA or to a no-label control. Both the intention to smoke in the future and the intention to quit smoking (among smokers) were assessed before and after message exposure. Results GWs lowered intention to smoke in the future among those with a moderate lifetime smoking history (between 1 and 100 cigarettes), and they increased intention to quit smoking among those with a heavy lifetime smoking history (more than 100 cigarettes). Both effects were limited to individuals who had smoked in some but not all of the prior 30 days (i.e., occasional smokers). No evidence of defensive “boomerang effects” on intention was observed in any subgroup. Conclusion Graphic warnings can reduce interest in smoking among occasional smokers, a finding that supports the adaptive-change hypothesis. GWs that target occasional smokers might be more effective at reducing cigarette smoking in young adults. PMID:24806481

Effect of graphic cigarette warnings on smoking intentions in young adults.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hart Blanton

Full Text Available Graphic warnings (GWs on cigarette packs are widely used internationally and perhaps will be in the US but their impact is not well understood. This study tested support for competing hypotheses in different subgroups of young adults defined by their history of cigarette smoking and individual difference variables (e.g., psychological reactance. One hypothesis predicted adaptive responding (GWs would lower smoking-related intentions and another predicted defensive responding (GWs would raise smoking-related intentions.Participants were an online sample of 1,169 Americans ages 18-24, who were randomly assigned either to view nine GWs designed by the FDA or to a no-label control. Both the intention to smoke in the future and the intention to quit smoking (among smokers were assessed before and after message exposure.GWs lowered intention to smoke in the future among those with a moderate lifetime smoking history (between 1 and 100 cigarettes, and they increased intention to quit smoking among those with a heavy lifetime smoking history (more than 100 cigarettes. Both effects were limited to individuals who had smoked in some but not all of the prior 30 days (i.e., occasional smokers. No evidence of defensive "boomerang effects" on intention was observed in any subgroup.Graphic warnings can reduce interest in smoking among occasional smokers, a finding that supports the adaptive-change hypothesis. GWs that target occasional smokers might be more effective at reducing cigarette smoking in young adults.

Debris flow early warning systems in Norway: organization and tools

Science.gov (United States)

Kleivane, I.; Colleuille, H.; Haugen, L. E.; Alve Glad, P.; Devoli, G.

2012-04-01

model COUP). The data are presented in a web- and GIS-based system with daily nationwide maps showing the meteorological and hydrological conditions for the present and the near future from quantitative weather prognosis. In addition a division of the country in homogenous debris flow-prone regions is also under progress based on geomorfological, topographic parameters and loose quaternary deposits distribution. Threshold-levels are being investigated by using statistical analyses of historical debris flows events and measured hydro-meteorological parameters. The debris flow early warning system is currently being tested and is expected to be operational in 2013. Final products will be warning messages and a map showing the different hazard levels, from low to high, indicating the landslide probability and the type of expected damages in a certain area. Many activities are realized in strong collaboration with the road and railway authorities, the geological survey and private consultant companies.

Media and message strategies: consumer input for hospital advertising.

Science.gov (United States)

Flexner, W A; Berkowitz, E N

1981-01-01

In summary, the results of the study suggest that a potentially large segment of consumers views advertising as an appropriate way to communicate about hospital services and rates. These consumers are unique not by traditional measures of audience/patient sociodemographic characteristics, but rather by their values and outlook toward hospitals and health care providers. Effective hospital advertising should recognize this segment's perspective in the message that are part of overall advertising strategy.

Tsunami Warning Center in Turkey : Status Update 2012

Science.gov (United States)

Meral Ozel, N.; Necmioglu, O.; Yalciner, A. C.; Kalafat, D.; Yilmazer, M.; Comoglu, M.; Sanli, U.; Gurbuz, C.; Erdik, M.

2012-04-01

(MOD2), and also continuing work related to the development of its own scenario database using NAMI DANCE Tsunami Simulation and Visualization Software. Further improvement of the Tsunami Warning System at the NTWC-TR will be accomplished through KOERI's participation in the FP-7 Project TRIDEC focusing on new technologies for real-time intelligent earth information management to be used in Tsunami Early Warning Systems. In cooperation with Turkish State Meteorological Service (TSMS), KOERI has its own GTS system now and connected to GTS via its own satellite hub. The system has been successfully utilized during the First Enlarged Communication Test Exercise (NEAMTWS/ECTE1), where KOERI acted as the message provider. KOERI is providing guidance and assistance to a working group established within the DEMP on issues such as Communication and Tsunami Exercises, National Procedures and National Tsunami Response Plan. KOERI is also participating in NEAMTIC (North-Eastern Atlantic and Mediterranean Tsunami Information Centre) Project. Finally, during the 8th Session of NEAMTWS in November 2011, KOERI has announced that NTWC-TR is operational as of January 2012 covering Eastern Mediterranean, Aegean, Marmara and Black Seas and KOERI is also ready to operate as an Interim Candidate Tsunami Watch Provider.

The Use of WhatsApp Smartphone Messaging Improves Communication Efficiency within an Orthopaedic Surgery Team.

Science.gov (United States)

Ellanti, Prasad; Moriarty, Andrew; Coughlan, Fionn; McCarthy, Thomas

2017-02-18

Effective and timely communication is important for any surgical specialty to function. The use of smartphones is prevalent amongst doctors. Numerous smartphone applications offer the potential for fast and cost-effective communication. WhatsApp is a commonly used application that is free, easy to use, and capable of text and multimedia messaging. We report on the use of WhatsApp over a six month period in our unit. WhatsApp communication between non-consultant members of an orthopaedic team over a six-month period was analysed. Both the phones and the WhatsApp application were password-protected, and patient details were anonymised. A series of 20 communications using the hospital pager system and the telephone system were also analysed. A total of 5,492 messages were sent during the six-month period and were part of 1,916 separate communication events. The vast majority of messages, 5,090, were related to patient care. A total of 195 multimedia messages were sent and these included images of radiographs and wounds. When using the hospital telephones, the length of time spent on a communication averaged 5.78 minutes and using the hospital pager system averaged 7.45 minutes. Using the WhatsApp messaging system has potentially saved up to 7,664 minutes over the study period. All participants found WhatsApp easy to use and found it to be more efficient than the traditional pager system Conclusion: Compared to the traditional pager systems, the use of WhatsApp is easy, inexpensive, and reliable and can help improve the efficiency of communication within a surgical team.

Unified Internet Messaging

OpenAIRE

Healy, Paul; Barber, Declan

2015-01-01

As telephony services, mobile services and internet services continue to converge, the prospect of providing Unified Messaging and even Unified Communications becomes increasingly achievable. This paper discusses the growing importance of IP-based networks to Unified Messaging developments and examines some of the key services and protocols that are likely to make Unified Messaging more widely available. In this initial paper, we limit ourselves initially to the unification of text-based mess...

The perfect message at the perfect moment.

Science.gov (United States)

Kalyanam, Kirthi; Zweben, Monte

2005-11-01

Marketers planning promotional campaigns ask questions to boost the odds that the messages will be accepted: Who should receive each message? What should be its content? How should we deliver it? The one question they rarely ask is, when should we deliver it? That's too bad, because in marketing, timing is arguably the most important variable of all. Indeed, there are moments in a customer's relationship with a business when she wants to communicate with that business because something has changed. If the company contacts her with the right message in the right format at the right time, there's a good chance of a warm reception. The question of "when" can be answered by a new computer-based model called "dialogue marketing," which is, to date, the highest rung on an evolutionary ladder that ascends from database marketing to relationship marketing to one-to-one marketing. Its principle advantages over older approaches are that it is completely interactive, exploits many communication channels, and is "relationship aware": that is, it continuously tracks every nuance of the customer's interaction with the business. Thus, dialogue marketing responds to each transition in that relationship at the moment the customer requires attention. Turning a traditional marketing strategy into a dialogue-marketing program is a straightforward matter. Begin by identifying the batch communications you make with customers, then ask yourself what events could trigger those communications to make them more timely. Add a question or call to action to each message and prepare a different treatment or response for each possible answer. Finally, create a series of increasingly urgent calls to action that kick in if the question or call to action goes unanswered by the customer. As dialogue marketing proliferates, it may provide the solid new footing that Madison Avenue seeks.

Message-driven factors influencing opening and forwarding of mobile advertising messages

OpenAIRE

Sanz Blas, Silvia; Ruiz Mafé, Carla; Martí Parreño, José

2015-01-01

This work aims to analyse the influence of message-driven factors -informativeness, ubiquity, frequency and personalization- on consumer attitude and behaviour -opening and forwarding- towards mobile advertising messages. A theoretical model was developed and empirically tested using a sample of 355 Spanish teenager mobile users. Findings show that frequency is the dimension accounting the most -and significantly- of the four message-driven factors analysed on attitude toward mobile advertisi...

Social Media in Health Research: An Example from Childcare Provider Message Boards

Science.gov (United States)

Lynch, Meghan

2011-01-01

Social media sites, such as message boards and blogs, provide innovative data sources for researchers as these sites feature people sharing advice and discussing issues in a public arena. Research has found the online context can encourage people to reveal more information than do such traditional methods as interviews or focus groups. However,…

Use of an Automated Mobile Phone Messaging Robot in Postoperative Patient Monitoring.

Science.gov (United States)

Anthony, Chris A; Lawler, Ericka A; Ward, Christina M; Lin, Ines C; Shah, Apurva S

2018-01-01

Mobile phone messaging software robots allow clinicians and healthcare systems to communicate with patients without the need for human intervention. The purpose of this study was to (1) describe a method for communicating with patients postoperatively outside of the traditional healthcare setting by utilizing an automated software and mobile phone messaging platform and to (2) evaluate the first week of postoperative pain and opioid use after common ambulatory hand surgery procedures. The investigation was a prospective, multicenter investigation of patient-reported pain and opioid usage after ambulatory hand surgery. Inclusion criteria included any adult with a mobile phone capable of text messaging, who was undergoing a common ambulatory hand surgical procedure at one of three tertiary care institutions. Participants received daily, automated text messages inquiring about their pain level and how many tablets of prescription pain medication they had taken in the past 24 h. Initial 1-week response rate was assessed and compared between different patient demographics. Patient-reported pain and opioid use were also quantified for the first postoperative week. Statistical significance was set as p tablets of prescription opioid pain medication. We find that a mobile phone messaging software robot allows for effective data collection of postoperative pain and pain medication use. Patients undergoing common ambulatory hand procedures utilized an average of 16 tablets of opioid medication in the first postoperative week.

Space Reclamation for Uncoordinated Checkpointing in Message-Passing Systems. Ph.D. Thesis

Science.gov (United States)

Wang, Yi-Min

1993-01-01

Checkpointing and rollback recovery are techniques that can provide efficient recovery from transient process failures. In a message-passing system, the rollback of a message sender may cause the rollback of the corresponding receiver, and the system needs to roll back to a consistent set of checkpoints called recovery line. If the processes are allowed to take uncoordinated checkpoints, the above rollback propagation may result in the domino effect which prevents recovery line progression. Traditionally, only obsolete checkpoints before the global recovery line can be discarded, and the necessary and sufficient condition for identifying all garbage checkpoints has remained an open problem. A necessary and sufficient condition for achieving optimal garbage collection is derived and it is proved that the number of useful checkpoints is bounded by N(N+1)/2, where N is the number of processes. The approach is based on the maximum-sized antichain model of consistent global checkpoints and the technique of recovery line transformation and decomposition. It is also shown that, for systems requiring message logging to record in-transit messages, the same approach can be used to achieve optimal message log reclamation. As a final topic, a unifying framework is described by considering checkpoint coordination and exploiting piecewise determinism as mechanisms for bounding rollback propagation, and the applicability of the optimal garbage collection algorithm to domino-free recovery protocols is demonstrated.

When message-frame fits salient cultural-frame, messages feel more persuasive

OpenAIRE

Uskul, Ayse K.; Oyserman, Daphna

2010-01-01

The present study examines the persuasive effects of tailored health messages comparing those tailored to match (versus not match) both chronic cultural frame and momentarily salient cultural frame. Evidence from two studies (Study 1: n = 72 European Americans; Study 2: n = 48 Asian Americans) supports the hypothesis that message persuasiveness increases when chronic cultural frame, health message tailoring and momentarily salient cultural frame all match. The hypothesis was tested using a me...

Constant Companions: Instant Messaging Conversations as Sustainable Supportive Study Structures amongst Undergraduate Peers

Science.gov (United States)

Timmis, Sue

2012-01-01

Universities are facing severe cuts in funding and a transformation of both the economic model underpinning higher education and the relationship between students, tutors and universities and the traditional forms of support for students' learning may be eroded. At the same time, mobile communications, instant messaging and social networking are…

Finnish early warning system for nuclear emergencies: Experiences during 2000-2001

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Vesterbacka, K.; Lahtinen, J.; Ilander, T. [Radiation and Nuclear Safety Authority, Research and Environmental Surveillance, Helsinki (Finland)

2003-06-01

The Finnish early warning system for nuclear emergencies consists of the nation-wide automatic external dose-rate monitoring network and the control system, which is known as USVA. The monitoring network comprises of approx. 300 AAM95 central stations and substations equipped with RD-02 or RD-02L GM tubes. Stations are thoroughly inspected on a routine basis every 4-5 years. During the inspection the GM tube, battery and power adapters of the station are replaced with new ones, as is also the modem if necessary, and the alarm connections to USVA are tested. The USVA system utilizes advanced www technology (including a browser-based, easy-to-use user interface) and a network of PCs with dedicated tasks. USVA's central hardware is located at STUK. USVA began its operation in the beginning of the year 2000, replacing the older y2k incompatible system. In a routine situation, USVA collects the monitoring data once a day. The USVA is capable of connecting (via telephone lines) to eight AAM stations concurrently, and the results from the whole country are obtained in about 15 minutes. When the system receives an alarm message from the network, it sends a text message to the mobile phones defined in a separate list and starts an automatic data collection procedure at all the stations situated within a certain distance (100 km) from the alarm-causing station. (orig.)

Development of Smart Grid for Community and Cyber based Landslide Hazard Monitoring and Early Warning System

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Karnawati, D.; Wilopo, W.; Fathani, T. F.; Fukuoka, H.; Andayani, B.

2012-12-01

A Smart Grid is a cyber-based tool to facilitate a network of sensors for monitoring and communicating the landslide hazard and providing the early warning. The sensor is designed as an electronic sensor installed in the existing monitoring and early warning instruments, and also as the human sensors which comprise selected committed-people at the local community, such as the local surveyor, local observer, member of the local task force for disaster risk reduction, and any person at the local community who has been registered to dedicate their commitments for sending reports related to the landslide symptoms observed at their living environment. This tool is designed to be capable to receive up to thousands of reports/information at the same time through the electronic sensors, text message (mobile phone), the on-line participatory web as well as various social media such as Twitter and Face book. The information that should be recorded/ reported by the sensors is related to the parameters of landslide symptoms, for example the progress of cracks occurrence, ground subsidence or ground deformation. Within 10 minutes, this tool will be able to automatically elaborate and analyse the reported symptoms to predict the landslide hazard and risk levels. The predicted level of hazard/ risk can be sent back to the network of electronic and human sensors as the early warning information. The key parameters indicating the symptoms of landslide hazard were recorded/ monitored by the electrical and the human sensors. Those parameters were identified based on the investigation on geological and geotechnical conditions, supported with the laboratory analysis. The cause and triggering mechanism of landslide in the study area was also analysed in order to define the critical condition to launch the early warning. However, not only the technical but also social system were developed to raise community awareness and commitments to serve the mission as the human sensors, which will

Promoting dental hygiene to children: comparing traditional and interactive media following threat appeals.

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Panic, Katarina; Cauberghe, Veroline; De Pelsmacker, Patrick

2014-01-01

Until now, social marketing campaigns mainly targeted children using traditional media. However, little is known about the effectiveness of computer games to communicate health-related information to children. This study compares the impact of an interactive game as a medium to provide health information and improve children's dietary habits to the impact of more traditional media. Using a 2 × 3 between-subject factorial design with 190 children (7-9 years old), this study investigates the effect of threat messages (weak vs. strong) concerning dental hygiene on behavioral outcome (snack choice), and how this effect is moderated by the type of medium used to communicate subsequent health information after the threat appeal (computer game, information brochure, narrative story). Results show a positive significant effect of perceived threat on children's adaptive behavior. However, this effect only remains significant when afterwards children are exposed to a narrative health-related story. When children play a game or read a brochure, they need to devote more attention to process this content, distracting them from the original threat message. In sum, when a threat message is followed by additional health information, the medium through which this information is presented influences the effectiveness of the preceding threat message.

MessageSpace: a messaging system for health research

Science.gov (United States)

Escobar, Rodrigo D.; Akopian, David; Parra-Medina, Deborah; Esparza, Laura

2013-03-01

Mobile Health (mHealth) has emerged as a promising direction for delivery of healthcare services via mobile communication devices such as cell phones. Examples include texting-based interventions for chronic disease monitoring, diabetes management, control of hypertension, smoking cessation, monitoring medication adherence, appointment keeping and medical test result delivery; as well as improving patient-provider communication, health information communication, data collection and access to health records. While existing messaging systems very well support bulk messaging and some polling applications, they are not designed for data collection and processing of health research oriented studies. For that reason known studies based on text-messaging campaigns have been constrained in participant numbers. In order to empower healthcare promotion and education research, this paper presents a system dedicated for healthcare research. It is designed for convenient communication with various study groups, feedback collection and automated processing.

EMI Messaging Guidelines

CERN Document Server

Cons, L.

2011-01-01

Guidelines for potential users of messaging within EMI. The goal is to provide enough practical information so that EMI product teams can start investigating whether using messaging in their products can be beneficial or not.

Recall of anti-tobacco advertising and information, warning labels and news stories in a national sample of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander smokers.

Science.gov (United States)

Nicholson, Anna K; Borland, Ron; Sarin, Jasmine; Wallace, Sharon; van der Sterren, Anke E; Stevens, Matthew; Thomas, David P

2015-06-01

To describe recall of anti-tobacco advertising (mainstream and targeted), pack warning labels, and news stories among a national sample of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander smokers, and to assess the association of these messages with attitudes that support quitting, including wanting to quit. A quota sampling design was used to recruit participants from communities served by 34 Aboriginal community-controlled health services and one community in the Torres Strait. We surveyed 1643 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander smokers from April 2012 to October 2013. Frequency of recall of advertising and information, warning labels and news stories; recall of targeted and local advertising; attitudes about smoking and wanting to quit. More smokers recalled often noticing warning labels in the past month (65%) than recalled advertising and information (45%) or news stories (24%) in the past 6 months. When prompted, most (82%) recalled seeing a television advertisement. Just under half (48%) recalled advertising that featured an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person or artwork (targeted advertising), and 16% recalled targeted advertising from their community (local advertising). Frequent recall of warning labels, news stories and advertising was associated with worry about health and wanting to quit, but only frequent advertising recall was associated with believing that society disapproves of smoking. The magnitude of association with relevant attitudes and wanting to quit increased for targeted and local advertising. Strategies to tackle Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander smoking should sustain high levels of exposure to anti-tobacco advertising, news stories and warning labels. More targeted and local information may be particularly effective to influence relevant beliefs and subsequently increase quitting.

Opening the mind to close it: considering a message in light of important values increases message processing and later resistance to change.

Science.gov (United States)

Blankenship, Kevin L; Wegener, Duane T

2008-02-01

Past research showed that considering a persuasive message in light of important rather than unimportant values creates attitudes that resist later attack. The traditional explanation is that the attitudes come to express the value or that a cognitive link between the value and attitude enhances resistance. However, the current research showed that another explanation is plausible. Similar to other sources of involvement, considering important rather than unimportant values increases processing of the message considered in light of those values. This occurs when the values are identified as normatively high or low in importance and when the perceived importance differs across participants for the same values. The increase in processing creates resistance to later attacks, and unlike past research, individual-level measures of initial amount of processing mediate value importance effects on later resistance to change. Important values motivate processing because they increase personal involvement with the issue, rather than creating attitudes that represent or express core values. (c) 2008 APA, all rights reserved

Multiparty Quantum English Auction Scheme Using Single Photons as Message Carrier

Science.gov (United States)

Liu, Ge; Zhang, Jian-Zhong; Xie, Shu-Cui

2018-03-01

In this paper, a secure and economic multiparty english auction protocol using the single photons as message carrier of bids is proposed. In order to achieve unconditional security, fairness, undeniability and so on, we adopt the decoy photon checking technique and quantum encryption algorithm. Analysis result shows that our protocol satisfies all the characteristics of traditional english auction, meanwhile, it can resist malicious attacks.

Evolution of tsunami warning systems and products.

Science.gov (United States)

Bernard, Eddie; Titov, Vasily

2015-10-28

Each year, about 60 000 people and $4 billion (US$) in assets are exposed to the global tsunami hazard. Accurate and reliable tsunami warning systems have been shown to provide a significant defence for this flooding hazard. However, the evolution of warning systems has been influenced by two processes: deadly tsunamis and available technology. In this paper, we explore the evolution of science and technology used in tsunami warning systems, the evolution of their products using warning technologies, and offer suggestions for a new generation of warning products, aimed at the flooding nature of the hazard, to reduce future tsunami impacts on society. We conclude that coastal communities would be well served by receiving three standardized, accurate, real-time tsunami warning products, namely (i) tsunami energy estimate, (ii) flooding maps and (iii) tsunami-induced harbour current maps to minimize the impact of tsunamis. Such information would arm communities with vital flooding guidance for evacuations and port operations. The advantage of global standardized flooding products delivered in a common format is efficiency and accuracy, which leads to effectiveness in promoting tsunami resilience at the community level. © 2015 The Authors.

Evolution of tsunami warning systems and products

Science.gov (United States)

Bernard, Eddie; Titov, Vasily

2015-01-01

Each year, about 60 000 people and $4 billion (US$) in assets are exposed to the global tsunami hazard. Accurate and reliable tsunami warning systems have been shown to provide a significant defence for this flooding hazard. However, the evolution of warning systems has been influenced by two processes: deadly tsunamis and available technology. In this paper, we explore the evolution of science and technology used in tsunami warning systems, the evolution of their products using warning technologies, and offer suggestions for a new generation of warning products, aimed at the flooding nature of the hazard, to reduce future tsunami impacts on society. We conclude that coastal communities would be well served by receiving three standardized, accurate, real-time tsunami warning products, namely (i) tsunami energy estimate, (ii) flooding maps and (iii) tsunami-induced harbour current maps to minimize the impact of tsunamis. Such information would arm communities with vital flooding guidance for evacuations and port operations. The advantage of global standardized flooding products delivered in a common format is efficiency and accuracy, which leads to effectiveness in promoting tsunami resilience at the community level. PMID:26392620

“You should be reading, not texting”: Understanding classroom text messaging in the constant contact society

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sarah Lohnes Watulak

2010-10-01

Full Text Available Cell phones are the most ubiquitous communication device owned by young people today, and students’ text messaging during class is a common occurrence in many university classrooms. Analyzing data from a qualitative study involving 34 undergraduate students at a university in the Northeastern United States, this paper seeks to explore: Why do university students text message during class, and what does this tell us about text messaging as a new literacy practice within traditional classroom settings? Drawing on perspectives from new literacies and communication studies, I argue that texting was a meaningful practice for students as it afforded the opportunity for ongoing participation in social networks, and provided a means of exercising power within the controlled space of the classroom.

Electronic folklore among teenagers: SMS messages

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Cvjetićanin Tijana

2006-01-01

Full Text Available The development of ICT media made way for a new form of folklore communication. Newly developed media, such as mobile phones, make it possible for their users to participate in electronically mediated communication, thus approaching the form of oral communication. The exchange of special type of SMS text messages represents a new way of transmitting contemporary folklore short forms. These messages use poetic language, they have standard style themes, patterns and formulas, and they form different genres and categories corresponding with already existing familiar folklore forms. The communication process that happens during the exchange of these messages also has folklore’s characteristics: it takes place within small groups, the communication is informal, the texts circulate in chain style, and undergo different transformation which generates the making of variants, etc. This form of electronic folklore is especially popular among teenagers, where it’s social functions and meanings are also most emphasized. Within this population, it adds to an older tradition of children’s written folklore poetry albums. Like poetry albums, SMS exchange influences the development of girls’ gender identity, providing also a socially defined channel for contacts between the sexes. It also functions as a mechanism of socialization and stratification within the group. At the same time, it creates a new field of meaning, which derives from the very media’s novelty and significance. In this sense, the exchange of SMS represents a symbolic act of acknowledging one’s belonging to the group of mobile telephone users. In this way, a new phenomenon is being symbolically processed through a new form of folklore.

Semiotics of White Spaces on the Romanian Traditional Blouse, the IA

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Ioana Corduneanu

2017-01-01

Full Text Available In this article we understand the Romanian traditional blouse IA as a multi-dimensional semiotic object, with a complex semiotic structure. We will examine the structure and interpretation of semiotic borders and white spaces on IA, from the perspective of Lotman’s semiotic theory of culture. The white spaces found on our shirts may carry out messages equally important as those expressed by the sewn signs. Not only they define the rhythm, allowing the patterns to breathe, but sometimes they have their own story to tell. The white spaces also come to define the community you belong to, if your age allows you to wear an ornated shirt. The lack of white spaces on the shirts of other ethnic minorities living alongside us may be a hint of their fears and insecurities: they tend to fill in the entire shirt with protective talismans, to make sure they are safe. In some circumstances, as it happens with the shirts from the shores of Nistru River, the white space is a warning. Yet the most interesting subject is to consider and compare the way that these white spaces are “read” and appreciated in our days, after all women had been influenced by the fashion industry and the communication in printed and social media. We like it or not, this influenced our way to define concepts such as “aesthetic”, “elegant”, “luxurious” or “refined”.

Compelled commercial speech: the Food and Drug Administration's effort to smoke out the tobacco industry through graphic warning labels.

Science.gov (United States)

Haynes, Bryan M; Andrews, Anne Hampton; Jacob, C Reade

2013-01-01

FDA's proposed graphic warning labels for cigarette packages have been scrutinized for potentially violating the First Amendment's free speech clause. This article addresses the distinction between the commercial speech and compelled speech doctrines and their applicability in analyzing the constitutionality of the labels. The government's position is that the labels evoke an emotional response and educate consumers, while tobacco companies argue that the labels forcibly promote the government's message. Two federal appellate courts, applying different legal standards, have arrived at different conclusions. This article advocates that the Supreme Court, if faced with review of the labels, should apply strict scrutiny and declare the labels unconstitutional.

Design and Validation of Affective Warning Pictorial on Cigarette Labels

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Chanduen Pat-Arin

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The purpose of present study were to design and validate affective warning pictorials for cigarette label in Thailand. Brainstorming and survey techniques were used to collect the idea of possible warning pictorials. All ideas were grouped for finding candidated pictorials. Then, primary sixty warning pictorials were collected and equally classified into three affective warning pictorial groups as positive, neutral, and negative. Sixty Thai male engineering students participated in affective validation of warning pictorials using SAM rating. The International Affective Picture System (IAPS was used to manipulate the affective state of participants to neutral affective state before the experiments. The results revealed that all affective warning pictorials were successfully evoked target affective states on participants. After refining, thirty affective warning pictorials were provided as positive, neutral, and negative affective warning pictorials for using on cigarette labels. Implications on the affective warning pictorials design and validation.

Communication architecture of an early warning system

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

M. Angermann

2010-11-01

Full Text Available This article discusses aspects of communication architecture for early warning systems (EWS in general and gives details of the specific communication architecture of an early warning system against tsunamis. While its sensors are the "eyes and ears" of a warning system and enable the system to sense physical effects, its communication links and terminals are its "nerves and mouth" which transport measurements and estimates within the system and eventually warnings towards the affected population. Designing the communication architecture of an EWS against tsunamis is particularly challenging. Its sensors are typically very heterogeneous and spread several thousand kilometers apart. They are often located in remote areas and belong to different organizations. Similarly, the geographic spread of the potentially affected population is wide. Moreover, a failure to deliver a warning has fatal consequences. Yet, the communication infrastructure is likely to be affected by the disaster itself. Based on an analysis of the criticality, vulnerability and availability of communication means, we describe the design and implementation of a communication system that employs both terrestrial and satellite communication links. We believe that many of the issues we encountered during our work in the GITEWS project (German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System, Rudloff et al., 2009 on the design and implementation communication architecture are also relevant for other types of warning systems. With this article, we intend to share our insights and lessons learned.

Physician impressions of using text message technology to increase vaccination compliance.

Science.gov (United States)

Hart, Traci; Ahlers-Schmidt, Carolyn R; Chesser, Amy; Jones, Jordan; Williams, Katherine S; Wittler, Robert R

2011-01-01

Immunization schedules are complicated and difficult for parents to remember. Parents are willing to receive text message reminders. However, it is unknown whether physicians are willing to implement such a system. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of a text messaging reminder system from the physician's perspective. Surveys were distributed in the winter of 2009-2010 by e-mail, facsimile, and telephone interview to 149 family physicians and pediatricians who provide immunizations in Sedgwick County, Kansas. A 69% response rate was achieved. Nearly all (92%) respondents reported that they currently communicate information about immunization schedules to parents using traditional methods such as verbal reminders or appointment cards; however, none (0%) currently use text or email to generate reminders to parents. Even when asked to assume they had all of the necessary resources, almost one-third (31%) reported that they were "very unwilling" or "unwilling" to use a general text-messaging program, 43% were "neutral" or "undecided," and only 27% were "willing" or "very willing." Physician willingness to use a text-messaging program was not related to their reported gender (χ²(2)=0.224, p=0.894), specialization (χ² (2)=4.363, p=0.113), years in practice (F(2, 91)=0.435, p=0.149), or comfort level with technology (χ²(4)=1.861, p=0.761). There is a hesitancy to implement a text message reminder system for childhood vaccine schedules. This may be due to the lack of empirical evidence supporting the use of this technology for health reminders or the lack of willingness to implement another system. Further investigation is needed to determine why few physicians are willing to implement text messaging for immunization reminders.

Technology, conflict early warning systems, public health, and human rights.

Science.gov (United States)

Pham, Phuong N; Vinck, Patrick

2012-12-15

Public health and conflict early warning are evolving rapidly in response to technology changes for the gathering, management, analysis and communication of data. It is expected that these changes will provide an unprecedented ability to monitor, detect, and respond to crises. One of the potentially most profound and lasting expected change affects the roles of the various actors in providing and sharing information and in responding to early warning. Communities and civil society actors have the opportunity to be empowered as a source of information, analysis, and response, while the role of traditional actors shifts toward supporting those communities and building resilience. However, by creating new roles, relationships, and responsibilities, technology changes raise major concerns and ethical challenges for practitioners, pressing the need for practical guidelines and actionable recommendations in line with existing ethical principles. Copyright © 2012 Pham and Vinck. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Towards an Earthquake and Tsunami Early Warning in the Caribbean

Science.gov (United States)

Huerfano Moreno, V. A.; Vanacore, E. A.

2017-12-01

The Caribbean region (CR) has a documented history of large damaging earthquakes and tsunamis that have affected coastal areas, including the events of Jamaica in 1692, Virgin Islands in 1867, Puerto Rico in 1918, the Dominican Republic in 1946 and Haiti in 2010. There is clear evidence that tsunamis have been triggered by large earthquakes that deformed the ocean floor around the Caribbean Plate boundary. The CR is monitored jointly by national/regional/local seismic, geodetic and sea level networks. All monitoring institutions are participating in the UNESCO ICG/Caribe EWS, the purpose of this initiative is to minimize loss of life and destruction of property, and to mitigate against catastrophic economic impacts via promoting local research, real time (RT) earthquake, geodetic and sea level data sharing and improving warning capabilities and enhancing education and outreach strategies. Currently more than, 100 broad-band seismic, 65 sea levels and 50 GPS high rate stations are available in real or near real-time. These real-time streams are used by Local/Regional or Worldwide detection and warning institutions to provide earthquake source parameters in a timely manner. Currently, any Caribbean event detected to have a magnitude greater than 4.5 is evaluated, and sea level is measured, by the TWC for tsumanigenic potential. The regional cooperation is motivated both by research interests as well as geodetic, seismic and tsunami hazard monitoring and warning. It will allow the imaging of the tectonic structure of the Caribbean region to a high resolution which will consequently permit further understanding of the seismic source properties for moderate and large events and the application of this knowledge to procedures of civil protection. To reach its goals, the virtual network has been designed following the highest technical standards: BB sensors, 24 bits A/D converters with 140 dB dynamic range, real-time telemetry. Here we will discuss the state of the PR

Systems and Sensors for Debris-flow Monitoring and Warning

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Lorenzo Marchi

2008-04-01

Full Text Available Debris flows are a type of mass movement that occurs in mountain torrents. They consist of a high concentration of solid material in water that flows as a wave with a steep front. Debris flows can be considered a phenomenon intermediate between landslides and water floods. They are amongst the most hazardous natural processes in mountainous regions and may occur under different climatic conditions. Their destructiveness is due to different factors: their capability of transporting and depositing huge amounts of solid materials, which may also reach large sizes (boulders of several cubic meters are commonly transported by debris flows, their steep fronts, which may reach several meters of height and also their high velocities. The implementation of both structural and nonstructural control measures is often required when debris flows endanger routes, urban areas and other infrastructures. Sensor networks for debris-flow monitoring and warning play an important role amongst non-structural measures intended to reduce debris-flow risk. In particular, debris flow warning systems can be subdivided into two main classes: advance warning and event warning systems. These two classes employ different types of sensors. Advance warning systems are based on monitoring causative hydrometeorological processes (typically rainfall and aim to issue a warning before a possible debris flow is triggered. Event warning systems are based on detecting debris flows when these processes are in progress. They have a much smaller lead time than advance warning ones but are also less prone to false alarms. Advance warning for debris flows employs sensors and techniques typical of meteorology and hydrology, including measuring rainfall by means of rain gauges and weather radar and monitoring water discharge in headwater streams. Event warning systems use different types of sensors, encompassing ultrasonic or radar gauges, ground vibration sensors, videocameras, avalanche

Design and Analysis of Adaptive Message Coding on LDPC Decoder with Faulty Storage

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Guangjun Ge

2018-01-01

Full Text Available Unreliable message storage severely degrades the performance of LDPC decoders. This paper discusses the impacts of message errors on LDPC decoders and schemes improving the robustness. Firstly, we develop a discrete density evolution analysis for faulty LDPC decoders, which indicates that protecting the sign bits of messages is effective enough for finite-precision LDPC decoders. Secondly, we analyze the effects of quantization precision loss for static sign bit protection and propose an embedded dynamic coding scheme by adaptively employing the least significant bits (LSBs to protect the sign bits. Thirdly, we give a construction of Hamming product code for the adaptive coding and present low complexity decoding algorithms. Theoretic analysis indicates that the proposed scheme outperforms traditional triple modular redundancy (TMR scheme in decoding both threshold and residual errors, while Monte Carlo simulations show that the performance loss is less than 0.2 dB when the storage error probability varies from 10-3 to 10-4.

Hybrid Intelligent Warning System for Boiler tube Leak Trips

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Singh Deshvin

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Repeated boiler tube leak trips in coal fired power plants can increase operating cost significantly. An early detection and diagnosis of boiler trips is essential for continuous safe operations in the plant. In this study two artificial intelligent monitoring systems specialized in boiler tube leak trips have been proposed. The first intelligent warning system (IWS-1 represents the use of pure artificial neural network system whereas the second intelligent warning system (IWS-2 represents merging of genetic algorithms and artificial neural networks as a hybrid intelligent system. The Extreme Learning Machine (ELM methodology was also adopted in IWS-1 and compared with traditional training algorithms. Genetic algorithm (GA was adopted in IWS-2 to optimize the ANN topology and the boiler parameters. An integrated data preparation framework was established for 3 real cases of boiler tube leak trip based on a thermal power plant in Malaysia. Both the IWSs were developed using MATLAB coding for training and validation. The hybrid IWS-2 performed better than IWS-1.The developed system was validated to be able to predict trips before the plant monitoring system. The proposed artificial intelligent system could be adopted as a reliable monitoring system of the thermal power plant boilers.

Positive mood can increase or decrease message scrutiny: the hedonic contingency view of mood and message processing.

Science.gov (United States)

Wegener, D T; Petty, R E; Smith, S M

1995-07-01

Currently dominant explanations of mood effects on persuasive message processing (i.e., cognitive capacity and feelings as information) predict that happy moods lead to less message scrutiny than neutral or sad moods. The hedonic contingency view (D. T. Wegener & R. E. Petty, 1994) predicts that happy moods can sometimes be associated with greater message processing activity because people in a happy mood are more attentive than neutral or sad people to the hedonic consequences of their actions. Consistent with this view, Experiment 1 finds that a happy mood can lead to greater message scrutiny than a neutral mood when the message is not mood threatening. Experiment 2 finds that a happy mood leads to greater message scrutiny than a sad mood when an uplifting message is encountered, but to less message scrutiny when a depressing message is encountered.

CDC MessageWorks: Designing and Validating a Social Marketing Tool to Craft and Defend Effective Messages.

Science.gov (United States)

Cole, Galen E; Keller, Punam A; Reynolds, Jennifer; Schaur, Michelle; Krause, Diane

2016-03-01

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, in partnership with Oak Ridge Associated Universities, designed an online social marketing strategy tool, MessageWorks, to help health communicators effectively formulate messages aimed at changing health behaviors and evaluate message tactics and audience characteristics. MessageWorks is based on the advisor for risk communication model that identifies 10 variables that can be used to predict target audience intentions to comply with health recommendations. This article discusses the value of the MessageWorks tool to health communicators and to the field of social marketing by (1) describing the scientific evidence supporting use of MessageWorks to improve health communication practice and (2) summarizing how to use MessageWorks and interpret the results it produces.

Patient Centeredness in Electronic Communication: Evaluation of Patient-to-Health Care Team Secure Messaging

Science.gov (United States)

Luger, Tana M; Volkman, Julie E; Rocheleau, Mary; Mueller, Nora; Barker, Anna M; Nazi, Kim M; Houston, Thomas K; Bokhour, Barbara G

2018-01-01

.2%, 262/373 vs 82.0%, 277/338), and respectful in nature (25.7%, 96/373 vs 33.4%, 113/338). Secure messages from health care team members sometimes appeared hurried (25.4%, 86/338) but also displayed friendliness or warmth (18.9%, 64/338) and reassurance or encouragement (18.6%, 63/338). Most patient messages involved either providing or seeking information; however, the majority of health care team member messages involved information provision in response to patient questions. Conclusions This evaluation is an important step toward understanding the content and socioemotional tone that is part of the secure messaging exchanges between patients and health care team members. Our findings were encouraging; however, there are opportunities for improvement. As health care organizations seek to supplement traditional encounters with virtual care, they must reexamine their use of secure messaging, including the patient centeredness of the communication, and the potential for more proactive use by health care team members. PMID:29519774

Structure health assessment and warning system (SHAWS)

Science.gov (United States)

Bock, Daniel M.; Kim, Keehoon; Mapar, Jalal

2008-03-01

We are developing a Structure Health Assessment and Warning System (SHAWS) based on building displacement measurements and wireless communication. SHAWS will measure and predict the stability/instability of a building, determine whether it is safe for emergency responders to enter during an emergency, and provide individual warnings on the condition of the structure. SHAWS incorporates remote sensing nodes (RSNs) installed on the exterior frame of a building. Each RSN includes a temperature sensor, a three-axis accelerometer making static-acceleration measurements, and a ZigBee wireless system (IEEE 802.15.4). The RSNs will be deployed remotely using an air cannon delivery system, with each RSN having an innovative adhesive structure for fast (<10 min) and strong installation under emergency conditions. Once the building has moved past a threshold (~0.25 in./building story), a warning will be issued to emergency responders. In addition to the RSNs, SHAWS will include a base station located on an emergency responder's primary vehicle, a PDA for mobile data display to guide responders, and individual warning modules that can be worn by each responder. The individual warning modules will include visual and audio indicators with a ZigBee receiver to provide the proper degree of warning to each responder.

An analysis of patient-provider secure messaging at two Veterans Health Administration medical centers: message content and resolution through secure messaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Shimada, Stephanie L; Petrakis, Beth Ann; Rothendler, James A; Zirkle, Maryan; Zhao, Shibei; Feng, Hua; Fix, Gemmae M; Ozkaynak, Mustafa; Martin, Tracey; Johnson, Sharon A; Tulu, Bengisu; Gordon, Howard S; Simon, Steven R; Woods, Susan S

2017-09-01

We sought to understand how patients and primary care teams use secure messaging (SM) to communicate with one another by analyzing secure message threads from 2 Department of Veterans Affairs facilities. We coded 1000 threads of SM communication sampled from 40 primary care teams. Most threads (94.5%) were initiated by patients (90.4%) or caregivers (4.1%); only 5.5% were initiated by primary care team members proactively reaching out to patients. Medication renewals and refills (47.2%), scheduling requests (17.6%), medication issues (12.9%), and health issues (12.7%) were the most common patient-initiated requests, followed by referrals (7.0%), administrative issues (6.5%), test results (5.4%), test issues (5.2%), informing messages (4.9%), comments about the patient portal or SM (4.1%), appreciation (3.9%), self-reported data (2.8%), life issues (1.5%), and complaints (1.5%). Very few messages were clinically urgent (0.7%) or contained other potentially challenging content. Message threads were mostly short (2.7 messages), comprising an average of 1.35 discrete content types. A substantial proportion of issues (24.2%) did not show any evidence of being resolved through SM. Time to response and extent of resolution via SM varied by message content. Proactive SM use by teams varied, but was most often for test results (32.7%), medication-related issues (21.8%), medication renewals (16.4%), or scheduling issues (18.2%). The majority of messages were transactional and initiated by patients or caregivers. Not all content categories were fully addressed over SM. Further education and training for both patients and clinical teams could improve the quality and efficiency of SM communication. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Medical Informatics Association 2017. This work is written by US Government employees and is in the public domain in the United States.

CDC MessageWorks: Designing and Validating a Social Marketing Tool to Craft and Defend Effective Messages

Science.gov (United States)

Cole, Galen E.; Keller, Punam A.; Reynolds, Jennifer; Schaur, Michelle; Krause, Diane

2016-01-01

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Division of Cancer Prevention and Control, in partnership with Oak Ridge Associated Universities, designed an online social marketing strategy tool, MessageWorks, to help health communicators effectively formulate messages aimed at changing health behaviors and evaluate message tactics and audience characteristics. MessageWorks is based on the advisor for risk communication model that identifies 10 variables that can be used to predict target audience intentions to comply with health recommendations. This article discusses the value of the MessageWorks tool to health communicators and to the field of social marketing by (1) describing the scientific evidence supporting use of MessageWorks to improve health communication practice and (2) summarizing how to use MessageWorks and interpret the results it produces. PMID:26877714

An analysis of legal warnings after drug approval in Thailand.

Science.gov (United States)

Sriphiromya, Pakawadee; Theeraroungchaisri, Anuchai

2015-02-01

Drug risk management has many tools for minimizing risk and black-boxed warnings (BBWs) are one of those tools. Some serious adverse drug reactions (ADRs) emerge only after a drug is marketed and used in a larger population. In Thailand, additional legal warnings after drug approval, in the form of black-boxed warnings, may be applied. Review of their characteristics can assist in the development of effective risk mitigation. This study was a cross sectional review of all legal warnings imposed in Thailand after drug approval (2003-2012). Any boxed warnings for biological products and revised warnings which were not related to safety were excluded. Nine legal warnings were evaluated. Seven related to drugs classes and two to individual drugs. The warnings involved four main types of predictable ADRs: drug-disease interactions, side effects, overdose and drug-drug interactions. The average time from first ADRs reported to legal warnings implementation was 12 years. The triggers were from both safety signals in Thailand and regulatory measures in other countries outside Thailand. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Active ambulatory care management supported by short message services and mobile phone technology in patients with arterial hypertension.

Science.gov (United States)

Kiselev, Anton R; Gridnev, Vladimir I; Shvartz, Vladimir A; Posnenkova, Olga M; Dovgalevsky, Pavel Ya

2012-01-01

The use of short message services and mobile phone technology for ambulatory care management is the most accessible and most inexpensive way to transition from traditional ambulatory care management to active ambulatory care management in patients with arterial hypertension (AH). The aim of this study was to compare the clinical efficacy of active ambulatory care management supported by short message services and mobile phone technology with traditional ambulatory care management in AH patients. The study included 97 hypertensive patients under active ambulatory care management and 102 patients under traditional ambulatory care management. Blood pressure levels, body mass, and smoking history of patients were analyzed in the study. The duration of study was 1 year. In the active ambulatory care management group, 36% of patients were withdrawn from the study within a year. At the end of the year, 77% of patients from the active care management group had achieved the goal blood pressure level. That was more than 5 times higher than that in the traditional ambulatory care management group (P mobile phone improves the quality of ambulatory care of hypertensive patients. Copyright © 2012 American Society of Hypertension. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Managing Risks? Early Warning Systems for Climate Change

Science.gov (United States)

Sitati, A. M.; Zommers, Z. A.; Habilov, M.

2014-12-01

Early warning systems are a tool with which to minimize risks posed by climate related hazards. Although great strides have been made in developing early warning systems most deal with one hazard, only provide short-term warnings and do not reach the most vulnerable. This presentation will review research results of the United Nations Environment Programme's CLIM-WARN project. The project seeks to identify how governments can better communicate risks by designing multi-hazard early warning systems that deliver actionable warnings across timescales. Household surveys and focus group discussions were conducted in 36 communities in Kenya, Ghana and Burkina Faso in order to identify relevant climate related hazards, current response strategies and early warning needs. Preliminary results show significant variability in both risks and needs within and between countries. For instance, floods are more frequent in rural western parts of Kenya. Droughts are frequent in the north while populations in urban areas face a range of hazards - floods, droughts, disease outbreaks - that sometimes occur simultaneously. The majority of the rural population, especially women, the disabled and the elderly, do not have access to modern media such as radio, television, or internet. While 55% of rural populace never watches television, 64% of urban respondents watch television on a daily basis. Communities have different concepts of how to design warning systems. It will be a challenge for national governments to create systems that accommodate such diversity yet provide standard quality of service to all. There is a need for flexible and forward-looking early warning systems that deliver broader information about risks. Information disseminated through the system could not only include details of hazards, but also long-term adaptation options, general education, and health information, thus increasingly both capabilities and response options.

Complex Conjugated certificateless-based signcryption with differential integrated factor for secured message communication in mobile network.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Sumithra Alagarsamy

Full Text Available Certificateless-based signcryption overcomes inherent shortcomings in traditional Public Key Infrastructure (PKI and Key Escrow problem. It imparts efficient methods to design PKIs with public verifiability and cipher text authenticity with minimum dependency. As a classic primitive in public key cryptography, signcryption performs validity of cipher text without decryption by combining authentication, confidentiality, public verifiability and cipher text authenticity much more efficiently than the traditional approach. In this paper, we first define a security model for certificateless-based signcryption called, Complex Conjugate Differential Integrated Factor (CC-DIF scheme by introducing complex conjugates through introduction of the security parameter and improving secured message distribution rate. However, both partial private key and secret value changes with respect to time. To overcome this weakness, a new certificateless-based signcryption scheme is proposed by setting the private key through Differential (Diff Equation using an Integration Factor (DiffEIF, minimizing computational cost and communication overhead. The scheme is therefore said to be proven secure (i.e. improving the secured message distributing rate against certificateless access control and signcryption-based scheme. In addition, compared with the three other existing schemes, the CC-DIF scheme has the least computational cost and communication overhead for secured message communication in mobile network.

Complex Conjugated certificateless-based signcryption with differential integrated factor for secured message communication in mobile network.

Science.gov (United States)

Alagarsamy, Sumithra; Rajagopalan, S P

2017-01-01

Certificateless-based signcryption overcomes inherent shortcomings in traditional Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and Key Escrow problem. It imparts efficient methods to design PKIs with public verifiability and cipher text authenticity with minimum dependency. As a classic primitive in public key cryptography, signcryption performs validity of cipher text without decryption by combining authentication, confidentiality, public verifiability and cipher text authenticity much more efficiently than the traditional approach. In this paper, we first define a security model for certificateless-based signcryption called, Complex Conjugate Differential Integrated Factor (CC-DIF) scheme by introducing complex conjugates through introduction of the security parameter and improving secured message distribution rate. However, both partial private key and secret value changes with respect to time. To overcome this weakness, a new certificateless-based signcryption scheme is proposed by setting the private key through Differential (Diff) Equation using an Integration Factor (DiffEIF), minimizing computational cost and communication overhead. The scheme is therefore said to be proven secure (i.e. improving the secured message distributing rate) against certificateless access control and signcryption-based scheme. In addition, compared with the three other existing schemes, the CC-DIF scheme has the least computational cost and communication overhead for secured message communication in mobile network.

Message framing in social networking sites.

Science.gov (United States)

Kao, Danny Tengti; Chuang, Shih-Chieh; Wang, Sui-Min; Zhang, Lei

2013-10-01

Online social networking sites represent significant new opportunities for Internet advertisers. However, results based on the real world cannot be generalized to all virtual worlds. In this research, the moderating effects of need for cognition (NFC) and knowledge were applied to examine the impact of message framing on attitudes toward social networking sites. A total of 216 undergraduates participated in the study. Results reveal that for social networking sites, while high-NFC individuals form more favorable attitudes toward negatively framed messages than positively framed messages, low-NFC individuals form more favorable attitudes toward positively framed messages than negatively framed messages. In addition, low-knowledge individuals demonstrate more favorable attitudes toward negatively framed messages than positively framed messages; however, the framing effect does not differentially affect the attitudes of high-knowledge individuals. Furthermore, the framing effect does not differentially affect the attitudes of high-NFC individuals with high knowledge. In contrast, low-NFC individuals with low knowledge hold more favorable attitudes toward positively framed messages than negatively framed messages.

Implicit motivational impact of pictorial health warning on cigarette packs.

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Eliane Volchan

Full Text Available OBJECTIVE: The use of pictorial warning labels on cigarette packages is one of the provisions included in the first ever global health treaty by the World Health Organization against the tobacco epidemic. There is substantial evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of graphic health warning labels on intention to quit, thoughts about health risks and engaging in cessation behaviors. However, studies that address the implicit emotional drives evoked by such warnings are still underexplored. Here, we provide experimental data for the use of pictorial health warnings as a reliable strategy for tobacco control. METHODS: Experiment 1 pre-tested nineteen prototypes of pictorial warnings to screen for their emotional impact. Participants (n = 338 were young adults balanced in gender, smoking status and education. Experiment 2 (n = 63 tested pictorial warnings (ten that were stamped on packs. We employed an innovative set-up to investigate the impact of the warnings on the ordinary attitude of packs' manipulation, and quantified judgments of warnings' emotional strength and efficacy against smoking. FINDINGS: Experiment 1 revealed that women judged the warning prototypes as more aversive than men, and smokers judged them more aversive than non-smokers. Participants with lower education judged the prototypes more aversive than participants with higher education. Experiment 2 showed that stamped warnings antagonized the appeal of the brands by imposing a cost to manipulate the cigarette packs, especially for smokers. Additionally, participants' judgments revealed that the more aversive a warning, the more it is perceived as effective against smoking. CONCLUSIONS: Health warning labels are one of the key components of the integrated approach to control the global tobacco epidemic. The evidence presented in this study adds to the understanding of how implicit responses to pictorial warnings may contribute to behavioral change.

Improving the Effectiveness of Fundraising Messages: The Impact of Charity Goal Attainment, Message Framing, and Evidence on Persuasion

Science.gov (United States)

Das, Enny; Kerkhof, Peter; Kuiper, Joyce

2008-01-01

This experimental study assessed the effectiveness of fundraising messages. Based on recent findings regarding the effects of message framing and evidence, effective fundraising messages should combine abstract, statistical information with a negative message frame and anecdotal evidence with a positive message frame. In addition, building on…

Starting Off on the Best Foot: A Review of Message Framing and Message Tailoring, and Recommendations for the Comprehensive Messaging Strategy for Sustained Behavior Change.

Science.gov (United States)

Pope, J Paige; Pelletier, Luc; Guertin, Camille

2018-09-01

Health promotion programs represent a salient means through which physical activity promoters can cultivate positive health behavior change and maintenance. The messages communicated within these programs serve as an essential component as they are often used to convey valuable information, resources, or tools that facilitate health behavior initiation and sustained engagement. Identifying the most effective way to communicate health promotion information is, therefore, of considerable importance to ensuring that people not only attend to these messages, but also connect with and internalize the information conveyed within them. This paper was written to (1) summarize and evaluate the most prominent reviewed research approaches of message framing and tailoring to message design; and (2) offer a comprehensive messaging strategy to promote sustained health behavior change. A review of the literature demonstrated that a messaging strategy that has consistently led to healthy behavior change has yet to be identified. Furthermore, scholars have articulated that a multi-theoretical approach that places emphasis on facilitating motivation and healthy behavior change needs to be employed. Thus, this paper proposes and provides recommendations for employing the Comprehensive Messaging Strategy for Sustained Behavior Change (CMSSBC), which advocates tailoring messages to peoples' stage of change and framing them to focus on self-determined motives and intrinsic goals.

Radiation warning system in Slovenia (ROSS)

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Arh, S.

1996-01-01

Recognizing that a radiological accident may have a widespread effect, the Slovenian government has decided to establish an early warning system. The aim of it is to detect any incident (domestic or foreign) involving radioactivity as fast as possible, to initiate appropriate measures, and to give immediate warning to the population

Impact of Cultural Exposure and Message Framing on Oral Health Behavior: Exploring the Role of Message Memory.

Science.gov (United States)

Brick, Cameron; McCully, Scout N; Updegraff, John A; Ehret, Phillip J; Areguin, Maira A; Sherman, David K

2016-10-01

Health messages are more effective when framed to be congruent with recipient characteristics, and health practitioners can strategically choose message features to promote adherence to recommended behaviors. We present exposure to US culture as a moderator of the impact of gain-frame versus loss-frame messages. Since US culture emphasizes individualism and approach orientation, greater cultural exposure was expected to predict improved patient choices and memory for gain-framed messages, whereas individuals with less exposure to US culture would show these advantages for loss-framed messages. 223 participants viewed a written oral health message in 1 of 3 randomized conditions-gain-frame, loss-frame, or no-message control-and were given 10 flosses. Cultural exposure was measured with the proportions of life spent and parents born in the US. At baseline and 1 week later, participants completed recall tests and reported recent flossing behavior. Message frame and cultural exposure interacted to predict improved patient decisions (increased flossing) and memory maintenance for the health message over 1 week; for example, those with low cultural exposure who saw a loss-frame message flossed more. Incongruent messages led to the same flossing rates as no message. Memory retention did not explain the effect of message congruency on flossing. Flossing behavior was self-reported. Cultural exposure may only have practical application in either highly individualistic or collectivistic countries. In health care settings where patients are urged to follow a behavior, asking basic demographic questions could allow medical practitioners to intentionally communicate in terms of gains or losses to improve patient decision making and treatment adherence. © The Author(s) 2015.

Internet message boards for pregnancy loss: who's on-line and why?

Science.gov (United States)

Gold, Katherine J; Boggs, Martha E; Mugisha, Emeline; Palladino, Christie Lancaster

2012-01-01

Pregnancy loss is common, but its significance is often minimized by family, friends, and the community, leaving bereaved parents with unmet need for support. This study sought to describe demographics, usage patterns, and perceived benefits for women participating in Internet pregnancy loss support groups. We requested permission to post an anonymous Internet survey on large and active United States Internet message boards for women with miscarriages and stillbirths. The study purposefully oversampled stillbirth sites and included both closed- and open-ended questions. The University of Michigan Institutional Review Board approved the study. Closed-ended questions were summarized and evaluated with bivariate analysis. We performed a qualitative analysis of open-ended data using an iterative coding process to identify key themes. Of 62 sites queried, 15 granted permission to post the survey on 18 different message boards. We collected 1,039 surveys, of which 1,006 were complete and eligible for analysis. Women were typically white, well educated, and frequent users. They noted message boards helped them to feel less isolated in their loss and grief and they appreciated unique aspects of Internet communication such as convenience, access, anonymity, and privacy. Pregnancy loss message boards are an important aspect of support for many bereaved mothers. African-American women seem to be substantially underrepresented on-line despite being at higher risk for stillbirth. Internet message boards serve a unique function in providing support for women with miscarriage and stillbirth. The benefits are often significantly different from those encountered in traditional face-to-face bereavement support. Copyright © 2012 Jacobs Institute of Women's Health. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

A Quantitative Analysis of Variability Warnings in Linux

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Melo, Jean; Flesborg, Elvis; Brabrand, Claus

2015-01-01

In order to get insight into challenges with quality in highly-configurable software, we analyze one of the largest open source projects, the Linux kernel, and quantify basic properties of configuration-related warnings. We automatically analyze more than 20 thousand valid and distinct random...... configurations, in a computation that lasted more than a month. We count and classify a total of 400,000 warnings to get an insight in the distribution of warning types, and the location of the warnings. We run both on a stable and unstable version of the Linux kernel. The results show that Linux contains...

Car Gestures - Advisory warning using additional steering wheel angles.

Science.gov (United States)

Maag, Christian; Schneider, Norbert; Lübbeke, Thomas; Weisswange, Thomas H; Goerick, Christian

2015-10-01

Advisory warning systems (AWS) notify the driver about upcoming hazards. This is in contrast to the majority of currently deployed advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) that manage emergency situations. The target of this study is to investigate the effectiveness, acceptance, and controllability of a specific kind of AWS that uses the haptic information channel for warning the driver. This could be beneficial, as alternatives for using the visual modality can help to reduce the risk of visual overload. The driving simulator study (N=24) compared an AWS based on additional steering wheel angle control (Car Gestures) with a visual warning presented in a simulated head-up display (HUD). Both types of warning were activated 3.5s before the hazard object was reached. An additional condition of unassisted driving completed the experimental design. The subjects encountered potential hazards in a variety of urban situations (e.g. a pedestrian standing on the curbs). For the investigated situations, subjective ratings show that a majority of drivers prefer visual warnings over haptic information via gestures. An analysis of driving behavior indicates that both warning approaches guide the vehicle away from the potential hazard. Whereas gestures lead to a faster lateral driving reaction (compared to HUD warnings), the visual warnings result in a greater safety benefit (measured by the minimum distance to the hazard object). A controllability study with gestures in the wrong direction (i.e. leading toward the hazard object) shows that drivers are able to cope with wrong haptic warnings and safety is not reduced compared to unassisted driving as well as compared to (correct) haptic gestures and visual warnings. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A Walk through TRIDEC's intermediate Tsunami Early Warning System for the Turkish and Portuguese NEAMWave12 exercise tsunami scenarios

Science.gov (United States)

Hammitzsch, Martin; Lendholt, Matthias; Reißland, Sven; Schulz, Jana

2013-04-01

the ICG/NEAMTWS NEAMWave12 exercise for the Turkish and Portuguese tsunami exercise scenarios. Impressions gained with the standards compliant TRIDEC system during the exercise will be reported. The system version presented is based on event-driven architecture (EDA) and service-oriented architecture (SOA) concepts and is making use of relevant standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC), the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). In this way the system continuously gathers, processes and displays events and data coming from open sensor platforms to enable operators to quickly decide whether an early warning is necessary and to send personalized warning messages to the authorities and the population at large through a wide range of communication channels. The system integrates OGC Sensor Web Enablement (SWE) compliant sensor systems for the rapid detection of hazardous events, like earthquakes, sea level anomalies, ocean floor occurrences, and ground displacements. Using OGC Web Map Service (WMS) and Web Feature Service (WFS) spatial data are utilized to depict the situation picture. The integration of a simulation system to identify affected areas is considered using the OGC Web Processing Service (WPS). Warning messages are compiled and transmitted in the OASIS Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) together with addressing information defined via the OASIS Emergency Data Exchange Language - Distribution Element (EDXL-DE). This demonstration is linked with the talk 'Experiences with TRIDEC's Crisis Management Demonstrator in the Turkish NEAMWave12 exercise tsunami scenario' (EGU2013-2833) given in the session "Architecture of Future Tsunami Warning Systems" (NH5.6).

Degree sequence in message transfer

Science.gov (United States)

Yamuna, M.

2017-11-01

Message encryption is always an issue in current communication scenario. Methods are being devised using various domains. Graphs satisfy numerous unique properties which can be used for message transfer. In this paper, I propose a message encryption method based on degree sequence of graphs.

Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) Storm Wallets

Data.gov (United States)

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Commerce — The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) is responsible for typhoon forecasts and warnings for the Western Pacific and Indian Ocean basins. After each storm, the JTWC...

Patient Centeredness in Electronic Communication: Evaluation of Patient-to-Health Care Team Secure Messaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Hogan, Timothy P; Luger, Tana M; Volkman, Julie E; Rocheleau, Mary; Mueller, Nora; Barker, Anna M; Nazi, Kim M; Houston, Thomas K; Bokhour, Barbara G

2018-03-08

respectful in nature (25.7%, 96/373 vs 33.4%, 113/338). Secure messages from health care team members sometimes appeared hurried (25.4%, 86/338) but also displayed friendliness or warmth (18.9%, 64/338) and reassurance or encouragement (18.6%, 63/338). Most patient messages involved either providing or seeking information; however, the majority of health care team member messages involved information provision in response to patient questions. This evaluation is an important step toward understanding the content and socioemotional tone that is part of the secure messaging exchanges between patients and health care team members. Our findings were encouraging; however, there are opportunities for improvement. As health care organizations seek to supplement traditional encounters with virtual care, they must reexamine their use of secure messaging, including the patient centeredness of the communication, and the potential for more proactive use by health care team members. ©Timothy P Hogan, Tana M Luger, Julie E Volkman, Mary Rocheleau, Nora Mueller, Anna M Barker, Kim M Nazi, Thomas K Houston, Barbara G Bokhour. Originally published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research (http://www.jmir.org), 08.03.2018.

A Customized Workflow-Driven Instant Messaging System Support Team Communication in the Hospital.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Ying-Li; Chien, Tsai-Feng; Chen, Hsiu-Chin

2016-01-01

Effective communication among the healthcare team is a very important skill to support team resource management (TRM). However, we take too much effort to connect with other team members by using traditional telephone communication. In this study, we developed an instant messaging system embedded in the original hospital information system and evaluated the preliminary outcome and the usage of the system.

Hybrid Intrusion Forecasting Framework for Early Warning System

Science.gov (United States)

Kim, Sehun; Shin, Seong-Jun; Kim, Hyunwoo; Kwon, Ki Hoon; Han, Younggoo

Recently, cyber attacks have become a serious hindrance to the stability of Internet. These attacks exploit interconnectivity of networks, propagate in an instant, and have become more sophisticated and evolutionary. Traditional Internet security systems such as firewalls, IDS and IPS are limited in terms of detecting recent cyber attacks in advance as these systems respond to Internet attacks only after the attacks inflict serious damage. In this paper, we propose a hybrid intrusion forecasting system framework for an early warning system. The proposed system utilizes three types of forecasting methods: time-series analysis, probabilistic modeling, and data mining method. By combining these methods, it is possible to take advantage of the forecasting technique of each while overcoming their drawbacks. Experimental results show that the hybrid intrusion forecasting method outperforms each of three forecasting methods.

Implicit Motivational Impact of Pictorial Health Warning on Cigarette Packs

Science.gov (United States)

Volchan, Eliane; David, Isabel A.; Tavares, Gisella; Nascimento, Billy M.; Oliveira, Jose M.; Gleiser, Sonia; Szklo, Andre; Perez, Cristina; Cavalcante, Tania; Pereira, Mirtes G.; Oliveira, Leticia

2013-01-01

Objective The use of pictorial warning labels on cigarette packages is one of the provisions included in the first ever global health treaty by the World Health Organization against the tobacco epidemic. There is substantial evidence demonstrating the effectiveness of graphic health warning labels on intention to quit, thoughts about health risks and engaging in cessation behaviors. However, studies that address the implicit emotional drives evoked by such warnings are still underexplored. Here, we provide experimental data for the use of pictorial health warnings as a reliable strategy for tobacco control. Methods Experiment 1 pre-tested nineteen prototypes of pictorial warnings to screen for their emotional impact. Participants (n = 338) were young adults balanced in gender, smoking status and education. Experiment 2 (n = 63) tested pictorial warnings (ten) that were stamped on packs. We employed an innovative set-up to investigate the impact of the warnings on the ordinary attitude of packs’ manipulation, and quantified judgments of warnings’ emotional strength and efficacy against smoking. Findings Experiment 1 revealed that women judged the warning prototypes as more aversive than men, and smokers judged them more aversive than non-smokers. Participants with lower education judged the prototypes more aversive than participants with higher education. Experiment 2 showed that stamped warnings antagonized the appeal of the brands by imposing a cost to manipulate the cigarette packs, especially for smokers. Additionally, participants’ judgments revealed that the more aversive a warning, the more it is perceived as effective against smoking. Conclusions Health warning labels are one of the key components of the integrated approach to control the global tobacco epidemic. The evidence presented in this study adds to the understanding of how implicit responses to pictorial warnings may contribute to behavioral change. PMID:23977223

Entity-based Classification of Twitter Messages

OpenAIRE

Yerva, Surender Reddy; Miklós, Zoltán; Aberer, Karl

2012-01-01

Twitter is a popular micro-blogging service on theWeb, where people can enter short messages, which then become visible to some other users of the service. While the topics of these messages varies, there are a lot of messages where the users express their opinions about some companies or their products. These messages are a rich source of information for companies for sentiment analysis or opinion mining. There is however a great obstacle for analyzing the messages directly: as the company n...

Writing 'new' decalogues: Martin Luther’s development of the Pauline-Augustinian tradition of natural law

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

A. Raath

2005-07-01

Full Text Available This essay argues in favour of Martin Luther subscribing to the theory of natural law in his theology. An in-depth study of Luther’s views on natural law finds support for Brown’s thesis that Luther’s contribution to the tradition of natural law cannot be taken to form the basis of the theory of divine right prominent in the seventeenth century. Without venturing into the debate on natural law versus legal positivism, it is found that the perspective emanating from Luther’s natural law theory has an important political message for mankind as a whole in its implicit warning against positivistic and legalistic perspectives on law because these are apt to lead to confusion, relativism and historicism. Man, according to Luther’s view, therefore, has to revert to more fundamental principles (or values, representative of “ideal,” “good,” or “true,” norms for testing manmade law. The more specific implications of Luther’s views on natural law for Christians concern an eschatological vision of Christians’ involvement and work in God’s creation. This vision concerns man’s divine appointment to hold office and promote peace in society, and to contribute humbly towards God’s involvement in societies suffering from the effects of legalism or torn apart by conflict.

Fear, threat and efficacy in threat appeals: message involvement as a key mediator to message acceptance.

Science.gov (United States)

Cauberghe, Verolien; De Pelsmacker, Patrick; Janssens, Wim; Dens, Nathalie

2009-03-01

In a sample of 170 youngsters, the effect of two versions of a public service announcement (PSA) threat appeal against speeding, placed in four different contexts, on evoked fear, perceived threat (severity and probability of occurrence), perceived response efficacy and self-efficacy, message involvement and anti-speeding attitude and anti-speeding intention is investigated. Evoked fear and perceived threat and efficacy independently influence message involvement. Message involvement is a full mediator between evoked fear, perceived threat and efficacy perception on the one hand, and attitudes towards the message and behavioral intention to accept the message on the other. Speeding experience has a significantly negative impact on anti-speeding attitudes. Message and medium context threat levels and context thematic congruency have a significant effect on evoked fear and to a lesser extent on perceived threat.

Getting the message across: age differences in the positive and negative framing of health care messages.

Science.gov (United States)

Shamaskin, Andrea M; Mikels, Joseph A; Reed, Andrew E

2010-09-01

Although valenced health care messages influence impressions, memory, and behavior (Levin, Schneider, & Gaeth, 1998) and the processing of valenced information changes with age (Carstensen & Mikels, 2005), these 2 lines of research have thus far been disconnected. This study examined impressions of, and memory for, positively and negatively framed health care messages that were presented in pamphlets to 25 older adults and 24 younger adults. Older adults relative to younger adults rated positive pamphlets more informative than negative pamphlets and remembered a higher proportion of positive to negative messages. However, older adults misremembered negative messages to be positive. These findings demonstrate the age-related positivity effect in health care messages with promise as to the persuasive nature and lingering effects of positive messages. (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved.

Smokers' and E-Cigarette Users' Perceptions about E-Cigarette Warning Statements.

Science.gov (United States)

Wackowski, Olivia A; Hammond, David; O'Connor, Richard J; Strasser, Andrew A; Delnevo, Cristine D

2016-06-30

Cigarette warning labels are important sources of risk information, but warning research for other tobacco products is limited. This study aimed to gauge perceptions about warnings that may be used for e-cigarettes. We conducted six small focus groups in late 2014/early 2015 with adult current e-cigarette users and cigarette-only smokers. Participants rated and discussed their perceptions of six e-cigarette warning statements, and warnings in two existing Vuse and MarkTen e-cigarette ads. Participants were open to e-cigarette warnings and provided the strongest reactions to statements warning that e-liquid/e-vapor or e-cigarettes can be poisonous, contain toxins, or are "not a safe alternative to smoking". However, many also noted that these statements were exaggerated, potentially misleading, and could scare smokers away from reducing their harm by switching to e-cigarettes. Opinions on the Food and Drug Administration's proposed nicotine addiction warning and warnings that e-cigarettes had not been approved for smoking cessation or had unknown health effects were mixed. Participants perceived MarkTen's advertisement warning to be stronger and more noticeable than Vuse's. Care should be taken in developing e-cigarette warnings given their relative recentness and potential for harm reduction compared to other tobacco products. Additional research, including with varied audiences, would be instructive.

Emergency management response to a warning-level Alaska-source tsunami impacting California: Chapter J in The SAFRR (Science Application for Risk Reduction) Tsunami Scenario

Science.gov (United States)

Miller, Kevin M.; Long, Kate

2013-01-01

This chapter is directed towards two audiences: Firstly, it targets nonemergency management readers, providing them with insight on the process and challenges facing emergency managers in responding to tsunami Warning, particularly given this “short fuse” scenario. It is called “short fuse” because there is only a 5.5-hour window following the earthquake before arrival of the tsunami within which to evaluate the threat, disseminate alert and warning messages, and respond. This action initiates a period when crisis communication is of paramount importance. An additional dynamic that is important to note is that within 15 minutes of the earthquake, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the National Weather Service (NWS) will issue alert bulletins for the entire Pacific Coast. This is one-half the time actually presented by recent tsunamis from Japan, Chile, and Samoa. Second, the chapter provides emergency managers at all levels with insights into key considerations they may need to address in order to augment their existing plans and effectively respond to tsunami events. We look at emergency management response to the tsunami threat from three perspectives:“Top Down” (Threat analysis and Alert/Warning information from the Federal agency charged with Alert and Warning) “Bottom Up” (Emergency management’s Incident Command approach to responding to emergencies and disasters based on the needs of impacted local jurisdictions) “Across Time” (From the initiating earthquake event through emergency response) We focus on these questions: What are the government roles, relationships, and products that support Tsunami Alert and Warning dissemination? (Emergency Planning and Preparedness.) What roles, relationships, and products support emergency management response to Tsunami Warning and impact? (Engendering prudent public safety response.) What are the key emergency management activities, considerations, and challenges brought

Manipulative Use of Short Messaging Service (SMS Text Messages by Nigerian Telecommunications Companies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ayoola, Kehinde A.

2014-02-01

Full Text Available This paper is an application of Relevance Theory for the interpretation of short messaging service (SMS text messages emanating from Nigerian telecommunications companies to their subscribers. The aim of the research was to identify and describe the manipulative strategies employed by Nigerian telecommunications companies to induce subscribers to part with their money through sales promotion lotteries. 100 SMS texts were purposively extracted from the cell phones of randomly selected residents of Lagos Nigeria who had received promotional SMS text messages from three major Nigerian telecommunications companies. Using Sperber and Wilson's Relevance Theory (1995 as its theoretical framework, the paper described the manipulative use of SMS by Nigerian telecommunications companies. The analysis revealed that SMS text messages were encoded to achieve maximization of relevance through explicature and implicature; contextual implication and strengthening; and the reduction of processing effort through violating the maxim of truthfulness and the creative use of graphology. The paper concludes that SMS text-messages were used manipulatively by Nigerian telecommunications companies to earn indirect income from sales promotion lottery.

Scientific Animations for Tsunami Hazard Mitigation: The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center's YouTube Channel

Science.gov (United States)

Becker, N. C.; Wang, D.; Shiro, B.; Ward, B.

2013-12-01

Outreach and education save lives, and the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) has a new tool--a YouTube Channel--to advance its mission to protect lives and property from dangerous tsunamis. Such outreach and education is critical for coastal populations nearest an earthquake since they may not get an official warning before a tsunami reaches them and will need to know what to do when they feel strong shaking. Those who live far enough away to receive useful official warnings and react to them, however, can also benefit from PTWC's education and outreach efforts. They can better understand a tsunami warning message when they receive one, can better understand the danger facing them, and can better anticipate how events will unfold while the warning is in effect. The same holds true for emergency managers, who have the authority to evacuate the public they serve, and for the news media, critical partners in disseminating tsunami hazard information. PTWC's YouTube channel supplements its formal outreach and education efforts by making its computer animations available 24/7 to anyone with an Internet connection. Though the YouTube channel is only a month old (as of August 2013), it should rapidly develop a large global audience since similar videos on PTWC's Facebook page have reached over 70,000 viewers during organized media events, while PTWC's official web page has received tens of millions of hits during damaging tsunamis. These animations are not mere cartoons but use scientific data and calculations to render graphical depictions of real-world phenomena as accurately as possible. This practice holds true whether the animation is a simple comparison of historic earthquake magnitudes or a complex simulation cycling through thousands of high-resolution data grids to render tsunami waves propagating across an entire ocean basin. PTWC's animations fall into two broad categories. The first group illustrates concepts about seismology and how it is critical to

Avoidance of cigarette pack health warnings among regular cigarette smokers.

Science.gov (United States)

Maynard, Olivia M; Attwood, Angela; O'Brien, Laura; Brooks, Sabrina; Hedge, Craig; Leonards, Ute; Munafò, Marcus R

2014-03-01

Previous research with adults and adolescents indicates that plain cigarette packs increase visual attention to health warnings among non-smokers and non-regular smokers, but not among regular smokers. This may be because regular smokers: (1) are familiar with the health warnings, (2) preferentially attend to branding, or (3) actively avoid health warnings. We sought to distinguish between these explanations using eye-tracking technology. A convenience sample of 30 adult dependent smokers participated in an eye-tracking study. Participants viewed branded, plain and blank packs of cigarettes with familiar and unfamiliar health warnings. The number of fixations to health warnings and branding on the different pack types were recorded. Analysis of variance indicated that regular smokers were biased towards fixating the branding rather than the health warning on all three pack types. This bias was smaller, but still evident, for blank packs, where smokers preferentially attended the blank region over the health warnings. Time-course analysis showed that for branded and plain packs, attention was preferentially directed to the branding location for the entire 10s of the stimulus presentation, while for blank packs this occurred for the last 8s of the stimulus presentation. Familiarity with health warnings had no effect on eye gaze location. Smokers actively avoid cigarette pack health warnings, and this remains the case even in the absence of salient branding information. Smokers may have learned to divert their attention away from cigarette pack health warnings. These findings have implications for cigarette packaging and health warning policy. Copyright © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ireland Ltd.. All rights reserved.

Improving the effectiveness of fundraising messages: The impact of charity goal attainment, message framing, and evidence on persuasion

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Das, E.; Kerkhof, P.; Kuiper, J.

2008-01-01

This experimental study assessed the effectiveness of fundraising messages. Based on recent findings regarding the effects of message framing and evidence, effective fundraising messages should combine abstract, statistical information with a negative message frame and anecdotal evidence with a

The impact of cultural exposure and message framing on oral health behavior: Exploring the role of message memory

Science.gov (United States)

Brick, Cameron; McCully, Scout N.; Updegraff, John A.; Ehret, Phillip J.; Areguin, Maira A.; Sherman, David K.

2015-01-01

Background Health messages are more effective when framed to be congruent with recipient characteristics, and health practitioners can strategically decide on message features to promote adherence to recommended behaviors. We present exposure to United States (U.S.) culture as a moderator of the impact of gain- vs. loss-frame messages. Since U.S. culture emphasizes individualism and approach orientation, greater cultural exposure was expected to predict improved patient choices and memory for gain-framed messages, whereas individuals with less exposure to U.S. culture would show these advantages for loss-framed messages. Methods 223 participants viewed a written oral health message in one of three randomized conditions: gain-frame, loss-frame, or no-message control, and were given ten flosses. Cultural exposure was measured with the proportions of life spent and parents born in the U.S. At baseline and one week later, participants completed recall tests and reported recent flossing behavior. Results Message frame and cultural exposure interacted to predict improved patient decisions (increased flossing) and memory maintenance for the health message over one week. E.g., those with low cultural exposure who saw a loss-frame message flossed more. Incongruent messages led to the same flossing rates as no message. Memory retention did not explain the effect of message congruency on flossing. Limitations Flossing behavior was self-reported. Cultural exposure may only have practical application in either highly individualistic or collectivistic countries. Conclusions In healthcare settings where patients are urged to follow a behavior, asking basic demographic questions could allow medical practitioners to intentionally communicate in terms of gains or losses to improve patient decision making and treatment adherence. PMID:25654986

Developing effective messages about potable recycled water: The importance of message structure and content

Science.gov (United States)

Price, J.; Fielding, K. S.; Gardner, J.; Leviston, Z.; Green, M.

2015-04-01

Community opposition is a barrier to potable recycled water schemes. Effective communication strategies about such schemes are needed. Drawing on social psychological literature, two experimental studies are presented, which explore messages that improve public perceptions of potable recycled water. The Elaboration-Likelihood Model of information processing and attitude change is tested and supported. Study 1 (N = 415) premeasured support for recycled water, and trust in government information at Time 1. Messages varied in complexity and sidedness were presented at Time 2 (3 weeks later), and support and trust were remeasured. Support increased after receiving information, provided that participants received complex rather than simple information. Trust in government was also higher after receiving information. There was tentative evidence of this in response to two-sided messages rather than one-sided messages. Initial attitudes to recycled water moderated responses to information. Those initially neutral or ambivalent responded differently to simple and one-sided messages, compared to participants with positive or negative attitudes. Study 2 (N = 957) tested the effectiveness of information about the low relative risks, and/or benefits of potable recycled water, compared to control groups. Messages about the low risks resulted in higher support when the issue of recycled water was relevant. Messages about benefits resulted in higher perceived issue relevance, but did not translate into greater support. The results highlight the importance of understanding people's motivation to process information, and need to tailor communication to match attitudes and stage of recycled water schemes' development.

The Trend of Voluntary Warnings in Electronic Nicotine Delivery System Magazine Advertisements.

Science.gov (United States)

Shang, Ce; Chaloupka, Frank J

2017-01-10

Some manufacturers of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) voluntarily carried health warnings in their advertisements. This study examined these voluntary warnings in magazine ads and plotted their trends between 2012 and early 2015. ENDS magazine ads were obtained through Kantar media and warnings were collected from the Chicago Public Library or the Trinkets and Trash surveillance system. The prevalence of voluntary warnings, warnings with the specific capitalized word "WARNING", and MarkTen warnings were examined after being weighted using factors related to exposure between January 2012 and March 2015. Five brands (MarkTen, NJOY, MISTIC, and some Blu) carried warnings during the study period. The prevalence of warnings post 2012 that contained a description of nicotine did not significantly increase until the launch of MarkTen, which also happened several months before April 2014 when the U.S. food and drug administration (FDA) published its proposed deeming rule. In addition, none of these warnings met the criteria required by the FDA in the final rules. Voluntary warnings, particularly MarkTen warnings, significantly increased in ENDS magazine ads between 2014 and 2015. It is important to monitor how ENDS manufacturers will comply with the FDA regulation related to warnings and how this regulation will ultimately impact ENDS risk perceptions and use.

Toward Predicting Popularity of Social Marketing Messages

Science.gov (United States)

Yu, Bei; Chen, Miao; Kwok, Linchi

Popularity of social marketing messages indicates the effectiveness of the corresponding marketing strategies. This research aims to discover the characteristics of social marketing messages that contribute to different level of popularity. Using messages posted by a sample of restaurants on Facebook as a case study, we measured the message popularity by the number of "likes" voted by fans, and examined the relationship between the message popularity and two properties of the messages: (1) content, and (2) media type. Combining a number of text mining and statistics methods, we have discovered some interesting patterns correlated to "more popular" and "less popular" social marketing messages. This work lays foundation for building computational models to predict the popularity of social marketing messages in the future.

Food crisis coverage by social and traditional media: A case study of the 2008 Irish dioxin crisis.

Science.gov (United States)

Shan, Liran; Regan, Aine; De Brún, Aoife; Barnett, Julie; van der Sanden, Maarten C A; Wall, Patrick; McConnon, Aine

2014-11-01

The world of communication has changed significantly in the last decade as a result of the evolution of social media. Food crisis managers and communicators should be cognizant of the messages presented to the public by all media channels during a crisis. Using the 2008 Irish dioxin contamination incident as an example, a quantitative content analysis was carried out to investigate the relationship between social and traditional media. Messages published in printed newspapers (n = 141), blogs and forums (n = 107), and Twitter (n = 68) were analysed to investigate sourcing practice, story topic and use of tone. Results revealed that traditional media relied on diverse offline sources in reporting a wide range of topics. In comparison, social media responded faster and diminished faster, using offline and online media news messages as the primary sources in reporting very limited topics. No significant difference was found in the presence of negative tone across media. © The Author(s) 2013.

Smokers’ and E-Cigarette Users’ Perceptions about E-Cigarette Warning Statements

Science.gov (United States)

Wackowski, Olivia A.; Hammond, David; O’Connor, Richard J.; Strasser, Andrew A.; Delnevo, Cristine D.

2016-01-01

Cigarette warning labels are important sources of risk information, but warning research for other tobacco products is limited. This study aimed to gauge perceptions about warnings that may be used for e-cigarettes. We conducted six small focus groups in late 2014/early 2015 with adult current e-cigarette users and cigarette-only smokers. Participants rated and discussed their perceptions of six e-cigarette warning statements, and warnings in two existing Vuse and MarkTen e-cigarette ads. Participants were open to e-cigarette warnings and provided the strongest reactions to statements warning that e-liquid/e-vapor or e-cigarettes can be poisonous, contain toxins, or are “not a safe alternative to smoking”. However, many also noted that these statements were exaggerated, potentially misleading, and could scare smokers away from reducing their harm by switching to e-cigarettes. Opinions on the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed nicotine addiction warning and warnings that e-cigarettes had not been approved for smoking cessation or had unknown health effects were mixed. Participants perceived MarkTen’s advertisement warning to be stronger and more noticeable than Vuse’s. Care should be taken in developing e-cigarette warnings given their relative recentness and potential for harm reduction compared to other tobacco products. Additional research, including with varied audiences, would be instructive. PMID:27376310

Smokers’ and E-Cigarette Users’ Perceptions about E-Cigarette Warning Statements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Olivia A. Wackowski

2016-06-01

Full Text Available Cigarette warning labels are important sources of risk information, but warning research for other tobacco products is limited. This study aimed to gauge perceptions about warnings that may be used for e-cigarettes. We conducted six small focus groups in late 2014/early 2015 with adult current e-cigarette users and cigarette-only smokers. Participants rated and discussed their perceptions of six e-cigarette warning statements, and warnings in two existing Vuse and MarkTen e-cigarette ads. Participants were open to e-cigarette warnings and provided the strongest reactions to statements warning that e-liquid/e-vapor or e-cigarettes can be poisonous, contain toxins, or are “not a safe alternative to smoking”. However, many also noted that these statements were exaggerated, potentially misleading, and could scare smokers away from reducing their harm by switching to e-cigarettes. Opinions on the Food and Drug Administration’s proposed nicotine addiction warning and warnings that e-cigarettes had not been approved for smoking cessation or had unknown health effects were mixed. Participants perceived MarkTen’s advertisement warning to be stronger and more noticeable than Vuse’s. Care should be taken in developing e-cigarette warnings given their relative recentness and potential for harm reduction compared to other tobacco products. Additional research, including with varied audiences, would be instructive.

An exploration of public knowledge of warning signs for cancer.

Science.gov (United States)

Keeney, Sinead; McKenna, Hugh; Fleming, Paul; McIlfatrick, Sonja

2011-02-01

Warning signs of cancer have long been used as an effective way to summarise and communicate early indications of cancer to the public. Given the increasing global burden of cancer, the communication of these warning signs to the public is more important than ever before. This paper presents part of a larger study which explored the attitudes, knowledge and behaviours of people in mid-life towards cancer prevention. The focus of this paper is on the assessment of the knowledge of members of the public aged between 35 and 54 years of age. A questionnaire was administered to a representative sample of the population listing 17 warning signs of cancer. These included the correct warning signs and distracter signs. Respondents were asked to correctly identify the seven warning signs. Findings show that respondents could identify 4.8 cancer warning signs correctly. Analysis by demographics shows that being female, being older, having a higher level of educational attainment and being in a higher socio-economic group are predictors of better level of knowledge of cancer warning signs. Recommendations are proffered with regard to better targeting, clarification and communication of cancer warning signs. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Development of tsunami early warning systems and future challenges

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J. Wächter

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Fostered by and embedded in the general development of information and communications technology (ICT, the evolution of tsunami warning systems (TWS shows a significant development from seismic-centred to multi-sensor system architectures using additional sensors (e.g. tide gauges and buoys for the detection of tsunami waves in the ocean.

Currently, the beginning implementation of regional tsunami warning infrastructures indicates a new phase in the development of TWS. A new generation of TWS should not only be able to realise multi-sensor monitoring for tsunami detection. Moreover, these systems have to be capable to form a collaborative communication infrastructure of distributed tsunami warning systems in order to implement regional, ocean-wide monitoring and warning strategies.

In the context of the development of the German Indonesian Tsunami Early Warning System (GITEWS and in the EU-funded FP6 project Distant Early Warning System (DEWS, a service platform for both sensor integration and warning dissemination has been newly developed and demonstrated. In particular, standards of the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS have been successfully incorporated.

In the FP7 project Collaborative, Complex and Critical Decision-Support in Evolving Crises (TRIDEC, new developments in ICT (e.g. complex event processing (CEP and event-driven architecture (EDA are used to extend the existing platform to realise a component-based technology framework for building distributed tsunami warning systems.

A Messaging Infrastructure for WLCG

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Casey, James; Cons, Lionel; Lapka, Wojciech; Paladin, Massimo; Skaburskas, Konstantin

2011-01-01

During the EGEE-III project operational tools such as SAM, Nagios, Gridview, the regional Dashboard and GGUS moved to a communication architecture based on ActiveMQ, an open-source enterprise messaging solution. LHC experiments, in particular ATLAS, developed prototypes of systems using the same messaging infrastructure, validating the system for their use-cases. In this paper we describe the WLCG messaging use cases and outline an improved messaging architecture based on the experience gained during the EGEE-III period. We show how this provides a solid basis for many applications, including the grid middleware, to improve their resilience and reliability.

Augmented reality warnings in vehicles: Effects of modality and specificity on effectiveness.

Science.gov (United States)

Schwarz, Felix; Fastenmeier, Wolfgang

2017-04-01

In the future, vehicles will be able to warn drivers of hidden dangers before they are visible. Specific warning information about these hazards could improve drivers' reactions and the warning effectiveness, but could also impair them, for example, by additional cognitive-processing costs. In a driving simulator study with 88 participants, we investigated the effects of modality (auditory vs. visual) and specificity (low vs. high) on warning effectiveness. For the specific warnings, we used augmented reality as an advanced technology to display the additional auditory or visual warning information. Part one of the study concentrates on the effectiveness of necessary warnings and part two on the drivers' compliance despite false alarms. For the first warning scenario, we found several positive main effects of specificity. However, subsequent effects of specificity were moderated by the modality of the warnings. The specific visual warnings were observed to have advantages over the three other warning designs concerning gaze and braking reaction times, passing speeds and collision rates. Besides the true alarms, braking reaction times as well as subjective evaluation after these warnings were still improved despite false alarms. The specific auditory warnings were revealed to have only a few advantages, but also several disadvantages. The results further indicate that the exact coding of additional information, beyond its mere amount and modality, plays an important role. Moreover, the observed advantages of the specific visual warnings highlight the potential benefit of augmented reality coding to improve future collision warnings. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

A new French flash flood warning service

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de Saint-Aubin Céline

2016-01-01

Full Text Available The French State services in charge of flood forecasting supervise about 22,000 km among the 120,000 km of the French rivers within a warning procedure called Vigilance Crues (http://www.vigicrues.gouv.fr. Some recent dramatic flood events on small watershed not covered by Vigilance Crues highlight the need for a new warning procedure to anticipate violent flash floods that regularly affect rapid river-basins. Thus the concept emerged of an automatic warning service specifically dedicated to local crisis managers. This service will be less elaborated than Vigilance Crues, probably with false alarms and missed events sometimes, but it will deliver a first information. The generation of the warning is based on a simple rainfall-runoff hydrological model developed by Irstea on all French rivers, fed with radar-gauge rainfall grids provided by Meteo-France. Every fifteen minutes, the hydrological model estimates the discharges on the rivers eligible to the service and determine if certain thresholds corresponding to a high or very high flood are likely to be exceeded. The last step of the real-time system is to determine which municipalities are concerned with flood risk and send them an automatic warning by voice call, optionally by sms or email. A specific web interface is available for users to monitor the evolution of the flood risk on maps that are updated every 15 minutes. This new flash flood warning service will be operational early 2017 as a free service for about 8,000 French municipalities.

Quantitative assessment of the effectiveness of a rockfall warning system

Science.gov (United States)

Bründl, Michael; Sättele, Martina; Krautblatter, Michael; Straub, Daniel

2016-04-01

Rockslides and rockfalls can pose high risk to human settlements and traffic infrastructure. In addition to structural mitigation measures like rockfall nets, warning systems are increasingly installed to reduce rockfall risks. Whereas for structural mitigation measures with reducing effects on the spatial extent a structured evaluation method is existing, no or only few approaches to assess the effectiveness for warning systems are known. Especially for higher magnitude rockfalls structural mitigation measures are not effective, and reliable early warning systems will be essential in future. In response to that, we developed a classification and a framework to assess the reliability and effectiveness of early warning systems (Sättele et al, 2015a; 2016). Here, we demonstrate an application for the rockfall warning system installed in Preonzo prior to a major rockfall in May 2012 (Sättele et al., 2015b). We show that it is necessary to design such a warning system as fail-safe construction, which has to incorporate components with low failure probabilities, high redundancy, low warning thresholds, and additional control systems. With a hypothetical probabilistic analysis, we investigate the effect of the risk attitude of decision makers and of the number of sensors on the probability of detecting an event and on initiating a timely evacuation, as well as on related intervention cost. We conclude that it is possible to quantitatively assess the effectiveness of warning systems, which helps to optimize mitigation strategies against rockfall events. References Sättele, M., Bründl, M., and Straub, D.: Reliability and effectiveness of warning systems for natural hazards: concept and application to debris flow warning, Rel. Eng. Syst. Safety, 142, 192-202, 2015a. Sättele, M., Krautblatter, M., Bründl, M., and Straub, D.: Forecasting rock slope failure: How reliable and effective are warning systems?, Landslides, 605, 1-14, 2015b. Sättele, M., Bründl, M., and

Distributed parallel messaging for multiprocessor systems

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Dong; Heidelberger, Philip; Salapura, Valentina; Senger, Robert M; Steinmacher-Burrow, Burhard; Sugawara, Yutaka

2013-06-04

A method and apparatus for distributed parallel messaging in a parallel computing system. The apparatus includes, at each node of a multiprocessor network, multiple injection messaging engine units and reception messaging engine units, each implementing a DMA engine and each supporting both multiple packet injection into and multiple reception from a network, in parallel. The reception side of the messaging unit (MU) includes a switch interface enabling writing of data of a packet received from the network to the memory system. The transmission side of the messaging unit, includes switch interface for reading from the memory system when injecting packets into the network.

Health warnings on tobacco products: international practices Advertencias sanitarias en los productos de tabaco: prácticas internacionales

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David Hammond

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Health warnings on tobacco products have emerged as a prominent area of tobacco control policy. Regulatory practice has rapidly evolved over the past decade to the point where health warnings on tobacco products continue to set international precedents for their size and comprehensiveness. The current paper provides a general review of current regulatory practices, including physical design features (such as size and location, message content (pictorial vs. text and content "themes, and regulatory considerations such as rotation period and other novel practices.Las advertencias sanitarias en los productos de tabaco han llegado a ser una de las políticas públicas principales para el control del tabaco. A través de la última década las prácticas regulatorias han evolucionado mucho y varios países siguen impulsado cambios regulatorios importantes en términos del tamaño y carácter de las advertencias sanitarias que han implementado. Este ensayo resume las prácticas regulatorias actuales alrededor del mundo, incluyendo las características del diseño físico de la advertencia (es decir, tamaño y ubicación, sus contenidos (temas, pictogramas, textos y otros factores regulatorios importantes (frecuencia de rotación y otras prácticas innovadoras.

When communications collide with recipients' actions: effects of post-message behavior on intentions to follow the message recommendation.

Science.gov (United States)

Albarracín, Dolores; Cohen, Joel B; Kumkale, G Tarcan

2003-07-01

Two experiments investigated the processes through which post-message behavior (e.g., noncompliance) influences resistance to the message. Participants in Experiment 1 read preventive, consumer-education messages that either opposed the consumption of an alcohol-like product or recommended moderation. Half of the participants then tried the product, whereas the remaining participants performed a filler task. In the absence of trial, the two messages had the same effect. However, recipients of the abstinence-promoting preventive message who tried the product had stronger intentions to use the product in the future than recipients of the moderation message. This finding suggests that assessments of message impact may be inadequate unless an opportunity for trial is also provided. Results are interpreted in terms of self-perception and cognitive dissonance and contrasted from psychological reactance.

When Communications Collide With Recipients’ Actions: Effects of Post-Message Behavior on Intentions to Follow the Message Recommendation

Science.gov (United States)

Albarracín, Dolores; Cohen, Joel B.; Kumkale, G. Tarcan

2013-01-01

Two experiments investigated the processes through which post-message behavior (e.g., noncompliance) influences resistance to the message. Participants in Experiment 1 read preventive, consumer-education messages that either opposed the consumption of an alcohol-like product or recommended moderation. Half of the participants then tried the product, whereas the remaining participants performed a filler task. In the absence of trial, the two messages had the same effect. However, recipients of the abstinence-promoting preventive message who tried the product had stronger intentions to use the product in the future than recipients of the moderation message. This finding suggests that assessments of message impact may be inadequate unless an opportunity for trial is also provided. Results are interpreted in terms of self-perception and cognitive dissonance and contrasted from psychological reactance. PMID:15018672

The Trend of Voluntary Warnings in Electronic Nicotine Delivery System Magazine Advertisements

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ce Shang

2017-01-01

Full Text Available Some manufacturers of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS voluntarily carried health warnings in their advertisements. This study examined these voluntary warnings in magazine ads and plotted their trends between 2012 and early 2015. ENDS magazine ads were obtained through Kantar media and warnings were collected from the Chicago Public Library or the Trinkets and Trash surveillance system. The prevalence of voluntary warnings, warnings with the specific capitalized word “WARNING”, and MarkTen warnings were examined after being weighted using factors related to exposure between January 2012 and March 2015. Five brands (MarkTen, NJOY, MISTIC, and some Blu carried warnings during the study period. The prevalence of warnings post 2012 that contained a description of nicotine did not significantly increase until the launch of MarkTen, which also happened several months before April 2014 when the U.S. food and drug administration (FDA published its proposed deeming rule. In addition, none of these warnings met the criteria required by the FDA in the final rules. Voluntary warnings, particularly MarkTen warnings, significantly increased in ENDS magazine ads between 2014 and 2015. It is important to monitor how ENDS manufacturers will comply with the FDA regulation related to warnings and how this regulation will ultimately impact ENDS risk perceptions and use.

Guidelines for designing messages in risk communication

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Takashita, Hirofumi; Horikoshi, Hidehiko

2004-07-01

Risk Communication Study Team (hereafter called RC team) has designed messages for risk communication based on the analysis of the local residents' opinions which were expressed in several questionnaire surveys. The messages are described in a side format (Power Point format) every single content. This report provides basic guidelines for making messages that are used for risk communication, and does not include concrete messages which RC team designed. The RC team has already published the report entitled 'Information materials for risk communication' (JNC TN8450 2003-008) separately, and it gives the concrete messages. This report shows general cautions and checklists in designing messages, comments on the messages from outside risk communication experts, and opinions from local residents. (author)

Pictorial cigarette pack warnings: a meta-analysis of experimental studies.

Science.gov (United States)

Noar, Seth M; Hall, Marissa G; Francis, Diane B; Ribisl, Kurt M; Pepper, Jessica K; Brewer, Noel T

2016-05-01

To inform international research and policy, we conducted a meta-analysis of the experimental literature on pictorial cigarette pack warnings. We systematically searched 7 computerised databases in April 2013 using several search terms. We also searched reference lists of relevant articles. We included studies that used an experimental protocol to test cigarette pack warnings and reported data on both pictorial and text-only conditions. 37 studies with data on 48 independent samples (N=33,613) met criteria. Two independent coders coded all study characteristics. Effect sizes were computed from data extracted from study reports and were combined using random effects meta-analytic procedures. Pictorial warnings were more effective than text-only warnings for 12 of 17 effectiveness outcomes (all pnegative pack attitudes and negative smoking attitudes and (4) more effectively increased intentions to not start smoking and to quit smoking. Participants also perceived pictorial warnings as being more effective than text-only warnings across all 8 perceived effectiveness outcomes. The evidence from this international body of literature supports pictorial cigarette pack warnings as more effective than text-only warnings. Gaps in the literature include a lack of assessment of smoking behaviour and a dearth of theory-based research on how warnings exert their effects. Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited. For permission to use (where not already granted under a licence) please go to http://www.bmj.com/company/products-services/rights-and-licensing/

The Case for Using Personally Relevant and Emotionally Stimulating Gambling Messages as a Gambling Harm-Minimisation Strategy.

Science.gov (United States)

Harris, Andrew; Parke, Adrian; Griffiths, Mark D

2018-01-01

Emotions typically exert powerful, enduring, and often predictable influences over decision-making. However, emotion-based decision-making is seen as a mediator of impulsive and reckless gambling behaviour, where emotion may be seen as the antithesis of controlled and rational decision-making, a proposition supported by recent neuroimaging evidence. The present paper argues that the same emotional mechanisms can be used to influence a gambler to cease gambling, by focusing their emotional decision-making on positive external and personally relevant factors, such as familial impact or longer term financial factors. Emotionally stimulating messages may also have the advantage of capturing attention above and beyond traditionally responsible gambling messaging. This is important given the highly emotionally aroused states often experienced by both gamblers and problem gamblers, where attentional activation thresholds for external stimuli such as messages may be increased.

Evaluation of Sexual Communication Message Strategies

Science.gov (United States)

2011-01-01

Parent-child communication about sex is an important proximal reproductive health outcome. But while campaigns to promote it such as the Parents Speak Up National Campaign (PSUNC) have been effective, little is known about how messages influence parental cognitions and behavior. This study examines which message features explain responses to sexual communication messages. We content analyzed 4 PSUNC ads to identify specific, measurable message and advertising execution features. We then develop quantitative measures of those features, including message strategies, marketing strategies, and voice and other stylistic features, and merged the resulting data into a dataset drawn from a national media tracking survey of the campaign. Finally, we conducted multivariable logistic regression models to identify relationships between message content and ad reactions/receptivity, and between ad reactions/receptivity and parents' cognitions related to sexual communication included in the campaign's conceptual model. We found that overall parents were highly receptive to the PSUNC ads. We did not find significant associations between message content and ad reactions/receptivity. However, we found that reactions/receptivity to specific PSUNC ads were associated with increased norms, self-efficacy, short- and long-term expectations about parent-child sexual communication, as theorized in the conceptual model. This study extends previous research and methods to analyze message content and reactions/receptivity. The results confirm and extend previous PSUNC campaign evaluation and provide further evidence for the conceptual model. Future research should examine additional message content features and the effects of reactions/receptivity. PMID:21599875

Evaluation of Sexual Communication Message Strategies

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Khan Munziba

2011-05-01

Full Text Available Abstract Parent-child communication about sex is an important proximal reproductive health outcome. But while campaigns to promote it such as the Parents Speak Up National Campaign (PSUNC have been effective, little is known about how messages influence parental cognitions and behavior. This study examines which message features explain responses to sexual communication messages. We content analyzed 4 PSUNC ads to identify specific, measurable message and advertising execution features. We then develop quantitative measures of those features, including message strategies, marketing strategies, and voice and other stylistic features, and merged the resulting data into a dataset drawn from a national media tracking survey of the campaign. Finally, we conducted multivariable logistic regression models to identify relationships between message content and ad reactions/receptivity, and between ad reactions/receptivity and parents' cognitions related to sexual communication included in the campaign's conceptual model. We found that overall parents were highly receptive to the PSUNC ads. We did not find significant associations between message content and ad reactions/receptivity. However, we found that reactions/receptivity to specific PSUNC ads were associated with increased norms, self-efficacy, short- and long-term expectations about parent-child sexual communication, as theorized in the conceptual model. This study extends previous research and methods to analyze message content and reactions/receptivity. The results confirm and extend previous PSUNC campaign evaluation and provide further evidence for the conceptual model. Future research should examine additional message content features and the effects of reactions/receptivity.

Smokers? and E-Cigarette Users? Perceptions about E-Cigarette Warning Statements

OpenAIRE

Wackowski, Olivia A.; Hammond, David; O?Connor, Richard J.; Strasser, Andrew A.; Delnevo, Cristine D.

2016-01-01

Cigarette warning labels are important sources of risk information, but warning research for other tobacco products is limited. This study aimed to gauge perceptions about warnings that may be used for e-cigarettes. We conducted six small focus groups in late 2014/early 2015 with adult current e-cigarette users and cigarette-only smokers. Participants rated and discussed their perceptions of six e-cigarette warning statements, and warnings in two existing Vuse and MarkTen e-cigarette ads. Par...

TXT@WORK: pediatric hospitalists and text messaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Kuhlmann, Stephanie; Ahlers-Schmidt, Carolyn R; Steinberger, Erik

2014-07-01

Many studies assess provider-patient communication through text messaging; however, minimal research has addressed communication among physicians. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of text messaging by pediatric hospitalists. A brief, anonymous, electronic survey was distributed through the American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Hospital Medicine Listserv in February 2012. Survey questions assessed work-related text messaging. Of the 106 pediatric hospitalist respondents, 97 met inclusion criteria. Most were female (73%) and had been in practice text messages, some (12%) more than 10 times per shift. More than half (53%) received work-related text messages when not at work. When asked to identify all potential work recipients, most often sent work-related text messages to other pediatric hospitalists (64%), fellows or resident physicians (37%), and subspecialists/consulting physicians (28%). When asked their preferred mode for brief communication, respondents' preferences varied. Many (46%) respondents worried privacy laws can be violated by sending/receiving text messages, and some (30%) reported having received protected health information (PHI) through text messages. However, only 11% reported their institution offered encryption software for text messaging. Physicians were using text messaging as a means of brief, work-related communication. Concerns arose regarding transfer of PHI using unsecure systems and work-life balance. Future research should examine accuracy and effectiveness of text message communication in the hospital, as well as patient privacy issues.

Use of NWSChat (Instant Messaging program) as a coordination tool during the 2009 Redoubt Eruptions

Science.gov (United States)

Osiensky, J. M.; Jones, D.

2009-12-01

The National Weather Service (NWS) based Instant Messaging service, NWSChat, is used for sharing critical warning decision expertise and other types of significant weather information between the NWS and partners in all levels of government, emergency managers, and the media. NWSChat allows multiple users to send messages to each other in forums known as “chat rooms.” NWSChat is used to enhance decision support during discussions related to high impact weather events, and improve outreach and real-time feed-back from partners. This information is exchanged with the media and emergency response community, who in turn play a key role in communicating the NWS’s hazardous weather messages to the public. NWSChat also provides media and emergency response partners with the ability to communicate significant event reports back to NWS operational personnel, who in turn utilize the information to make effective warning decisions. NWS partners can also use the Service as an efficient means of seeking clarifications and enhancements to the communication stream originating from the NWS. NWSChat will include a wide variety of types of information. Some of this information will include contents of official NWS products available through other NWS systems and thus available to the public. However, other NWSChat content may include preliminary data which has not been screened by NWS for accuracy or applicability; highly technical discussions, some of them speculative, regarding atmospheric or other environmental conditions; and other types of information not intended for a general audience. NWSChat participants are expected to avoid release of information to a broader audience that might be misinterpreted or cause confusion. NWSChat is an enhancement to communications between the NWS and its partners, and is not intended to replace official NWS products or official means of communications. In March 2009, the NWS stood up a Redoubt chatroom just prior to the first eruption

Estimation for aerial detection effectiveness with cooperation efficiency factors of early-warning aircraft in early-warning detection SoS under BSC framework

Science.gov (United States)

Zhu, Feng; Hu, Xiaofeng; He, Xiaoyuan; Guo, Rui; Li, Kaiming; Yang, Lu

2017-11-01

In the military field, the performance evaluation of early-warning aircraft deployment or construction is always an important problem needing to be explored. As an effective approach of enterprise management and performance evaluation, Balanced Score Card (BSC) attracts more and more attentions and is studied more and more widely all over the world. It can also bring feasible ideas and technical approaches for studying the issue of the performance evaluation of the deployment or construction of early-warning aircraft which is the important component in early-warning detection system of systems (SoS). Therefore, the deep explored researches are carried out based on the previously research works. On the basis of the characteristics of space exploration and aerial detection effectiveness of early-warning detection SoS and the cardinal principle of BSC are analyzed simply, and the performance evaluation framework of the deployment or construction of early-warning aircraft is given, under this framework, aimed at the evaluation issue of aerial detection effectiveness of early-warning detection SoS with the cooperation efficiency factors of the early-warning aircraft and other land based radars, the evaluation indexes are further designed and the relative evaluation model is further established, especially the evaluation radar chart being also drawn to obtain the evaluation results from a direct sight angle. Finally, some practical computer simulations are launched to prove the validity and feasibility of the research thinking and technologic approaches which are proposed in the paper.

Recasting the warning-response problem

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Meyer, C.O.; Otto, F.; Brante, J.

2010-01-01

, accepted, prioritized and responded to by policy-makers. This has led to a simplistic understanding of how communicative, cognitive and political processes involving a range of actors can influence both the perception as well as the response to warnings. The paper also criticizes that many normative...... judgments about the desirability of preventive action are suffering from hindsight bias and insufficient attention to balancing problems related to risk substitution, opportunity costs and moral hazard. In response to these deficits, the paper puts forward a modified model of warning as a persuasive process...

78 FR 52166 - Quantitative Messaging Research

Science.gov (United States)

2013-08-22

... COMMODITY FUTURES TRADING COMMISSION Quantitative Messaging Research AGENCY: Commodity Futures... survey will follow qualitative message testing research (for which CFTC received fast-track OMB approval... message testing research (for which CFTC received fast-track OMB approval) and is necessary to identify...

Designing Fatigue Warning Systems: The perspective of professional drivers.

Science.gov (United States)

Meng, Fanxing; Li, Shuling; Cao, Lingzhi; Peng, Qijia; Li, Musen; Wang, Chunhui; Zhang, Wei

2016-03-01

Professional drivers have been characterized as experiencing heavy fatigue resulting from long driving time in their daily work. This study aimed to explore the potential demand of Fatigue Warning Systems (FWSs) among professional drivers as a means of reducing the danger of fatigue driving and to examine their opinions regarding the design of FWSs. Six focus groups with 35 participants and a questionnaire survey with 600 respondents were conducted among Chinese truck and taxi drivers to collect qualitative and quantitative data concerning the current situation of fatigue driving and opinions regarding the design of FWSs. The results revealed that both truck and taxi drivers had a positive attitude toward FWSs, and they hoped this system could not only monitor and warn them regarding their fatigue but also somewhat relieve their fatigue before they could stop and rest. As for warning signals, participants preferred auditory warnings, as opposed to visual, vibrotactile or electric stimuli. Interestingly, it was proposed that verbal warnings involving the information regarding consequences of fatigue driving or the wishes of drivers' family members would be more effective. Additionally, different warning patterns, including graded, single and continuous warnings, were discussed in the focus group. Finally, the participants proposed many other suggestions, as well as their concerns regarding FWSs, which will provide valuable information for companies who wish to develop FWSs for professional drivers. Copyright © 2015. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Effects of Text Messaging on Academic Performance

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Barks Amanda

2011-12-01

Full Text Available University students frequently send and receive cellular phone text messages during classroominstruction. Cognitive psychology research indicates that multi-tasking is frequently associatedwith performance cost. However, university students often have considerable experience withelectronic multi-tasking and may believe that they can devote necessary attention to a classroomlecture while sending and receiving text messages. In the current study, university students whoused text messaging were randomly assigned to one of two conditions: 1. a group that sent andreceived text messages during a lecture or, 2. a group that did not engage in text messagingduring the lecture. Participants who engaged in text messaging demonstrated significantlypoorer performance on a test covering lecture content compared with the group that did notsend and receive text messages. Participants exhibiting higher levels of text messaging skill hadsignificantly lower test scores than participants who were less proficient at text messaging. It ishypothesized that in terms of retention of lecture material, more frequent task shifting by thosewith greater text messaging proficiency contributed to poorer performance. Overall, the findingsdo not support the view, held by many university students, that this form of multitasking has littleeffect on the acquisition of lecture content. Results provide empirical support for teachers andprofessors who ban text messaging in the classroom.

Pictorial warnings on cigarette packets: Effectiveness and ...

African Journals Online (AJOL)

pictorial warnings and their ability to reduce the prevalence of cigarette smoking among youth in Egypt. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews with a sample of cigarette smokers, the research argues that various social, cultural, and economic factors constrain the effectiveness of pictorial warnings. A key finding is that ...

Lessons Learned about Best Practices for Communicating Earthquake Forecasting and Early Warning to Non-Scientific Publics

Science.gov (United States)

Sellnow, D. D.; Sellnow, T. L.

2017-12-01

Earthquake scientists are without doubt experts in understanding earthquake probabilities, magnitudes, and intensities, as well as the potential consequences of them to community infrastructures and inhabitants. One critical challenge these scientific experts face, however, rests with communicating what they know to the people they want to help. Helping scientists translate scientific information to non-scientists is something Drs. Tim and Deanna Sellnow have been committed to for decades. As such, they have compiled a host of data-driven best practices for communicating effectively to non-scientific publics about earthquake forecasting, probabilities, and warnings. In this session, they will summarize what they have learned as it may help earthquake scientists, emergency managers, and other key spokespersons share these important messages to disparate publics in ways that result in positive outcomes, the most important of which is saving lives.

The persuasive power of oral health promotion messages: a theory of planned behavior approach to dental checkups among young adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Anderson, Christina N; Noar, Seth M; Rogers, Brandi D

2013-01-01

Although routine dental checkups are important for both oral and overall health, several factors influence young adults' use or nonuse of dental services. The two studies included in this report tested the theory of reasoned action (TRA), the theory of planned behavior (TPB), and an expanded TPB model in predicting young adults' routine dental checkups. Additionally, the study tested the perceived message effectiveness of TPB-based messages. Results support the use of an expanded TPB model (particularly adding satisfaction with the dentist and environmental constraints to the traditional model) for an understanding of routine dental checkup intention and behavior, and, most notably, provide support for the use of subjective norm-based messages to prompt dental checkups. This study lays the groundwork for a health communication campaign encouraging routine dental checkups among young adults. The use of targeting and tailoring to design effective oral health media campaign messages is discussed.

Improving Type Error Messages in OCaml

OpenAIRE

Charguéraud , Arthur

2015-01-01

International audience; Cryptic type error messages are a major obstacle to learning OCaml or other ML-based languages. In many cases, error messages cannot be interpreted without a sufficiently-precise model of the type inference algorithm. The problem of improving type error messages in ML has received quite a bit of attention over the past two decades, and many different strategies have been considered. The challenge is not only to produce error messages that are both sufficiently concise ...

CMLOG: A common message logging system

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Chen, J.; Akers, W.; Bickley, M.; Wu, D.; Watson, W. III

1997-01-01

The Common Message Logging (CMLOG) system is an object-oriented and distributed system that not only allows applications and systems to log data (messages) of any type into a centralized database but also lets applications view incoming messages in real-time or retrieve stored data from the database according to selection rules. It consists of a concurrent Unix server that handles incoming logging or searching messages, a Motif browser that can view incoming messages in real-time or display stored data in the database, a client daemon that buffers and sends logging messages to the server, and libraries that can be used by applications to send data to or retrieve data from the database via the server. This paper presents the design and implementation of the CMLOG system meanwhile it will also address the issue of integration of CMLOG into existing control systems. CMLOG into existing control systems

A psychophysiological evaluation of the perceived urgency of auditory warning signals

Science.gov (United States)

Burt, J. L.; Bartolome, D. S.; Burdette, D. W.; Comstock, J. R. Jr

1995-01-01

One significant concern that pilots have about cockpit auditory warnings is that the signals presently used lack a sense of priority. The relationship between auditory warning sound parameters and perceived urgency is, therefore, an important topic of enquiry in aviation psychology. The present investigation examined the relationship among subjective assessments of urgency, reaction time, and brainwave activity with three auditory warning signals. Subjects performed a tracking task involving automated and manual conditions, and were presented with auditory warnings having various levels of perceived and situational urgency. Subjective assessments revealed that subjects were able to rank warnings on an urgency scale, but rankings were altered after warnings were mapped to a situational urgency scale. Reaction times differed between automated and manual tracking task conditions, and physiological data showed attentional differences in response to perceived and situational warning urgency levels. This study shows that the use of physiological measures sensitive to attention and arousal, in conjunction with behavioural and subjective measures, may lead to the design of auditory warnings that produce a sense of urgency in an operator that matches the urgency of the situation.

Prototype Rail Crossing Violation Warning Application Project Report.

Science.gov (United States)

2017-09-05

This report is the Project Report for the Rail Crossing Violation Warning (RCVW) safety application developed for the project on Rail Crossing Violation Warning Application and Infrastructure Connection, providing a means for equipped connected vehic...

Engineered cell-cell communication via DNA messaging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Ortiz Monica E

2012-09-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Evolution has selected for organisms that benefit from genetically encoded cell-cell communication. Engineers have begun to repurpose elements of natural communication systems to realize programmed pattern formation and coordinate other population-level behaviors. However, existing engineered systems rely on system-specific small molecules to send molecular messages among cells. Thus, the information transmission capacity of current engineered biological communication systems is physically limited by specific biomolecules that are capable of sending only a single message, typically “regulate transcription.” Results We have engineered a cell-cell communication platform using bacteriophage M13 gene products to autonomously package and deliver heterologous DNA messages of varying lengths and encoded functions. We demonstrate the decoupling of messages from a common communication channel via the autonomous transmission of various arbitrary genetic messages. Further, we increase the range of engineered DNA messaging across semisolid media by linking message transmission or receipt to active cellular chemotaxis. Conclusions We demonstrate decoupling of a communication channel from message transmission within engineered biological systems via the autonomous targeted transduction of user-specified heterologous DNA messages. We also demonstrate that bacteriophage M13 particle production and message transduction occurs among chemotactic bacteria. We use chemotaxis to improve the range of DNA messaging, increasing both transmission distance and communication bit rates relative to existing small molecule-based communication systems. We postulate that integration of different engineered cell-cell communication platforms will allow for more complex spatial programming of dynamic cellular consortia.

Hand hygiene posters: selling the message.

Science.gov (United States)

Jenner, E A; Jones, F; Fletcher, B C; Miller, L; Scott, G M

2005-02-01

This literature review was undertaken to determine the established theory and research that might be utilized to inform the construction of persuasive messages on hand hygiene posters. It discusses the principles of message framing and the use of fear appeals. Current theory suggests that the most effective messages for health promotion behaviours should be framed in terms of gains rather than losses for the individual. However, as clinical hand hygiene is largely for the benefit of others (i.e. patients), messages should also invoke a sense of personal responsibility and appeal to altruistic behaviour. The use of repeated minimal fear appeals have their place. Posters that simply convey training messages are not effective persuaders.

End points for validating early warning scores in the context of rapid response systems

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Pedersen, N. E.; Oestergaard, D.; Lippert, A.

2016-01-01

with optimal treatment. This could pose a limitation to studies using these end points. We studied current expert opinion on end points for validating tools for the identification of patients in hospital wards at risk of imminent critical illness. METHODS: The Delphi consensus methodology was used. We......INTRODUCTION: When investigating early warning scores and similar physiology-based risk stratification tools, death, cardiac arrest and intensive care unit admission are traditionally used as end points. A large proportion of the patients identified by these end points cannot be saved, even...

Paradoxical Effects of Warning in the Production of Children's False Memories

Science.gov (United States)

Del Prete, Francesco; Mirandola, Chiara; Konishi, Mahiko; Cornoldi, Cesare; Ghetti, Simona

2014-01-01

The effects of warning on false recognition and associated subjective experience of false recollection and familiarity were investigated in 7-to 13-year-old children and young adults (N = 259) using the Deese-Roediger-McDermott (DRM) paradigm. Two warning conditions (warning with an example of a critical lure and warning without an example of a…

What's in a message? Delivering sexual health promotion to young people in Australia via text messaging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Hellard Margaret E

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Abstract Background Advances in communication technologies have dramatically changed how individuals access information and communicate. Recent studies have found that mobile phone text messages (SMS can be used successfully for short-term behaviour change. However there is no published information examining the acceptability, utility and efficacy of different characteristics of health promotion SMS. This paper presents the results of evaluation focus groups among participants who received twelve sexual health related SMS as part of a study examining the impact of text messaging for sexual health promotion to on young people in Victoria, Australia. Methods Eight gender-segregated focus groups were held with 21 males and 22 females in August 2008. Transcripts of audio recordings were analysed using thematic analysis. Data were coded under one or more themes. Results Text messages were viewed as an acceptable and 'personal' means of health promotion, with participants particularly valuing the informal language. There was a preference for messages that were positive, relevant and short and for messages to cover a variety of topics. Participants were more likely to remember and share messages that were funny, rhymed and/or tied into particular annual events. The message broadcasting, generally fortnightly on Friday afternoons, was viewed as appropriate. Participants said the messages provided new information, a reminder of existing information and reduced apprehension about testing for sexually transmitted infections. Conclusions Mobile phones, in particular SMS, offer health promoters an exciting opportunity to engage personally with a huge number of individuals for low cost. The key elements emerging from this evaluation, such as message style, language and broadcast schedule are directly relevant to future studies using SMS for health promotion, as well as for future health promotion interventions in other mediums that require short formats, such

The message development tool: a case for effective operationalization of messaging in social marketing practice.

Science.gov (United States)

Mattson, Marifran; Basu, Ambar

2010-07-01

That messages are essential, if not the most critical component of any communicative process, seems like an obvious claim. More so when the communication is about health--one of the most vital and elemental of human experiences (Babrow & Mattson, 2003). Any communication campaign that aims to change a target audience's health behaviors needs to centralize messages. Even though messaging strategies are an essential component of social marketing and are a widely used campaign model, health campaigns based on this framework have not always been able to effectively operationalize this key component, leading to cases where initiating and sustaining prescribed health behavior has been difficult (MacStravic, 2000). Based on an examination of the VERB campaign and an Australian breastfeeding promotion campaign, we propose a message development tool within the ambit of the social marketing framework that aims to extend the framework and ensure that the messaging component of the model is contextualized at the core of planning, implementation, and evaluation efforts.

Design of vehicle intelligent anti-collision warning system

Science.gov (United States)

Xu, Yangyang; Wang, Ying

2018-05-01

This paper mainly designs a low cost, high-accuracy, micro-miniaturization, and digital display and acousto-optic alarm features of the vehicle intelligent anti-collision warning system that based on MCU AT89C51. The vehicle intelligent anti-collision warning system includes forward anti-collision warning system, auto parking systems and reversing anti-collision radar system. It mainly develops on the basis of ultrasonic distance measurement, its performance is reliable, thus the driving safety is greatly improved and the parking security and efficiency enhance enormously.

Investigating the impact of viral message appeal and message credibility on consumer attitude toward brand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Majid Esmaeilpour

2016-12-01

Full Text Available Background - Due to the rapid growth of the Internet and use of e-commerce in recent years, viral marketing has drawn the attention of manufacturing and service organizations. However, no research has been conducted to examine the impact of message appeal and message source credibility on consumers' attitude with mediating role of intellectual involvement of consumers and their risk taking level. Purpose - The aim of this study was to examine the impact of appeal and message source credibility on consumers’ attitude with mediating role of consumers’ intellectual involvement and their risk taking level. Design/methodology/approach – The population of this study includes consumers of mobile phones (Samsung, Sony, Nokia, LG and iPhone in Bushehr city (Iran. As the population of the study is unlimited, 430 questionnaires were distributed using available sampling method, and 391 questionnaires were collected and analyzed. Using structural equation modeling, data were analyzed through smart PLS software. Findings –The results show that the appeal and credibility of the message source have impact on consumer attitudes toward the brand. It was also found that intellectual involvement of consumers plays the mediating role in the relationship between message appeal and consumer attitudes toward brand. In the relationship between message source credibility and customer attitude towards the brand, the level of risk taking of people has no mediating role. Research limitations/implications – Data collection tool was questionnaire in this study, and questionnaire has some disadvantages that can affect the results. Additionally, this study was conducted in Bushehr city (Iran. Therefore, we should be cautious in generalizing the findings. Originality/value – In this study, the effect of message appeal and message source credibility on consumer attitude to brand was examined. The risk taking level of consumer and his involvement level were considered

Message exchange in the building industry

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Vries, de B.; Somers, L.J.A.M.

1995-01-01

A process model is described for exchanging information in the building industry. In this model participants send and receive messages. On receipt of a message an activity is executed if all required information is available. Otherwise a message will be sent to another participant to obtain the

Diabetes education via mobile text messaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Wangberg, Silje C; Arsand, Eirik; Andersson, Niklas

2006-01-01

Living with diabetes makes great educational demands on a family. We have tested the feasibility of using the mobile phone short message service (SMS) for reaching people with diabetes information. We also assessed user satisfaction and perceived pros and cons of the medium through interviews. Eleven parents of children with type 1 diabetes received messages for 11 weeks. The parents were positive about the system and said that they would like to continue to use it. The pop-up reminding effect of SMS messages in busy everyday life was noted as positive. Some parents experienced the messages as somewhat intrusive, arriving too often and at inconvenient times. The parents also noted the potential of the messages to facilitate communication with their adolescent children. The inability to store all of the messages or to print them out were seen as major disadvantages. Overall, the SMS seems to hold promise as means of delivering diabetes information.

Recent computer attacks via Instant Messaging

CERN Multimedia

IT Department

2008-01-01

Be cautious of any unexpected messages containing web links even if they appear to come from known contacts. If you happen to click on such a link and if your permission is requested to run or install software, always decline it. Several computers at CERN have recently been broken into by attackers who have tricked users of Instant Messaging applications (e.g. MSN, Yahoo Messenger, etc.) into clicking on web links which appeared to come from known contacts. The links appeared to be photos from ‘friends’ and requested software to be installed. In practice, attacker software was installed and the messages did not come from real contacts. In the past such fake messages were mainly sent by email but now a wider range of applications are being targeted, including Instant Messaging. Cybercriminals are making growing use of fake messages to try to trick you into clicking on Web links which will help them to install malicious software on your computer. Anti-virus software cann...

Auctioning Bulk Mobile Messages

NARCIS (Netherlands)

S. Meij (Simon); L-F. Pau (Louis-François); H.W.G.M. van Heck (Eric)

2003-01-01

textabstractThe search for enablers of continued growth of SMS traffic, as well as the take-off of the more diversified MMS message contents, open up for enterprises the potential of bulk use of mobile messaging , instead of essentially one-by-one use. In parallel, such enterprises or value added

Designing Skin Cancer Prevention Messages: Should We Emphasize Gains or Losses? Message Framing, Risk Type, and Prior Experience.

Science.gov (United States)

Lee, Moon J; Kang, Hannah

2018-05-01

To test whether message framing (ie, gain vs. loss) and risk type (ie, health vs appearance risk) in skin cancer prevention messages interact with one's prior experience. Two experiments with a 2 (message framing: gain vs loss) × 2 (risk type: health vs appearance risk) factorial design were conducted. The participants were given a URL to the experiment website via e-mail. On the first page of the website, the participants were told that they would be asked to evaluate a skin cancer print public service announcement (PSA): Online experiments. A total of 397 individuals participated (236 for experiment 1 and 161 for experiment 2). Apparatus: Four versions of the skin cancer print PSAs were developed. Four PSAs were identical except for the 2 manipulated components: message framing and risk type. Measures were adopted from Cho and Boster (message framing), Jones and Leary and Kiene et al. (risk type), De Vries, Mesters, van't Riet, Willems, and Reubsaet and Knight, Kirincich, Farmer, and Hood (prior experience), and Hammond, Fong, Zanna, Thrasher, and Borland and Hoffner and Ye (behavioral intent). General linear models were used to test hypotheses. Three-way interactions among message framing, risk type, and prior experience were found: When the intent of the message was to encourage sunscreen use, the effects of message framing and risk type were shown to be the exact opposite directions from when the intent was to discourage indoor/outdoor tanning. To discourage tanning among those with prior experience, messages emphasizing losses in terms of one's health will work better. For those with no prior experience, messages emphasizing potential appearance losses will work better for discouraging tanning while messages emphasizing gains like improving appearance will do a better job in encouraging sunscreen use.

Warnings to Counter Choice Blindness for Identification Decisions: Warnings Offer an Advantage in Time but Not in Rate of Detection

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Anna Sagana

2018-06-01

Full Text Available Choice blindness for identification decisions refers to the inability of eyewitnesses to detect that an originally recognized target was swapped for a non-identified lineup member. The robustness of the effect calls for measures that can prevent or reduce the negative consequences of choice blindness manipulations. Here, we investigated whether pre- and post-warnings given to participants about the possibility of mistakes reduces choice blindness for identification decisions. Participants (N = 119 were presented with identifications they never made and were asked to justify those decisions. Either before or after the presentation of the manipulated identification outcome, participants were or were not warned about the possibility of mistakes in the identification process. Although warnings were not sufficient to reduce choice blindness for identification decisions they provided a time-related detection advantage. Pre-warned participants questioned the legitimacy of the manipulated outcome sooner (i.e., concurrent detection than participants in other conditions. Hence, pre-warnings can help detect mistakes in the identification procedure at an earlier stage, before they contaminate the memory of the witness and other pieces of evidence. From a theoretical stance, our findings attest to the strength of self-suggestion and indicate that choice blindness effects are deeply rooted in cognition.

Popular Mobilization Messaging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

James Garrison

2017-04-01

Full Text Available This Research Paper examines the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Unit’s (PMU messaging on the organisation’s website and social media platforms through early January 2017 to develop a more nuanced understanding of the PMU’s outlook, both present and future. After providing an overview of the PMU’s media presence online, the paper discusses how the organisation promotes its core narrative: that it is a cross-confessional and patriotic force for the defence of all Iraqis against a brutal and evil IS. The paper then addresses the PMU’s use of messaging to refute the sectarian portrayal of the organisation in some quarters before turning to the way the PMU approaches regional and international states in its media. Finally, the paper summarises the PMU’s messaging strategy and discusses how this strategy implies a less threatening future for the organisation than is often anticipated.

Using warnings to reduce categorical false memories in younger and older adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Carmichael, Anna M; Gutchess, Angela H

2016-07-01

Warnings about memory errors can reduce their incidence, although past work has largely focused on associative memory errors. The current study sought to explore whether warnings could be tailored to specifically reduce false recall of categorical information in both younger and older populations. Before encoding word pairs designed to induce categorical false memories, half of the younger and older participants were warned to avoid committing these types of memory errors. Older adults who received a warning committed fewer categorical memory errors, as well as other types of semantic memory errors, than those who did not receive a warning. In contrast, young adults' memory errors did not differ for the warning versus no-warning groups. Our findings provide evidence for the effectiveness of warnings at reducing categorical memory errors in older adults, perhaps by supporting source monitoring, reduction in reliance on gist traces, or through effective metacognitive strategies.

The Trend of Voluntary Warnings in Electronic Nicotine Delivery System Magazine Advertisements

OpenAIRE

Shang, Ce; Chaloupka, Frank J.

2017-01-01

Some manufacturers of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) voluntarily carried health warnings in their advertisements. This study examined these voluntary warnings in magazine ads and plotted their trends between 2012 and early 2015. ENDS magazine ads were obtained through Kantar media and warnings were collected from the Chicago Public Library or the Trinkets and Trash surveillance system. The prevalence of voluntary warnings, warnings with the specific capitalized word “WARNING”, an...

Effects of Exergaming and Message Framing in School Environments on Physical Activity Attitudes and Intentions of Children and Adolescents.

Science.gov (United States)

Lwin, May O; Ho, Shirley S; Younbo, Jung; Leng, Theng Yin; Wardoyo, Reidinar J; Jung, Kim Hyo

2016-09-01

Although interventions targeting the health of students in schools are becoming common, few studies have examined how health messages operate at the group level in school environments. This study examines the effects of message-based health interventions (extrinsic vs. intrinsic goal framing) in group environments (exergame competitive vs. exergame noncompetitive) on eliciting attitudes and intentions toward physical activity among children and adolescents. We conducted a 7-week school-based intervention program involving 336 children and 259 adolescents in Singapore in which pre- and post-intervention responses were recorded. Our findings revealed the difference in responses between child and adolescent groups. Children who participated in noncompetitive exergames with extrinsically framed health messages and those who participated in competitive exergames with intrinsically framed health messages demonstrated more favorable attitudes toward physical activity. However, the same effects were absent in our adolescent group. These findings suggest that the integration of exergames into competitive and noncompetitive environments can serve as a gateway to traditional physical activity in schools when strategically combined with intrinsically and extrinsically framed messages. Practical and theoretical implications for schools and health educators are discussed.

Effects of ethnic targeting on the perceived effectiveness of cancer prevention messages among latinas and non-latina white women.

Science.gov (United States)

Ramírez, A Susana

2013-01-01

In general, efforts to target Latinos are made through Spanish-language messages, yet 75% of U.S. Latinos are bilingual or English dominant. Acculturation (adapting mainstream traits) is associated with increased lifestyle-related risk behaviors. Latinos maintain cultural traits and ethnic identification even as they appear to acculturate (e.g., through language). This raises questions about how to communicate health information to more-acculturated Latinos who are not reached by traditional Spanish outreach yet may not identify with general-market messages. This study tested the relative efficacy of English-language messages targeted to Latinas, compared with general-market messages, among highly acculturated Latina women and non-Latina White women. In this pair of online experiments, Latinas (n = 715) and non-Latina White women (n = 704) rated the perceived effectiveness of general-market versus Latina-targeted Pap smear and mammogram public service announcements. In 1 of 2 experiments ethnically targeted messages were rated relatively more effective for the intended audience and equally effective for the general audience. The author discusses implications for how campaigns reach U.S. Latinos across the acculturation spectrum.

Hooked on a feeling: Affective anti-smoking messages are more effective than cognitive messages at changing implicit evaluations of smoking

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Colin Tucker Smith

2015-10-01

Full Text Available Because implicit evaluations are thought to underlie many aspects of behavior, researchers have started looking for ways to change them. We examine whether and when persuasive messages alter strongly-held implicit evaluations of smoking. In smokers, an affective anti-smoking message led to more negative implicit evaluations on four different implicit measures as compared to a cognitive anti-smoking message which seemed to backfire. Additional analyses suggested that the observed effects were mediated by the feelings and emotions raised by the messages. In non-smokers, both the affective and cognitive message engendered slightly more negative implicit evaluations. We conclude that persuasive messages change implicit evaluations in a way that depends on properties of the message and of the participant. Thus, our data open new avenues for research directed at tailoring persuasive messages to change implicit evaluations.

Hooked on a feeling: affective anti-smoking messages are more effective than cognitive messages at changing implicit evaluations of smoking.

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Colin Tucker; De Houwer, Jan

2015-01-01

Because implicit evaluations are thought to underlie many aspects of behavior, researchers have started looking for ways to change them. We examine whether and when persuasive messages alter strongly held implicit evaluations of smoking. In smokers, an affective anti-smoking message led to more negative implicit evaluations on four different implicit measures as compared to a cognitive anti-smoking message which seemed to backfire. Additional analyses suggested that the observed effects were mediated by the feelings and emotions raised by the messages. In non-smokers, both the affective and cognitive message engendered slightly more negative implicit evaluations. We conclude that persuasive messages change implicit evaluations in a way that depends on properties of the message and of the participant. Thus, our data open new avenues for research directed at tailoring persuasive messages to change implicit evaluations.

How is communication of vaccines in traditional media: a systematic review.

Science.gov (United States)

Catalan-Matamoros, Daniel; Peñafiel-Saiz, Carmen

2018-06-01

Taking into account that a key determinant in public approval of vaccinations is how the media constructs and frames messages about vaccination programmes, our aim is to review communication studies exploring media coverage of vaccines within traditional media venues. Using a registered protocol (PROSPERO: 42017072849), a systematic review was conducted that searched in three international electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, and the International Bibliography of Social Science) for articles published between 2007 and 2017 following content-analysis methods. The characteristics and outcomes were systematically identified and described. The search yielded 24 eligible studies that were further analysed in the review. Media coverage of vaccines has been largely studied during the last decade. Findings revealed that 62% ( n = 15) of studies analysed the human papillomavirus vaccine, 87% ( n = 21) examined newspapers, and 62% ( n = 15) examined North American media. In relation to media content analyses, 75% found negative messages on vaccines and 83% identified a lack of accurate information. This systematic review suggests an agenda for further research. There is a significant need to analyse other types of traditional media beyond newspapers. Future studies should focus on other geographical areas such as low-income countries and on analysing visual materials and digital media. We found that negative messages and inaccurate information are common in media coverage on vaccines; therefore, further research focusing on these topics is needed. Officials in public health organizations should develop a close collaboration with the media to improve public communication on vaccines.

Health in arts: are arts settings better than sports settings for promoting anti-smoking messages?

Science.gov (United States)

Davies, Christina; Knuiman, Matthew; Pikora, Terri; Rosenberg, Michael

2015-05-01

Tobacco smoking is a leading cause of preventable mortality and morbidity. Since 1991, the Western Australian Health Promotion Foundation (Healthway) has sponsored the arts and sport in exchange for cigarette smoke-free events, smoke-free policies and the promotion of anti-smoking messages (e.g. Quit, Smoke Free or Smarter than Smoking). As health promoters often look for innovative and effective settings to advocate health, and as the approach of sponsoring the arts to promote health to the general population is uncommon, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of 'health in arts' by measuring the cognitive impact (message awareness, comprehension, acceptance and intention) of promoting anti-smoking messages at arts events, and comparing findings to sports events, a more traditional health promotion setting. A secondary analysis of the 2004-2009 Healthway Sponsorship Monitor data was conducted. A total of 12 arts events (n = 592 respondents) and 9 sports events (n = 420 respondents) sponsored by Healthway to promote an anti-smoking message were evaluated. The study was cross-sectional in design. Participants were residents of Western Australia aged 15 years or above and attended events as part of an audience or as a spectator. Descriptive and regression analyses were conducted. After adjustment for demographic variables, smoking status and clustering, arts events were found to be as effective in promoting anti-smoking message awareness, comprehension and acceptance and twice as effective on intention to act (p = .03) compared with sports events. This study provides evidence of the effectiveness of arts sponsorship to promote health to the general population, that is, health in arts. Promoting an anti-smoking message in arts settings was as, or more, effective than in sports settings. Results suggest that the arts should be utilised to communicate and reinforce anti-smoking messages to the general population. The suitability of the arts to

Nonblocking and orphan free message logging protocols

Science.gov (United States)

Alvisi, Lorenzo; Hoppe, Bruce; Marzullo, Keith

1992-12-01

Currently existing message logging protocols demonstrate a classic pessimistic vs. optimistic tradeoff. We show that the optimistic-pessimistic tradeoff is not inherent to the problem of message logging. We construct a message-logging protocol that has the positive features of both optimistic and pessimistic protocol: our protocol prevents orphans and allows simple failure recovery; however, it requires no blocking in failure-free runs. Furthermore, this protocol does not introduce any additional message overhead as compared to one implemented for a system in which messages may be lost but processes do not crash.

Cigarette warning label policy alternatives and smoking-related health disparities.

Science.gov (United States)

Thrasher, James F; Carpenter, Matthew J; Andrews, Jeannette O; Gray, Kevin M; Alberg, Anthony J; Navarro, Ashley; Friedman, Daniela B; Cummings, K Michael

2012-12-01

Pictorial health warning labels on cigarette packaging have been proposed for the U.S., but their potential influences among populations that suffer tobacco-related health disparities are unknown. To evaluate pictorial health warning labels, including moderation of their influences by health literacy and race. From July 2011 to January 2012, field experiments were conducted with 981 adult smokers who were randomized to control (i.e., text-only labels, n=207) and experimental conditions (i.e., pictorial labels, n=774). The experimental condition systematically varied health warning label stimuli by health topic and image type. Linear mixed effects (LME) models estimated the influence of health warning label characteristics and participant characteristics on label ratings. Data were analyzed from January 2012 to April 2012. Compared to text-only warning labels, pictorial warning labels were rated as more personally relevant (5.7 vs 6.8, pinteractions indicated that labels with graphic imagery produced minimal differences in ratings across racial groups and levels of health literacy, whereas other imagery produced greater group differences. Pictorial health warning labels with graphic images have the most-pronounced short-term impacts on adult smokers, including smokers from groups that have in the past been hard to reach. Copyright © 2012 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Predictors for the Number of Warning Information Sources During Tornadoes.

Science.gov (United States)

Cong, Zhen; Luo, Jianjun; Liang, Daan; Nejat, Ali

2017-04-01

People may receive tornado warnings from multiple information sources, but little is known about factors that affect the number of warning information sources (WISs). This study examined predictors for the number of WISs with a telephone survey on randomly sampled residents in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and Joplin, Missouri, approximately 1 year after both cities were struck by violent tornadoes (EF4 and EF5) in 2011. The survey included 1006 finished interviews and the working sample included 903 respondents. Poisson regression and Zero-Inflated Poisson regression showed that older age and having an emergency plan predicted more WISs in both cities. Education, marital status, and gender affected the possibilities of receiving warnings and the number of WISs either in Joplin or in Tuscaloosa. The findings suggest that social disparity affects the access to warnings not only with respect to the likelihood of receiving any warnings but also with respect to the number of WISs. In addition, historical and social contexts are important for examining predictors for the number of WISs. We recommend that the number of WISs should be regarded as an important measure to evaluate access to warnings in addition to the likelihood of receiving warnings. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2017;11:168-172).

Trigger Warnings as Respect for Student Boundaries in University Classrooms

Science.gov (United States)

Spencer, Leland G.; Kulbaga, Theresa A.

2018-01-01

The fierce public and scholarly debate over trigger warnings in university classrooms has often characterized the issue as one of academic freedom and ignored the social justice arguments for trigger warnings. In this essay, we argue that trigger warnings expand academic speech by engaging students more fully in their own learning. Specifically,…

Citizen Science to Support Community-based Flood Early Warning and Resilience Building

Science.gov (United States)

Paul, J. D.; Buytaert, W.; Allen, S.; Ballesteros-Cánovas, J. A.; Bhusal, J.; Cieslik, K.; Clark, J.; Dewulf, A.; Dhital, M. R.; Hannah, D. M.; Liu, W.; Nayaval, J. L.; Schiller, A.; Smith, P. J.; Stoffel, M.; Supper, R.

2017-12-01

In Disaster Risk Management, an emerging shift has been noted from broad-scale, top-down assessments towards more participatory, community-based, bottom-up approaches. Combined with technologies for robust and low-cost sensor networks, a citizen science approach has recently emerged as a promising direction in the provision of extensive, real-time information for flood early warning systems. Here we present the framework and initial results of a major new international project, Landslide EVO, aimed at increasing local resilience against hydrologically induced disasters in western Nepal by exploiting participatory approaches to knowledge generation and risk governance. We identify three major technological developments that strongly support our approach to flood early warning and resilience building in Nepal. First, distributed sensor networks, participatory monitoring, and citizen science hold great promise in complementing official monitoring networks and remote sensing by generating site-specific information with local buy-in, especially in data-scarce regions. Secondly, the emergence of open source, cloud-based risk analysis platforms supports the construction of a modular, distributed, and potentially decentralised data processing workflow. Finally, linking data analysis platforms to social computer networks and ICT (e.g. mobile phones, tablets) allows tailored interfaces and people-centred decision- and policy-support systems to be built. Our proposition is that maximum impact is created if end-users are involved not only in data collection, but also over the entire project life-cycle, including the analysis and provision of results. In this context, citizen science complements more traditional knowledge generation practices, and also enhances multi-directional information provision, risk management, early-warning systems and local resilience building.

Verbal collision avoidance messages during simulated driving: perceived urgency, alerting effectiveness and annoyance.

Science.gov (United States)

Baldwin, Carryl L

2011-04-01

Matching the perceived urgency of an alert with the relative hazard level of the situation is critical for effective alarm response. Two experiments describe the impact of acoustic and semantic parameters on ratings of perceived urgency, annoyance and alerting effectiveness and on alarm response speed. Within a simulated driving context, participants rated and responded to collision avoidance system (CAS) messages spoken by a female or male voice (experiments 1 and 2, respectively). Results indicated greater perceived urgency and faster alarm response times as intensity increased from -2 dB signal to noise (S/N) ratio to +10 dB S/N, although annoyance ratings increased as well. CAS semantic content interacted with alarm intensity, indicating that at lower intensity levels participants paid more attention to the semantic content. Results indicate that both acoustic and semantic parameters independently and interactively impact CAS alert perceptions in divided attention conditions and this work can inform auditory alarm design for effective hazard matching. Matching the perceived urgency of an alert with the relative hazard level of the situation is critical for effective alarm response. Here, both acoustic and semantic parameters independently and interactively impacted CAS alert perceptions in divided attention conditions. This work can inform auditory alarm design for effective hazard matching. STATEMENT OF RELEVANCE: Results indicate that both acoustic parameters and semantic content can be used to design collision warnings with a range of urgency levels. Further, these results indicate that verbal warnings tailored to a specific hazard situation may improve hazard-matching capabilities without substantial trade-offs in perceived annoyance.

Analysis of twitter users' sharing of official new york storm response messages.

Science.gov (United States)

Genes, Nicholas; Chary, Michael; Chason, Kevin

2014-01-01

tweets was similar (2.25-2.49) and well below the average for non-official tweets mentioning #sandy and #nyc (3.82). Most official tweets were with substantial retweets including a link for further reading. Of the 448 tweets analyzed from six official city and state Twitter accounts from the Nemo blizzard, 271 were related to the storm, and 174 had actionable information for the public. Actionable storm messages were retweeted approximately 24x per message, compared to 31x per message for general storm information. During two weather emergencies, New York public officials were able to convey storm-related information that was shared widely beyond existing follower bases, potentially improving situational awareness and disaster response. Official Sandy tweets, characterized by a lower lexical diversity score than other city- and Sandy-related tweets, were likely easier to understand, and often linked to further information and resources. Actionable information in the Nemo blizzard, such as specific instructions and cancellation notices, was not shared as often as more general warnings and "fun facts," suggesting agencies mix important instructions with more general news and trivia, as a way of reaching the broadest audience during a disaster.

Message Scheduling and Forwarding in Congested DTNs

KAUST Repository

Elwhishi, Ahmed; Ho, Pin-Han; Shihada, Basem

2012-01-01

Multi-copy utility-based routing has been considered as one of the most applicable approaches to effective message delivery in Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs). By allowing multiple message replicas launched, the ratio of message delivery or delay can be significantly reduced compared with other counterparts. Such an advantage, nonetheless, is at the expense of taking more buffer space at each node and higher complexity in message forwarding decisions. This paper investigates an efficient message scheduling and dropping policy via analytical modeling approach, aiming to achieve optimal performance in terms of message delivery delay. Extensive simulation results, based on a synthetic mobility model and real mobility traces, show that the proposed scheduling framework can achieve superb performance against its counterparts in terms of delivery delay.

Message Scheduling and Forwarding in Congested DTNs

KAUST Repository

Elwhishi, Ahmed

2012-08-19

Multi-copy utility-based routing has been considered as one of the most applicable approaches to effective message delivery in Delay Tolerant Networks (DTNs). By allowing multiple message replicas launched, the ratio of message delivery or delay can be significantly reduced compared with other counterparts. Such an advantage, nonetheless, is at the expense of taking more buffer space at each node and higher complexity in message forwarding decisions. This paper investigates an efficient message scheduling and dropping policy via analytical modeling approach, aiming to achieve optimal performance in terms of message delivery delay. Extensive simulation results, based on a synthetic mobility model and real mobility traces, show that the proposed scheduling framework can achieve superb performance against its counterparts in terms of delivery delay.

Filtering big data from social media--Building an early warning system for adverse drug reactions.

Science.gov (United States)

Yang, Ming; Kiang, Melody; Shang, Wei

2015-04-01

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are believed to be a leading cause of death in the world. Pharmacovigilance systems are aimed at early detection of ADRs. With the popularity of social media, Web forums and discussion boards become important sources of data for consumers to share their drug use experience, as a result may provide useful information on drugs and their adverse reactions. In this study, we propose an automated ADR related posts filtering mechanism using text classification methods. In real-life settings, ADR related messages are highly distributed in social media, while non-ADR related messages are unspecific and topically diverse. It is expensive to manually label a large amount of ADR related messages (positive examples) and non-ADR related messages (negative examples) to train classification systems. To mitigate this challenge, we examine the use of a partially supervised learning classification method to automate the process. We propose a novel pharmacovigilance system leveraging a Latent Dirichlet Allocation modeling module and a partially supervised classification approach. We select drugs with more than 500 threads of discussion, and collect all the original posts and comments of these drugs using an automatic Web spidering program as the text corpus. Various classifiers were trained by varying the number of positive examples and the number of topics. The trained classifiers were applied to 3000 posts published over 60 days. Top-ranked posts from each classifier were pooled and the resulting set of 300 posts was reviewed by a domain expert to evaluate the classifiers. Compare to the alternative approaches using supervised learning methods and three general purpose partially supervised learning methods, our approach performs significantly better in terms of precision, recall, and the F measure (the harmonic mean of precision and recall), based on a computational experiment using online discussion threads from Medhelp. Our design provides

Earthquake Early Warning: New Strategies for Seismic Hardware

Science.gov (United States)

Allardice, S.; Hill, P.

2017-12-01

Implementing Earthquake Early Warning System (EEWS) triggering algorithms into seismic networks has been a hot topic of discussion for some years now. With digitizer technology now available, such as the Güralp Minimus, with on average 40-60ms delay time (latency) from earthquake origin to issuing an alert the next step is to provide network operators with a simple interface for on board parameter calculations from a seismic station. A voting mechanism is implemented on board which mitigates the risk of false positives being communicated. Each Minimus can be configured to with a `score' from various sources i.e. Z channel on seismometer, N/S E/W channels on accelerometer and MEMS inside Minimus. If the score exceeds the set threshold then an alert is sent to the `Master Minimus'. The Master Minimus within the network will also be configured as to when the alert should be issued i.e. at least 3 stations must have triggered. Industry standard algorithms focus around the calculation of Peak Ground Acceleration (PGA), Peak Ground Velocity (PGV), Peak Ground Displacement (PGD) and C. Calculating these single station parameters on-board in order to stream only the results could help network operators with possible issues, such as restricted bandwidth. Developments on the Minimus allow these parameters to be calculated and distributed through Common Alert Protocol (CAP). CAP is the XML based data format used for exchanging and describing public warnings and emergencies. Whenever the trigger conditions are met the Minimus can send a signed UDP packet to the configured CAP receiver which can then send the alert via SMS, e-mail or CAP forwarding. Increasing network redundancy is also a consideration when developing these features, therefore the forwarding CAP message can be sent to multiple destinations. This allows for a hierarchical approach by which the single station (or network) parameters can be streamed to another Minimus, or data centre, or both, so that there is no

Does perceived risk influence the effects of message framing? Revisiting the link between prospect theory and message framing

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Riet, J.P. van 't; Cox, A.D.; Cox, D.; Zimet, G.D.; Bruijn, G.J. de; Putte, B. van den; Vries, H. de; Werrij, M.Q.; Ruiter, R.A.C.

2016-01-01

Health-promoting messages can be framed in terms of the beneficial consequences of healthy behaviour (gain-framed messages) or the detrimental consequences of unhealthy behaviour (loss-framed messages). An influential notion holds that the perceived risk associated with the recommended behaviour

Unveiling the truth: warnings reduce the repetition-based truth effect.

Science.gov (United States)

Nadarevic, Lena; Aßfalg, André

2017-07-01

Typically, people are more likely to consider a previously seen or heard statement as true compared to a novel statement. This repetition-based "truth effect" is thought to rely on fluency-truth attributions as the underlying cognitive mechanism. In two experiments, we tested the nature of the fluency-attribution mechanism by means of warning instructions, which informed participants about the truth effect and asked them to prevent it. In Experiment 1, we instructed warned participants to consider whether a statement had already been presented in the experiment to avoid the truth effect. However, warnings did not significantly reduce the truth effect. In Experiment 2, we introduced control questions and reminders to ensure that participants understood the warning instruction. This time, warning reduced, but did not eliminate the truth effect. Assuming that the truth effect relies on fluency-truth attributions, this finding suggests that warned participants could control their attributions but did not disregard fluency altogether when making truth judgments. Further, we found no evidence that participants overdiscount the influence of fluency on their truth judgments.

The Message Reporting System of the ATLAS DAQ System

CERN Document Server

Caprini, M; Kolos, S; 10th ICATPP Conference on Astroparticle, Particle, Space Physics, Detectors and Medical Physics Applications

2008-01-01

The Message Reporting System (MRS) in the ATLAS data acquisition system (DAQ) is one package of the Online Software which acts as a glue of various elements of DAQ, High Level Trigger (HLT) and Detector Control System (DCS). The aim of the MRS is to provide a facility which allows all software components in ATLAS to report messages to other components of the distributed DAQ system. The processes requiring a MRS are on one hand applications that report error conditions or information and on the other hand message processors that receive reported messages. A message reporting application can inject one or more messages into the MRS at any time. An application wishing to receive messages can subscribe to a message group according to defined criteria. The application receives messages that fulfill the subscription criteria when they are reported to MRS. The receiver message processing can consist of anything from simply logging the messages in a file/terminal to performing message analysis. The inter-process comm...

Multimodal warnings to enhance risk communication and safety

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Haas, E.C.; Erp, J.B.F. van

2014-01-01

Multimodal warnings incorporate audio and/or skin-based (tactile) cues to supplement or replace visual cues in environments where the user’s visual perception is busy, impaired, or nonexistent. This paper describes characteristics of audio, tactile, and multimodal warning displays and their role in

Design and evaluation of warning systems: application to nuclear power plants

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Pe Benito-Claudio, C.

1986-01-01

This study starts by defining and explaining key concepts about warning, both as a process and a system. Thereafter, it presents a quantitative, probabilistic, and decision-oriented methodology for designing and evaluating a warning system. It illustrates the methodology for the case of rare, controllable, and potentially disastrous technological events, such as accidents in nuclear power plants. The methodology covers and links the three principal components of a warning system - signal (which is mainly technical), warning dissemination, and warning response (which are mainly social) - thereby allowing the relative evaluation of technological and social measures for reducing risks. Analytical principles and techniques of risk and decision analyses are applied. It defines a probabilistic performance measure to characterize each component of a warning system, and a value measure to assess the overall effectiveness of the system. An important aspect of this work is the integration, into one analytical model, of the results of engineering studies, such as probabilistic risk assessments of nuclear power plants, and of empirical findings on human response to warning in sociological research. The models, calculations, and sensitivity analyses are done with influence diagrams that are both intuitive and mathematical. This work puts particular emphasis on the study of behavioral response of individuals to warning

CISN ShakeAlert: Faster Warning Information Through Multiple Threshold Event Detection in the Virtual Seismologist (VS) Early Warning Algorithm

Science.gov (United States)

Cua, G. B.; Fischer, M.; Caprio, M.; Heaton, T. H.; Cisn Earthquake Early Warning Project Team

2010-12-01

The Virtual Seismologist (VS) earthquake early warning (EEW) algorithm is one of 3 EEW approaches being incorporated into the California Integrated Seismic Network (CISN) ShakeAlert system, a prototype EEW system that could potentially be implemented in California. The VS algorithm, implemented by the Swiss Seismological Service at ETH Zurich, is a Bayesian approach to EEW, wherein the most probable source estimate at any given time is a combination of contributions from a likehihood function that evolves in response to incoming data from the on-going earthquake, and selected prior information, which can include factors such as network topology, the Gutenberg-Richter relationship or previously observed seismicity. The VS codes have been running in real-time at the Southern California Seismic Network since July 2008, and at the Northern California Seismic Network since February 2009. We discuss recent enhancements to the VS EEW algorithm that are being integrated into CISN ShakeAlert. We developed and continue to test a multiple-threshold event detection scheme, which uses different association / location approaches depending on the peak amplitudes associated with an incoming P pick. With this scheme, an event with sufficiently high initial amplitudes can be declared on the basis of a single station, maximizing warning times for damaging events for which EEW is most relevant. Smaller, non-damaging events, which will have lower initial amplitudes, will require more picks to initiate an event declaration, with the goal of reducing false alarms. This transforms the VS codes from a regional EEW approach reliant on traditional location estimation (and the requirement of at least 4 picks as implemented by the Binder Earthworm phase associator) into an on-site/regional approach capable of providing a continuously evolving stream of EEW information starting from the first P-detection. Real-time and offline analysis on Swiss and California waveform datasets indicate that the

Verification of warnings at the Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Croatia

Science.gov (United States)

Kalin, Lovro

2017-04-01

The role of national meteorological services is increasingly related to warnings. This is particularly stressed due to more frequent extreme events and severe weather. At the Meteorological and Hydrological Service of Croatia various warnings products are introduced, from Civil protection service and MeteoAlarm to different specialized products, such as heat spells, cold spells, forest fire warnings, etc. Verification of warnings is a relatively new field, with spurious methods and diverse data. Still, various results of warnings will be presented in this paper, mostly through contingency tables and related verification scores. These results provide an insight to the forecast system, it's properties and give a good feed-back to the forecasters.

Required warnings for cigarette packages and advertisements. Final rule.

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-22

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is amending its regulations to add a new requirement for the display of health warnings on cigarette packages and in cigarette advertisements. This rule implements a provision of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) that requires FDA to issue regulations requiring color graphics, depicting the negative health consequences of smoking, to accompany the nine new textual warning statements required under the Tobacco Control Act. The Tobacco Control Act amends the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (FCLAA) to require each cigarette package and advertisement to bear one of nine new textual warning statements. This final rule specifies the color graphic images that must accompany each of the nine new textual warning statements.

Number of warning information sources and decision making during tornadoes.

Science.gov (United States)

Luo, Jianjun; Cong, Zhen; Liang, Daan

2015-03-01

Taking proper protective action upon receiving tornado warnings is critical to reducing casualties. With more warning information sources becoming available, how the number of such information sources affects decision making should be quantitatively investigated. To examine how the number of warning information sources affected individuals' decisions to take protective action during tornadoes. A telephone survey using random sampling was conducted in 2012 with residents in Tuscaloosa AL and Joplin MO, resulting in a working sample of 782 respondents. Both cities were struck by violent tornadoes (Enhanced Fujita Scale [EF]4 and EF5) in 2011. The analysis was conducted in 2013. Logistic regression analysis showed that relative to having only one warning information source, having two and three or more warning information sources significantly increased the odds of taking protective action in Joplin but not in Tuscaloosa; having three or more sources had a significantly stronger effect on taking protective action in Joplin than in Tuscaloosa. Having an emergency preparation plan in both cities and being white in Tuscaloosa significantly increased the odds of taking protective action, whereas being divorced in Joplin reduced these odds. Receiving warnings from more warning information sources might be more beneficial in places with less previous exposure to tornadoes and for populations with lower awareness of a potential tornado and higher probability of receiving no warnings. Emergency management agencies and public health officials should give priority to these places and populations when formulating disaster mitigation decisions and policies. Copyright © 2015 American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Alcohol Warning Label Awareness and Attention: A Multi-method Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Pham, Cuong; Rundle-Thiele, Sharyn; Parkinson, Joy; Li, Shanshi

2018-01-01

Evaluation of alcohol warning labels requires careful consideration ensuring that research captures more than awareness given that labels may not be prominent enough to attract attention. This study investigates attention of current in market alcohol warning labels and examines whether attention can be enhanced through theoretically informed design. Attention scores obtained through self-report methods are compared to objective measures (eye-tracking). A multi-method experimental design was used delivering four conditions, namely control, colour, size and colour and size. The first study (n = 559) involved a self-report survey to measure attention. The second study (n = 87) utilized eye-tracking to measure fixation count and duration and time to first fixation. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was utilized. Eye-tracking identified that 60% of participants looked at the current in market alcohol warning label while 81% looked at the optimized design (larger and red). In line with observed attention self-reported attention increased for the optimized design. The current study casts doubt on dominant practices (largely self-report), which have been used to evaluate alcohol warning labels. Awareness cannot be used to assess warning label effectiveness in isolation in cases where attention does not occur 100% of the time. Mixed methods permit objective data collection methodologies to be triangulated with surveys to assess warning label effectiveness. Attention should be incorporated as a measure in warning label effectiveness evaluations. Colour and size changes to the existing Australian warning labels aided by theoretically informed design increased attention. © The Author 2017. Medical Council on Alcohol and Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.

Hand hygiene posters: motivators or mixed messages?

Science.gov (United States)

Jenner, E A; Jones, F; Fletcher, B C; Miller, L; Scott, G M

2005-07-01

Poster campaigns regarding hand hygiene are commonly used by infection control teams to improve practice, yet little is known of the extent to which they are based on established theory or research. This study reports on the content analysis of hand hygiene posters (N=69) and their messages (N=75) using message-framing theory. The results showed that posters seldom drew on knowledge about effective ways to frame messages. Frequently, they simply conveyed information 'telling' rather than 'selling' and some of this was confusing. Most posters were not designed to motivate, and some conveyed mixed messages. Few used fear appeals. Hand hygiene posters could have a greater impact if principles of message framing were utilized in their design. Suggestions for gain-framed messages are offered, but these need to be tested empirically.

Model-based development and testing of advertising messages: A comparative study of two campaign proposals based on the MECCAS model and a conventional approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bech-Larsen, Tino

theoretically valid and comprehensible guidelines for message development potentially enhances the effects of advertising messages and improves the possibility of measuring such effects. Moreover, such guidelines also have potential implications for the managerial communication processes (client......1. Traditionally the development of advertising messages has been based on "creative independence", sometimes catalysed by inductively generated empirical data. Due to the recent intensified focus on advertising effectiveness, this state of affair is now beginning to change. 2. Implementing......-agency and intra-agency) involved in the development of advertising messages. 3. The purpose of the study described in this paper is to compare the development and effects of two campaign proposals, with the common aim of increasing the consumption of apples among young Danes (18 to 35 years of age). One...

Preventing messaging queue deadlocks in a DMA environment

Science.gov (United States)

Blocksome, Michael A; Chen, Dong; Gooding, Thomas; Heidelberger, Philip; Parker, Jeff

2014-01-14

Embodiments of the invention may be used to manage message queues in a parallel computing environment to prevent message queue deadlock. A direct memory access controller of a compute node may determine when a messaging queue is full. In response, the DMA may generate and interrupt. An interrupt handler may stop the DMA and swap all descriptors from the full messaging queue into a larger queue (or enlarge the original queue). The interrupt handler then restarts the DMA. Alternatively, the interrupt handler stops the DMA, allocates a memory block to hold queue data, and then moves descriptors from the full messaging queue into the allocated memory block. The interrupt handler then restarts the DMA. During a normal messaging advance cycle, a messaging manager attempts to inject the descriptors in the memory block into other messaging queues until the descriptors have all been processed.

Collision warning system based on probability density functions

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Broek, T.H.A. van den; Ploeg, J.

2010-01-01

In this paper, a collision warning method between the host vehicle and target object(s) is studied. A probabilistic collision warning method is proposed, which is, in particular, useful for objects, e.g. vulnerable road users, which trajectories can rapidly change heading and/or velocity with

The Mental Health Counselor and "Duty to Warn."

Science.gov (United States)

Pietrofesa, John J.; And Others

1990-01-01

Reviews background and case histories surrounding legal concept of "duty to warn" and confidentiality limits of counseling. Discusses professional, ethical, and legal responsibilities of mental health counselors and identifies steps to follow for counselors who have to warn potential victims of danger from their clients. (Author/ABL)

Time-to-impact estimation in passive missile warning systems

Science.gov (United States)

Şahıngıl, Mehmet Cihan

2017-05-01

A missile warning system can detect the incoming missile threat(s) and automatically cue the other Electronic Attack (EA) systems in the suit, such as Directed Infrared Counter Measure (DIRCM) system and/or Counter Measure Dispensing System (CMDS). Most missile warning systems are currently based on passive sensor technology operating in either Solar Blind Ultraviolet (SBUV) or Midwave Infrared (MWIR) bands on which there is an intensive emission from the exhaust plume of the threatening missile. Although passive missile warning systems have some clear advantages over pulse-Doppler radar (PDR) based active missile warning systems, they show poorer performance in terms of time-to-impact (TTI) estimation which is critical for optimizing the countermeasures and also "passive kill assessment". In this paper, we consider this problem, namely, TTI estimation from passive measurements and present a TTI estimation scheme which can be used in passive missile warning systems. Our problem formulation is based on Extended Kalman Filter (EKF). The algorithm uses the area parameter of the threat plume which is derived from the used image frame.

Advanced driver assistance systems: Using multimodal redundant warnings to enhance road safety.

Science.gov (United States)

Biondi, Francesco; Strayer, David L; Rossi, Riccardo; Gastaldi, Massimiliano; Mulatti, Claudio

2017-01-01

This study investigated whether multimodal redundant warnings presented by advanced assistance systems reduce brake response times. Warnings presented by assistance systems are designed to assist drivers by informing them that evasive driving maneuvers are needed in order to avoid a potential accident. If these warnings are poorly designed, they may distract drivers, slow their responses, and reduce road safety. In two experiments, participants drove a simulated vehicle equipped with a forward collision avoidance system. Auditory, vibrotactile, and multimodal warnings were presented when the time to collision was shorter than five seconds. The effects of these warnings were investigated with participants performing a concurrent cell phone conversation (Exp. 1) or driving in high-density traffic (Exp. 2). Braking times and subjective workload were measured. Multimodal redundant warnings elicited faster braking reaction times. These warnings were found to be effective even when talking on a cell phone (Exp. 1) or driving in dense traffic (Exp. 2). Multimodal warnings produced higher ratings of urgency, but ratings of frustration did not increase compared to other warnings. Findings obtained in these two experiments are important given that faster braking responses may reduce the potential for a collision. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Can we compare SMS marketing to traditional marketing communications?

OpenAIRE

Roozen, Irene; Genin, Emile

2008-01-01

Nowadays most companies acknowledge the importance of SMS marketing in reaching and interacting with their customers (Kavassalis et al. 2003; Dickinger et al. 2004; Tsang, Ho & Liang 2004; Sharl, Dickinger & Murphy 2005; Muk 2007). However, there is much discussion in the press regarding the effectiveness when it comes to SMS marketing. Are customers willing to accept, reading and using SMS messages: how effective is SMS marketing compared to traditional marketing communications? The goal of ...

Regional dependence in earthquake early warning and real time seismology

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Caprio, M.

2013-01-01

An effective earthquake prediction method is still a Chimera. What we can do at the moment, after the occurrence of a seismic event, is to provide the maximum available information as soon as possible. This can help in reducing the impact of the quake on population or and better organize the rescue operations in case of post-event actions. This study strives to improve the evaluation of earthquake parameters shortly after the occurrence of a major earthquake, and the characterization of regional dependencies in Real-Time Seismology. The recent earthquake experience from Tohoku (M 9.0, 11.03.2011) showed how an efficient EEW systems can inform numerous people and thus potentially reduce the economic and human losses by distributing warning messages several seconds before the arrival of seismic waves. In the case of devastating earthquakes, usually, in the first minutes to days after the main shock, the common communications channels can be overloaded or broken. In such cases, a precise knowledge of the macroseismic intensity distribution will represent a decisive contribution in help management and in the valuation of losses. In this work, I focused on improving the adaptability of EEW systems (chapters 1 and 2) and in deriving a global relationship for converting peak ground motion into macroseismic intensity and vice versa (chapter 3). For EEW applications, in chapter 1 we present an evolutionary approach for magnitude estimation for earthquake early warning based on real-time inversion of displacement spectra. The Spectrum Inversion (SI) method estimates magnitude and its uncertainty by inferring the shape of the entire displacement spectral curve based on the part of the spectra constrained by available data. Our method can be applied in any region without the need for calibration. SI magnitude and uncertainty estimates are updated each second following the initial P detection and potentially stabilize within 10 seconds from the initial earthquake detection

Regional dependence in earthquake early warning and real time seismology

Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

Caprio, M.

2013-07-01

An effective earthquake prediction method is still a Chimera. What we can do at the moment, after the occurrence of a seismic event, is to provide the maximum available information as soon as possible. This can help in reducing the impact of the quake on population or and better organize the rescue operations in case of post-event actions. This study strives to improve the evaluation of earthquake parameters shortly after the occurrence of a major earthquake, and the characterization of regional dependencies in Real-Time Seismology. The recent earthquake experience from Tohoku (M 9.0, 11.03.2011) showed how an efficient EEW systems can inform numerous people and thus potentially reduce the economic and human losses by distributing warning messages several seconds before the arrival of seismic waves. In the case of devastating earthquakes, usually, in the first minutes to days after the main shock, the common communications channels can be overloaded or broken. In such cases, a precise knowledge of the macroseismic intensity distribution will represent a decisive contribution in help management and in the valuation of losses. In this work, I focused on improving the adaptability of EEW systems (chapters 1 and 2) and in deriving a global relationship for converting peak ground motion into macroseismic intensity and vice versa (chapter 3). For EEW applications, in chapter 1 we present an evolutionary approach for magnitude estimation for earthquake early warning based on real-time inversion of displacement spectra. The Spectrum Inversion (SI) method estimates magnitude and its uncertainty by inferring the shape of the entire displacement spectral curve based on the part of the spectra constrained by available data. Our method can be applied in any region without the need for calibration. SI magnitude and uncertainty estimates are updated each second following the initial P detection and potentially stabilize within 10 seconds from the initial earthquake detection

SMS Messaging Applications

CERN Document Server

Pero, Nicola

2009-01-01

Cell phones are the most common communication device on the planet, and Short Message Service (SMS) is the chief channel for companies to offer services, accept requests, report news, and download binary files over cell phones. This guide describes the protocols and best practices (things that ensure you won't get sued or lose your right to offer a service) you need to know to make SMS messaging part of an organizational service. Issues such as character sets, differences among vendors, common practices in Europe and North America, and API choices are covered.

AMS: Area Message Service for SLC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crane, M.; Mackenzie, R.; Millsom, D.; Zelazny, M.

1993-04-01

The Area Message Service (AMS) is a TCP/IP based messaging service currently in use at SLAC. A number of projects under development here at SLAC require and application level interface to the 4.3BSD UNIX socket level communications functions using TCP/IP over ethernet. AMS provides connection management, solicited message transfer, unsolicited message transfer, and asynchronous notification of pending messages. AMS is written completely in ANSI 'C' and is currently portable over three hardware/operating system/network manager platforms, VAX/VMS/Multinet, PC/MS-DOS/Pathworks, VME 68K/pSOS/pNA. The basic architecture is a client-server connection where either end of the interface may be the server. This allows for connections and data flow to be initiated from either end of the interface. Included in the paper are details concerning the connection management, the handling of the multi-platform code, and the implementation process

Fast characterization of moment magnitude and focal mechanism in the context of tsunami warning in the NEAM region : W-phase and PDFM2 algorithms.

Science.gov (United States)

Schindelé, François; Roch, Julien; Duperray, Pierre; Reymond, Dominique

2016-04-01

Over past centuries, several large earthquakes (Mw ≥ 7.5) have been reported in the North East Atlantic and Mediterranenan sea (NEAM) region. Most of the tsunami potential seismic sources in the NEAM region, however, are in a magnitude range of 6.5 ≤ Mw ≤ 7.5 (e.g. tsunami triggered by the earthquake of Boumerdes in 2003 of Mw = 6.9). The CENALT (CENtre d'ALerte aux Tsunamis) in operation since 2012 as the French National Tsunami Warning Centre (NTWC) and Candidate Tsunami Service Provider (CTSP) has to issue warning messages within 15 minutes of the earthquake origin time. The warning level is currently based on a decision matrix depending on the magnitude, and the location of the hypocenter. Two seismic source inversion methods are implemented at CENALT: the W-phase algorithm, based on the so-called W-phase and PDFM2 algorithm , based on the surface waves and first P wave motions. They both give accurate moment magnitude and focal magnitude respectively in 10 min and 20 min. The results of the Mw magnitude, focal depth and type of fault (reverse, normal, strike-slip) are the most relevant parameters used to issue tsunami warnings. In this context, we assess the W-phase and PDFM2 methods with 29 events of magnitude Mw ≥ 5.8 for the period 2010-2015 in the NEAM region. Results with 10 and 20 min for the W-phase algorithm and with 20 and 30 min for the PDFM2 algorithm are compared to the Global Centroid Moment Tensor catalog. The W-phase and PDFM2 methods gives accurate results respectively in 10 min and 20 min. This work is funded by project ASTARTE -- Assessment, Strategy And Risk Reduction for Tsunamis in Europe - FP7-ENV2013 6.4-3, Grant 603839

Access to mass media messages, and use of family planning in Nigeria: a spatio-demographic analysis from the 2013 DHS.

Science.gov (United States)

Ajaero, Chukwuedozie K; Odimegwu, Clifford; Ajaero, Ijeoma D; Nwachukwu, Chidiebere A

2016-05-24

Nigeria has the highest population in sub-Saharan Africa with high birth and growth rates. There is therefore need for family planning to regulate and stabilize this population. This study examined the relationship between access to mass media messages on family planning and use of family planning in Nigeria. It also investigated the impacts of spatio-demographic variables on the relationship between access to mass media messages and use of family planning. Data from the 2013 demographic and health survey of Nigeria which was conducted in all the 36 states of Nigeria, and Abuja were used for the study. The sample was weighted to ensure representativeness. Univariate, bivariate and binary logistic regressions were conducted. The relationship between each of the access to mass media messages, and the family planning variables were determined with Pearson correlation analysis. The correlation results showed significant but weak direct relationships between the access to mass media messages and use of family planning at p mass media messages on family planning, and on the use of family planning. The results showed that access to mass media messages increases the likelihood of the use of family planning. Also people with higher socioeconomic status and those from the Southern part of the country make more use of family planning. There is need to improve the socioeconomic status of the populations. Also, the quality and regularity of mass media messages should be improved, while other communication avenues such as traditional institutions, blogs, and seminars for youths should be used to make family planning messages more acceptable.

The influence of message framing, intention to quit smoking, and nicotine dependence on the persuasiveness of smoking cessation messages.

Science.gov (United States)

Moorman, Marjolein; van den Putte, Bas

2008-10-01

This study explores the combined effect of message framing, intention to quit smoking, and nicotine dependence on the persuasiveness of smoking cessation messages. Pre- and post-message measures of quit intention, attitude toward smoking cessation, and perceived behavioral control were taken in two separate waves from current cigarette smokers with varying levels of nicotine dependence (N=151). In the second wave, participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. In the first group, participants read a smoking cessation message which emphasized the benefits of quitting (positive frame). In the second group participants read a message which emphasized the costs of not quitting (negative frame). Results show that smokers' intentions to quit smoking and their level of nicotine dependence jointly influence the persuasiveness of positive and negative message frames. When nicotine dependence and quitting intention are both high, a negative frame works best. Conversely, a positive frame is preferable when nicotine dependence or quitting intention is low. Smokers' level of processing is proposed as the underlying mechanism explaining the different effects of message frames.

Improved Message Authentication and Confidentiality Checking

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Ismail Jabiullah, M.; Abdullah Al-Shamim, M.; Lutfar Rahman, M.

2005-01-01

The most confusing areas of the secured network communications are the message authentication and confidentiality checking. The attacks and the counter measures have become so convoluted that the users in this area begin to account for all contingencies. Two session-key generation techniques are used here to generate two separate session keys K 1 and K 2 ; and both the sender and the reveiver share these keys for higher degree of authentication and confidentiality. For this, the message is first encrypted by the key K 1 , and then the intermediary message authenticatin code (MAC) is generated by encrypting the encrypted message using the key K 2 . Then, the encrypted message and the intermediary MAC is again encrypted by using the K 2 and concatenated with the encrypted message and sent to the destination. At the receiving end, first, the received ciphertext is encrypted by using key K 2 and compared to the received MAC. The received ciphertext again is decrypted by the key K 2 and compared with the first decrypted MAC twice by the key K 2 . The plaintext is obtained by decrypting the received ciphertext first by K 2 and then by K 1 , using the corresponding decryption techniques respectively. The encryption techniques with key K 2 provides the authentication and with key K 1 provides the confidentiality checking of the transmitted message. The developed technique can be applied to both academic and commercial applications in online or offline electronic transactions for security.(authors)

A one-way text messaging intervention for obesity.

Science.gov (United States)

Ahn, Ahleum; Choi, Jaekyung

2016-04-01

Worldwide, there has been a startling increase in the number of people who are obese or overweight. Obesity increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and overall mortality. Mobile phone messaging is an important means of human communication globally. Because the mobile phone can be used anywhere at any time, mobile phone messaging has the potential to manage obesity. We investigated the effectiveness of a one-way text messaging intervention for obesity. Participants' body mass index and waist circumference were measured at the beginning of the programme and again after 12 weeks. The text message group received text messages about exercise, dietary intake, and general information about obesity three times a week, while the control group did not receive any text messages from the study. Of the 80 participants, 25 subjects in the text message group and 29 participants in the control group completed the study. After adjusting for baseline body mass index, the body mass index was significantly lower in the text message group than in the control group (27.9 vs. 28.3; p = 0.02). After adjusting for the baseline waist circumference, the difference of waist circumference between the text message group and control group was not significant (93.4 vs. 94.6; p = 0.13). The one-way text messaging intervention was a simple and effective way to manage obesity. The one-way text messaging intervention may be a useful method for lifestyle modification in obese subjects. © The Author(s) 2015.

Persuasive messages. Development of persuasive messages may help increase mothers' compliance of their children's immunization schedule.

Science.gov (United States)

Gore, P; Madhavan, S; Curry, D; McClurg, G; Castiglia, M; Rosenbluth, S A; Smego, R A

1998-01-01

Effective immunization campaigns can be designed by determining which persuasion strategy is most effective in attracting the attention of mothers of preschoolers. The authors assess the impact of three persuasional strategies: fear-arousal, motherhood-arousal, and rational messages, on mothers of preschoolers who are late for their immunizations. The fear-arousal message was found to be most effective, followed by the motherhood-arousal, and then the rational message, in attracting mothers' attention to their child's immunization status.

Empowerment in the process of health messaging for rural low-income mothers: an exploratory message design project.

Science.gov (United States)

Aldoory, Linda; Braun, Bonnie; Maring, Elisabeth Fost; Duggal, Mili; Briones, Rowena Lynn

2015-01-01

Rural, low-income mothers face challenges to their health equal to or greater than those of low-income mothers from urban areas. This study put health message design into the hands of low-income rural mothers. The current study filled a research gap by analyzing a participatory process used to design health messages tailored to the everyday lives of rural low-income mothers. A total of forty-three mothers participated in nine focus groups, which were held from 2012 to 2013, in eight states. The mothers were from different racial and ethnic backgrounds. Participants discussed food security, physical activity, and oral health information. They created messages by considering several elements: visuals, length of message, voice/perspective, self-efficacy and personal control, emotional appeals, positive and negative reinforcements, and steps to health behavior change. This study was innovative in its focus on empowerment as a key process to health message design.

An organizational early-warning system for safety, health, and environmental crises

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Shrivastava, P.

1992-01-01

Early-warning systems have played an important role in preventing major industrial accidents and technological disasters. These systems record critical operating and performance parameters and raise warnings or alarms if these parameters cross acceptable limits. Most early-warning systems used in hazardous industries focus on the technological system and to a lesser extent on their human operators. However, industrial disasters are caused not only by technological and human failure, but also by organizational, regulatory, infrastructural, and community preparedness failures. Hazardous industries can benefit from the development of early-warning systems that have a broader scope than the core technology. These systems could cover financial, human resource, organizational policies, regulatory, infrastructural, and community-related variables. This paper develops some basic concepts that can help build managerially useful early-warning systems for safety, health, and environmental (SHE) incidents. It identifies variables that should be tracked, the threshold levels for these variables, and possible managerial reactions to warnings

Crafting a Real-Time Information Aggregator for Mobile Messaging

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jenq-Shiou Leu

2010-01-01

Full Text Available Mobile messaging is evolving beyond SMS (Short Message Service text messaging with the introduction of MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service. In the past, such a scheme is used for peer-to-peer communication. Messages are generally displayed on a cellular phone with a limited-sized screen. However, such a visualizing process is not suitable to broadcast real-time SMS/MMS messages to people in public. To facilitate the instancy and publicity, we develop a real-time information aggregator—Visualizing SMS and MMS Messages System (VSMMS—to realize the concept by integrating SMS and MMS messaging over GSM/GPRS/UMTS onto a remote display device. The device exhibits messages on a larger display device in public. VSMMS features a revolutionized variation of mass media broadcasting. In this paper, we practically illustrate how to design and implement VSMMS and use a M/M/1 model to conduct a theoretical analysis about the message delay in the system queue. Meanwhile, we make an empirical performance evaluation about the message transmission time over different networks.

AMS: Area Message Service for SLC

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Crane, M.; Mackenzie, R.; Millsom, D.; Zelazny, M.

1993-01-01

The Area Message Service (AMS) is a TCP/IP based messaging service currently in use at SLAC. A number of projects under development here at SLAC require an application level interface to the 4.3BSD UNIX socket level communications functions using TCP/IP over ethernet. AMS provides connection management, solicited message transfer, unsolicited message transfer, and asynchronous notification of pending messages. AMS is written completely in ANSI open-quote C close-quote and is currently portable over three hardware/operating system/network manager platforms, VAX/VMS/Multinet, PC/MS-DOS/Pathworks, VME 68K/pSOS/pNA. The basic architecture is a client-server connection where either end of the interface may be the server. This allows for connections and data flow to be initiated from either end of the interface. Included in the paper are details concerning the connection management, the handling of the multi-platform code, and the implementation process

Does perceived risk influence the effects of message framing? Revisiting the link between prospect theory and message framing.

Science.gov (United States)

Van 't Riet, Jonathan; Cox, Anthony D; Cox, Dena; Zimet, Gregory D; De Bruijn, Gert-Jan; Van den Putte, Bas; De Vries, Hein; Werrij, Marieke Q; Ruiter, Robert A C

2016-12-01

Health-promoting messages can be framed in terms of the beneficial consequences of healthy behaviour (gain-framed messages) or the detrimental consequences of unhealthy behaviour (loss-framed messages). An influential notion holds that the perceived risk associated with the recommended behaviour determines the relative persuasiveness of gain- and loss-framed messages. This 'risk-framing hypothesis', which was derived from prospect theory, has been central to health message-framing research for the better part of two decades and has enduring appeal to researchers and practitioners. It has found its way into several health communication handbooks and is communicated to the general public. The present article examines the validity of the risk-framing hypothesis anew by providing a review of the health message-framing literature. In spite of its ongoing appeal, we conclude that the hypothesis has severe theoretical flaws. In addition, we find that the empirical evidence in favour of the hypothesis is weak and inconsistent. It seems that, in applying prospect theory's tenets to a health-promotion context, some of the theory's key aspects have been lost in translation. At the close of the article, we offer a research agenda for the future, arguing that, above all, new methodology is needed to bring the message-framing literature further.

Historical telecommunication in the Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalayas: An ancient early warning system for glacier lake outbursts

Science.gov (United States)

Iturrizaga, Lasafam

2016-04-01

Mountain societies are in a crucial transition phase in terms of the management of natural hazards. Advances in geographic technologies, such as a variety of remote-sensing tools and mobile communication systems, have drastically changed the way of early warning methods in difficult accessible high mountain environments compared to those of ancient times. In order to implement new natural hazard policies, it is essential to unravel the traditional ways of disaster management which is presented here by a case study from the Hindukush-Karakoram-Himalayas. In the rugged relief of the Himalaya Region, the exchange of information was a labor-intensive and time-consuming task for remote high mountain villages before the infrastructural development and the introduction of modern communication systems. Therefore, early warning of natural hazards with long run-out distances seems to have been rather impossible. However, in the present study a historical optical long-distance and fast operating communication system over horizontal distances of several hundred kilometers was discovered during field investigations in the Hindukush-Karakoram and the transmission paths reconstructed in the following years. The so called Puberanch-system relied on a chain of fire signals as used by ancient societies in other mountain and coastal environments in the world. It was originally in use for the alert against war attacks from hostile neighboring communities. Later on, it served as an early warning system for glacier lake outbursts, which have been in the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th century one of the most devastating natural hazards in the region. Remarkable is the fact that fire posts were located in extremely harsh environments at altitudes above 4000 m requiring a highly sophisticated supply system of fire wood and food. Interviews with local inhabitants, the evaluation of historical travel records and international newspapers proved, that the system has been

Investigating the impact of viral message appeal and message credibility on consumer attitude toward the brand

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Esmaeilpour Majid

2016-07-01

Full Text Available Due to the rapid growth of the Internet and use of e-commerce in the recent years, viral marketing has drawn the attention of manufacturing and service organizations. However, no research has been conducted to examine the impact of message appeal and message source credibility on consumers’ attitude with mediating role of intellectual involvement of consumers and their risk taking level. The aim of this study was to examine the impact of appeal and message source credibility on consumers’ attitude with mediating role of consumers’ intellectual involvement and their risk taking level. The population of this study includes consumers of mobile phones (Samsung, Sony, Nokia, LG and iPhone in the Bushehr city (Iran. As the population of the study is unlimited, 430 questionnaires were distributed using available sampling method, and 391 questionnaires were collected and analyzed. Using structural equation modeling, we analysed the data through smart PLS software. The results show that the appeal and credibility of the message source impact the consumer attitudes toward the brand. We also found that the intellectual involvement of consumers plays the mediating role in the relationship between message appeal and consumer attitudes toward brands. In the relationship between message source credibility and customer attitude towards the brand, the level of risk taking of people has no mediating role.

Management and Archiving e-mail Messages in Governmental Organization

OpenAIRE

Ashraf Mohamed A.Mohsen

2006-01-01

The study deals great issue of digital preservation that is e-mail archiving, it covered all aspects of the topic; it discuss: e-mail system, components of e-mail message, advantages and disadvantages of e-mail, official e-mail messages, management of e-mail messages, organizing and arrangement of e-mail messages, keeping and deleting messages, archiving e-mail messages, and some related issues like: privacy and security.

Optimization of Evacuation Warnings Prior to a Hurricane Disaster

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Dian Sun

2017-11-01

Full Text Available The key purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that optimization of evacuation warnings by time period and impacted zone is crucial for efficient evacuation of an area impacted by a hurricane. We assume that people behave in a manner consistent with the warnings they receive. By optimizing the issuance of hurricane evacuation warnings, one can control the number of evacuees at different time intervals to avoid congestion in the process of evacuation. The warning optimization model is applied to a case study of Hurricane Sandy using the study region of Brooklyn. We first develop a model for shelter assignment and then use this outcome to model hurricane evacuation warning optimization, which prescribes an evacuation plan that maximizes the number of evacuees. A significant technical contribution is the development of an iterative greedy heuristic procedure for the nonlinear formulation, which is shown to be optimal for the case of a single evacuation zone with a single evacuee type case, while it does not guarantee optimality for multiple zones under unusual circumstances. A significant applied contribution is the demonstration of an interface of the evacuation warning method with a public transportation scheme to facilitate evacuation of a car-less population. This heuristic we employ can be readily adapted to the case where response rate is a function of evacuation number in prior periods and other variable factors. This element is also explored in the context of our experiment.

The influence of message framing, intention to quit smoking, and nicotine dependence on the persuasiveness of smoking cessation messages

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Moorman, M.; van den Putte, B.

2008-01-01

This study explores the combined effect of message framing, intention to quit smoking, and nicotine dependence on the persuasiveness of smoking cessation messages. Pre- and post-message measures of quit intention, attitude toward smoking cessation, and perceived behavioral control were taken in two

Text messaging data collection for monitoring an infant feeding intervention program in rural China: feasibility study.

Science.gov (United States)

Li, Ye; Wang, Wei; van Velthoven, Michelle Helena; Chen, Li; Car, Josip; Rudan, Igor; Zhang, Yanfeng; Wu, Qiong; Du, Xiaozhen; Scherpbier, Robert W

2013-12-04

An effective data collection method is crucial for high quality monitoring of health interventions. The traditional face-to-face data collection method is labor intensive, expensive, and time consuming. With the rapid increase of mobile phone subscribers, text messaging has the potential to be used for evaluation of population health interventions in rural China. The objective of this study was to explore the feasibility of using text messaging as a data collection tool to monitor an infant feeding intervention program. Participants were caregivers of children aged 0 to 23 months in rural China who participated in an infant feeding health education program. We used the test-retest method. First, we collected data with a text messaging survey and then with a face-to-face survey for 2 periods of 3 days. We compared the response rate, data agreement, costs, and participants' acceptability of the two methods. Also, we interviewed participants to explore their reasons for not responding to the text messages and the reasons for disagreement in the two methods. In addition, we evaluated the most appropriate time during the day for sending text messages. We included 258 participants; 99 (38.4%) participated in the text messaging survey and 177 (68.6%) in the face-to-face survey. Compared with the face-to-face survey, the text messaging survey had much lower response rates to at least one question (38.4% vs 68.6%) and to all 7 questions (27.9% vs 67.4%) with moderate data agreement (most kappa values between .5 and .75, the intraclass correlation coefficients between .53 to .72). Participants who took part in both surveys gave the same acceptability rating for both methods (median 4.0 for both on a 5-point scale, 1=disliked very much and 5=liked very much). The costs per questionnaire for the text messaging method were much lower than the costs for the face-to-face method: ¥19.7 (US $3.13) versus ¥33.9 (US $5.39) for all questionnaires, and ¥27.1 (US $4.31) versus ¥34

The WLCG Messaging Service and its Future

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Cons, Lionel; Paladin, Massimo

2012-01-01

Enterprise messaging is seen as an attractive mechanism to simplify and extend several portions of the Grid middleware, from low level monitoring to experiments dashboards. The production messaging service currently used by WLCG includes four tightly coupled brokers operated by EGI (running Apache ActiveMQ and designed to host the Grid operational tools such as SAM) as well as two dedicated services for ATLAS-DDM and experiments dashboards (currently also running Apache ActiveMQ). In the future, this service is expected to grow in numbers of applications supported, brokers and technologies. The WLCG Messaging Roadmap identified three areas with room for improvement (security, scalability and availability/reliability) as well as ten practical recommendations to address them. This paper describes a messaging service architecture that is in line with these recommendations as well as a software architecture based on reusable components that ease interactions with the messaging service. These two architectures will support the growth of the WLCG messaging service.

Famines in Africa: is early warning early enough?

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Jeeyon Janet Kim

2012-06-01

Full Text Available Following the second Sahelian famine in 1984–1985, major investments were made to establish Early Warning Systems. These systems help to ensure that timely warnings and vulnerability information are available to decision makers to anticipate and avert food crises. In the recent crisis in the Horn of Africa, alarming levels of acute malnutrition were documented from March 2010, and by August 2010, an impending food crisis was forecast. Despite these measures, the situation remained unrecognised, and further deteriorated causing malnutrition levels to grow in severity and scope. By the time the United Nations officially declared famine on 20 July 2011, and the humanitarian community sluggishly went into response mode, levels of malnutrition and mortality exceeded catastrophic levels. At this time, an estimated 11 million people were in desperate and immediate need for food. With warnings of food crises in the Sahel, South Sudan, and forecast of the drought returning to the Horn, there is an immediate need to institutionalize change in the health response during humanitarian emergencies. Early warning systems are only effective if they trigger an early response.

49 CFR 214.329 - Train approach warning provided by watchmen/lookouts.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... Protection § 214.329 Train approach warning provided by watchmen/lookouts. Roadway workers in a roadway work group who foul any track outside of working limits shall be given warning of approaching trains by one... shall clearly signify to all recipients of the warning that a train or other on-track equipment is...

Neymar, defender of brazilian tradition

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Francisca Islandia Cardoso da Silva

2016-09-01

Full Text Available The purpose of this article is to analyze how university students of Teresina-PI appropriate of the message of a report of the television show Esporte Espetacular. There was use of the technique of focus groups and analytical-descriptive method for collecting and analyzing data. The sample consisted of 24 university students, aged between 18 and 24 years. The report features Neymar as responsible to follow the "tradition" of Brazilians and to be crowned as the best player in the world. The subjects of research said that the speech conveyed by the report can reproduce and create a reality sometimes dreamlike, because objective to confer to Neymar great importance with regard to national identity.

Is More Better? - Night Vision Enhancement System's Pedestrian Warning Modes and Older Drivers.

Science.gov (United States)

Brown, Timothy; He, Yefei; Roe, Cheryl; Schnell, Thomas

2010-01-01

Pedestrian fatalities as a result of vehicle collisions are much more likely to happen at night than during day time. Poor visibility due to darkness is believed to be one of the causes for the higher vehicle collision rate at night. Existing studies have shown that night vision enhancement systems (NVES) may improve recognition distance, but may increase drivers' workload. The use of automatic warnings (AW) may help minimize workload, improve performance, and increase safety. In this study, we used a driving simulator to examine performance differences of a NVES with six different configurations of warning cues, including: visual, auditory, tactile, auditory and visual, tactile and visual, and no warning. Older drivers between the ages of 65 and 74 participated in the study. An analysis based on the distance to pedestrian threat at the onset of braking response revealed that tactile and auditory warnings performed the best, while visual warnings performed the worst. When tactile or auditory warnings were presented in combination with visual warning, their effectiveness decreased. This result demonstrated that, contrary to general sense regarding warning systems, multi-modal warnings involving visual cues degraded the effectiveness of NVES for older drivers.

ATTACK WARNING: Costs to Modernize NORAD's Computer System Significantly Understated

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Cross, F

1991-01-01

...) Integrated Tactical Warning and Attack Assessment (ITW/AA) system. These subsystems provide critical strategic surveillance and attack warning and assessment information to United States and Canadian leaders...

Comment ameliorer la selection et le traitement des messages verbaux? (How to Improve the Selection and Processing of Verbal Messages)

National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

Rivenez, Marie; Darwin, Chris; Guillaume, Anne

2005-01-01

L'objectif de cette recherche est d'ameliorer la selection des messages verbaux. Nous cherchons a determiner les facteurs influencant le traitement d'un message verbal lorsque l'attention est portee sur un autre message...

Local Tsunami Warnings using GNSS and Seismic Data.

Science.gov (United States)

Hirshorn, B. F.

2017-12-01

Tsunami warning Centers (TWC's) must issue warnings based on imperfect and limited data. Uncertainties increase in the near field, where a tsunami reaches the closest coastal populations to the causative earthquake in a half hour or less. In the absence of a warning, the usual advice is "When the ground shakes so severely that it's difficult to stand, move uphill and away from the coast." But, what if the shaking is not severe? If, for example, the earthquake ruptures slowly (producing very little perceived shaking) this advice will fail. Unfortunately these "Tsunami" earthquakes are not rare: tsunamis from slow earthquakes off of Nicaragua in 1992, and Java in 1994 and 2006, killed 179, 250 and 637 people, respectively, even though very few nearby coastal residents felt any strong ground shaking. TWC's must therefore warn the closest coastal populations to the causative earthquake, where over 80% of the Tsunami based casualties typically occur, as soon possible after earthquake rupture begins. The NWS Tsunami Warning Centers (TWCs) currently issue local Tsunami Warnings for the US West Coast, Hawaii, and the Puerto Rico - Virgin Island region within 2-4 minutes after origin time. However, our initial short period Magnitude estimates saturate over about Mw 6.5, and Mwp underestimates Mw for events larger than about Mw 7.5 when using data in the 0 to 3 degree epicentral distance range, severely underestimating the danger of a potential Tsunami in the near field. Coastal GNSS networks complement seismic monitoring networks, and enable unsaturated estimates of Mw within 2-3 minutes of earthquake origin time. NASA/JPL, SIO, USGS, CWU, UCB and UW, with funding and guidance from NASA, and leveraging the USGS funded ShakeAlert development, have been working with the National Weather Service TWC's to incorporate real-time GNSS and seismogeodetic data into their operations. These data will soon provide unsaturated estimates of moment magnitude, Centroid Moment Tensor

Rainfall threshold calculation for debris flow early warning in areas with scarcity of data

Science.gov (United States)

Pan, Hua-Li; Jiang, Yuan-Jun; Wang, Jun; Ou, Guo-Qiang

2018-05-01

Debris flows are natural disasters that frequently occur in mountainous areas, usually accompanied by serious loss of lives and properties. One of the most commonly used approaches to mitigate the risk associated with debris flows is the implementation of early warning systems based on well-calibrated rainfall thresholds. However, many mountainous areas have little data regarding rainfall and hazards, especially in debris-flow-forming regions. Therefore, the traditional statistical analysis method that determines the empirical relationship between rainstorms and debris flow events cannot be effectively used to calculate reliable rainfall thresholds in these areas. After the severe Wenchuan earthquake, there were plenty of deposits deposited in the gullies, which resulted in several debris flow events. The triggering rainfall threshold has decreased obviously. To get a reliable and accurate rainfall threshold and improve the accuracy of debris flow early warning, this paper developed a quantitative method, which is suitable for debris flow triggering mechanisms in meizoseismal areas, to identify rainfall threshold for debris flow early warning in areas with a scarcity of data based on the initiation mechanism of hydraulic-driven debris flow. First, we studied the characteristics of the study area, including meteorology, hydrology, topography and physical characteristics of the loose solid materials. Then, the rainfall threshold was calculated by the initiation mechanism of the hydraulic debris flow. The comparison with other models and with alternate configurations demonstrates that the proposed rainfall threshold curve is a function of the antecedent precipitation index (API) and 1 h rainfall. To test the proposed method, we selected the Guojuanyan gully, a typical debris flow valley that during the 2008-2013 period experienced several debris flow events, located in the meizoseismal areas of the Wenchuan earthquake, as a case study. The comparison with other

Evaluation of the National Weather Service Extreme Cold Warning Experiment in North Dakota.

Science.gov (United States)

Chiu, Cindy H; Vagi, Sara J; Wolkin, Amy F; Martin, John Paul; Noe, Rebecca S

2014-01-01

Dangerously cold weather threatens life and property. During periods of extreme cold due to wind chill, the National Weather Service (NWS) issues wind chill warnings to prompt the public to take action to mitigate risks. Wind chill warnings are based on ambient temperatures and wind speeds. Since 2010, NWS has piloted a new extreme cold warning issued for cold temperatures in wind and nonwind conditions. The North Dakota Department of Health, NWS, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention collaborated in conducting household surveys in Burleigh County, North Dakota, to evaluate this new warning. The objectives of the evaluation were to assess whether residents heard the new warning and to determine if protective behaviors were prompted by the warning. This was a cross-sectional survey design using the Community Assessment for Public Health Emergency Response (CASPER) methodology to select a statistically representative sample of households from Burleigh County. From 10 to 11 April 2012, 188 door-to-door household interviews were completed. The CASPER methodology uses probability sampling with weighted analysis to estimate the number and percentage of households with a specific response within Burleigh County. The majority of households reported having heard both the extreme cold and wind chill warnings, and both warnings prompted protective behaviors. These results suggest this community heard the new warning and took protective actions after hearing the warning.

Cigarette graphic warning labels increase both risk perceptions and smoking myth endorsement.

Science.gov (United States)

Evans, Abigail T; Peters, Ellen; Shoben, Abigail B; Meilleur, Louise R; Klein, Elizabeth G; Tompkins, Mary Kate; Tusler, Martin

2018-02-01

Cigarette graphic warning labels elicit negative emotion, which increases risk perceptions through multiple processes. We examined whether this emotion simultaneously affects motivated cognitions like smoking myth endorsement (e.g. 'exercise can undo the negative effects of smoking') and perceptions of cigarette danger versus other products. 736 adult and 469 teen smokers/vulnerable smokers viewed one of three warning label types (text-only, low emotion graphic or high emotion graphic) four times over two weeks. Emotional reactions to the warnings were reported during the first and fourth exposures. Participants reported how often they considered the warnings, smoking myth endorsement, risk perceptions and perceptions of cigarette danger relative to smokeless tobacco and electronic cigarettes. In structural equation models, emotional reactions influenced risk perceptions and smoking myth endorsement through two processes. Emotion acted as information about risk, directly increasing smoking risk perceptions and decreasing smoking myth endorsement. Emotion also acted as a spotlight, motivating consideration of the warning information. Warning consideration increased risk perceptions, but also increased smoking myth endorsement. Emotional reactions to warnings decreased perceptions of cigarette danger relative to other products. Emotional reactions to cigarette warnings increase smoking risk perceptions, but also smoking myth endorsement and misperceptions that cigarettes are less dangerous than potentially harm-reducing tobacco products.

Message passing for quantified Boolean formulas

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Zhang, Pan; Ramezanpour, Abolfazl; Zecchina, Riccardo; Zdeborová, Lenka

2012-01-01

We introduce two types of message passing algorithms for quantified Boolean formulas (QBF). The first type is a message passing based heuristics that can prove unsatisfiability of the QBF by assigning the universal variables in such a way that the remaining formula is unsatisfiable. In the second type, we use message passing to guide branching heuristics of a Davis–Putnam–Logemann–Loveland (DPLL) complete solver. Numerical experiments show that on random QBFs our branching heuristics give robust exponential efficiency gain with respect to state-of-the-art solvers. We also manage to solve some previously unsolved benchmarks from the QBFLIB library. Apart from this, our study sheds light on using message passing in small systems and as subroutines in complete solvers

Model-based development and testing of advertising messages: A comparative study of two campaign proposals based on the MECCAS model and a conventional approach

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Bech-Larsen, Tino

2001-01-01

Traditionally, the development of advertising messages has been based on "creative independence", sometimes catalysed by inductively generated empirical data. Due to the recent intensified focus on advertising effectiveness, this state of affairs is beginning to change. The purpose of the study....... The comparison involved the efficiency of the managerial communication taking place in the message development process as well as target group communication effects. The managerial communication was studied by interviews with the involved advertising agency (Midtmarketing, Ikast, Denmark) and client staff...

Analysis of Twitter Users’ Sharing of Official New York Storm Response Messages

Science.gov (United States)

Chary, Michael; Chason, Kevin

2014-01-01

collected. The lexical diversity of official tweets was similar (2.25-2.49) and well below the average for non-official tweets mentioning #sandy and #nyc (3.82). Most official tweets were with substantial retweets including a link for further reading. Of the 448 tweets analyzed from six official city and state Twitter accounts from the Nemo blizzard, 271 were related to the storm, and 174 had actionable information for the public. Actionable storm messages were retweeted approximately 24x per message, compared to 31x per message for general storm information. Conclusions During two weather emergencies, New York public officials were able to convey storm-related information that was shared widely beyond existing follower bases, potentially improving situational awareness and disaster response. Official Sandy tweets, characterized by a lower lexical diversity score than other city- and Sandy-related tweets, were likely easier to understand, and often linked to further information and resources. Actionable information in the Nemo blizzard, such as specific instructions and cancellation notices, was not shared as often as more general warnings and “fun facts,” suggesting agencies mix important instructions with more general news and trivia, as a way of reaching the broadest audience during a disaster. PMID:25075245

Landslide monitoring and early warning systems in Lower Austria - current situation and new developments

Science.gov (United States)

Thiebes, Benni; Glade, Thomas; Schweigl, Joachim; Jäger, Stefan; Canli, Ekrem

2014-05-01

of the earth flow site will be monitored by differential GPS to get high precision information on displacements of marked points. Photogrammtetry based on octocopter surveys will provide spatial information on movement patterns. A similar approach will be followed for the debris flow catchment. Here, the focus lies on a monitoring of the landslide failures in the source area which prepares the material for subsequent debris flow transport. In addition to the methods already mentioned, repeated terrestrial laserscanning campaigns will be used to monitor geomorphological changes at all sites. All important data, which can be single measurements, episodic or continuous monitoring data for a given point (e.g. rainfall, inclination) or of spatial character (e.g. LiDAR measurements), are collected and analysed on an external server. Automatic data analysis methods, such as progressive failure analysis, are carried out automatically based on field measurements. The data and results from all monitoring sites are visualised on a web-based platform which enables registered users to analyse the respective information in near-real-time. Moreover, thresholds can be determined which trigger automated warning messages to the involved scientists if thresholds are exceeded by field measurements. The described system will enable scientists and decision-makers to access the latest data from the monitoring systems. Automatic alarms are raised when thresholds are exceeded to inform them about potentially hazardous changes. Thereby, a more efficient hazard management and early warning can be achieved. Keywords: landslide, rockfall, debris flow, earth flow, monitoring, early warning system.

Using Publish-Subscribe Messaging for System Status and Automation

Science.gov (United States)

Smith, Danford S.

2015-01-01

The NASA Goddard Mission Services Evolution Center (GMSEC) system is a message-based plug-and-play open system architecture used in many of NASA mission operations centers. This presentation will focus on the use of GMSEC standard messages to report and analyze the status of a system and enable the automation of the system's components. In GMSEC systems, each component reports its status using a keep-alive message and also publishes status and activities as log messages. In addition, the components can accept functional directive messages from the GMSEC message bus. Over the past several years, development teams have found ways to utilize these messages to create innovative display pages and increasingly sophisticated approaches to automation. This presentation will show the flexibility and value of the message-based approach to system awareness and automation.

Using Text-Messaging in the Secondary Classroom

Science.gov (United States)

Thomas, Kevin; Orthober, Corrie

2011-01-01

To examine the potential uses of and barriers to text-messaging in secondary schools, three classes (66 students) of high school students used their personal mobile phones to receive out of school, course-related text-messages from teachers. Forty-six students (70%) agreed to receive text-messages. Findings indicate that participants found…

Emotional flow in persuasive health messages.

Science.gov (United States)

Nabi, Robin L

2015-01-01

Overwhelmingly, the literature on the persuasive influence of emotions has focused on individual emotions, fear in particular, though some recent attention has been given to mixed emotions in persuasive appeals. Building on this newer wave of research, this article argues that instead of focusing on singular emotional states or collections of emotions evoked by a message, it might prove valuable to explore the flow, or evolution, of emotional experience over the course of exposure to a health message. The article offers a brief introduction to the concept of emotion, followed by a review of the state of the literature on the use of emotion in health messages. The concept of emotional flow is then introduced along with a consideration of how it has been tacitly incorporated into the study of emotional health messages. Finally, the utility of the concept of emotional flow is elaborated by articulating the ways in which it might be harnessed to facilitate the creation of more effective health messages, individually as well as across campaigns. The article concludes with an agenda for future research.

Matching Message Design and Depressed Cognition: An Exploration of Attention Patterns for Gain- and Loss-Framed Depression Help-Seeking Messages.

Science.gov (United States)

Lueck, Jennifer A

2017-07-01

Although disproportionally affected by depression, most depressed college students do not seek the help they need. Research has recently uncovered the potential negative effects of depression help-seeking messages if depressed cognition is not considered in the health message design process. It is unclear if depression determines whether and how individuals pay attention to gain- and loss-framed depression help-seeking messages-a mechanism that has significant implications for the strategic planning of health communication interventions. In order to enable the effective matching of message design and audience features, this study investigated attention patterns for gain (n = 75)- and loss (n = 78)-framed depression help-seeking messages using eye-tracking technology and self-report measures. The results confirmed that depression is a characteristic of risk avoidance and negative cognition. Depressed participants tended to pay more attention to disease information that was placed in a loss-framed rather than a gain-framed depression help-seeking message. Using negative message framing strategies for health messages seeking to educate about depression symptoms might therefore be a useful persuasive strategy-particularly when disseminated to vulnerable populations affected by depression. Furthermore, the present study emphasizes the effective use of eye-tracking technology in communication research.

Effects of argument quality, source credibility and self-reported diabetes knowledge on message attitudes: an experiment using diabetes related messages.

Science.gov (United States)

Lin, Tung-Cheng; Hwang, Lih-Lian; Lai, Yung-Jye

2017-05-17

Previous studies have reported that credibility and content (argument quality) are the most critical factors affecting the quality of health information and its acceptance and use; however, this causal relationship merits further investigation in the context of health education. Moreover, message recipients' prior knowledge may moderate these relationships. This study used the elaboration likelihood model to determine the main effects of argument quality, source credibility and the moderating effect of self-reported diabetes knowledge on message attitudes. A between-subjects experimental design using an educational message concerning diabetes for manipulation was applied to validate the effects empirically. A total of 181 participants without diabetes were recruited from the Department of Health, Taipei City Government. Four group messages were manipulated in terms of argument quality (high and low) × source credibility (high and low). Argument quality and source credibility of health information significantly influenced the attitude of message recipients. The participants with high self-reported knowledge participants exhibited significant disapproval for messages with low argument quality. Effective health information should provide objective descriptions and cite reliable sources; in addition, it should provide accurate, customised messages for recipients who have high background knowledge level and ability to discern message quality. © 2017 Health Libraries Group Health Information & Libraries Journal.

Flood and landslide warning based on rainfall thresholds and soil moisture indexes: the HEWS (Hydrohazards Early Warning System) for Sicily

Science.gov (United States)

Brigandì, Giuseppina; Tito Aronica, Giuseppe; Bonaccorso, Brunella; Gueli, Roberto; Basile, Giuseppe

2017-09-01

The main focus of the paper is to present a flood and landslide early warning system, named HEWS (Hydrohazards Early Warning System), specifically developed for the Civil Protection Department of Sicily, based on the combined use of rainfall thresholds, soil moisture modelling and quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF). The warning system is referred to 9 different Alert Zones in which Sicily has been divided into and based on a threshold system of three different increasing critical levels: ordinary, moderate and high. In this system, for early flood warning, a Soil Moisture Accounting (SMA) model provides daily soil moisture conditions, which allow to select a specific set of three rainfall thresholds, one for each critical level considered, to be used for issue the alert bulletin. Wetness indexes, representative of the soil moisture conditions of a catchment, are calculated using a simple, spatially-lumped rainfall-streamflow model, based on the SCS-CN method, and on the unit hydrograph approach, that require daily observed and/or predicted rainfall, and temperature data as input. For the calibration of this model daily continuous time series of rainfall, streamflow and air temperature data are used. An event based lumped rainfall-runoff model has been, instead, used for the derivation of the rainfall thresholds for each catchment in Sicily characterised by an area larger than 50 km2. In particular, a Kinematic Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph based lumped rainfall-runoff model with the SCS-CN routine for net rainfall was developed for this purpose. For rainfall-induced shallow landslide warning, empirical rainfall thresholds provided by Gariano et al. (2015) have been included in the system. They were derived on an empirical basis starting from a catalogue of 265 shallow landslides in Sicily in the period 2002-2012. Finally, Delft-FEWS operational forecasting platform has been applied to link input data, SMA model and rainfall threshold models to produce

Flood and landslide warning based on rainfall thresholds and soil moisture indexes: the HEWS (Hydrohazards Early Warning System for Sicily

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

G. Brigandì

2017-09-01

Full Text Available The main focus of the paper is to present a flood and landslide early warning system, named HEWS (Hydrohazards Early Warning System, specifically developed for the Civil Protection Department of Sicily, based on the combined use of rainfall thresholds, soil moisture modelling and quantitative precipitation forecast (QPF. The warning system is referred to 9 different Alert Zones in which Sicily has been divided into and based on a threshold system of three different increasing critical levels: ordinary, moderate and high. In this system, for early flood warning, a Soil Moisture Accounting (SMA model provides daily soil moisture conditions, which allow to select a specific set of three rainfall thresholds, one for each critical level considered, to be used for issue the alert bulletin. Wetness indexes, representative of the soil moisture conditions of a catchment, are calculated using a simple, spatially-lumped rainfall–streamflow model, based on the SCS-CN method, and on the unit hydrograph approach, that require daily observed and/or predicted rainfall, and temperature data as input. For the calibration of this model daily continuous time series of rainfall, streamflow and air temperature data are used. An event based lumped rainfall–runoff model has been, instead, used for the derivation of the rainfall thresholds for each catchment in Sicily characterised by an area larger than 50 km2. In particular, a Kinematic Instantaneous Unit Hydrograph based lumped rainfall–runoff model with the SCS-CN routine for net rainfall was developed for this purpose. For rainfall-induced shallow landslide warning, empirical rainfall thresholds provided by Gariano et al. (2015 have been included in the system. They were derived on an empirical basis starting from a catalogue of 265 shallow landslides in Sicily in the period 2002–2012. Finally, Delft-FEWS operational forecasting platform has been applied to link input data, SMA model and rainfall

The limits of earthquake early warning: Timeliness of ground motion estimates

Science.gov (United States)

Minson, Sarah E.; Meier, Men-Andrin; Baltay, Annemarie S.; Hanks, Thomas C.; Cochran, Elizabeth S.

2018-01-01

The basic physics of earthquakes is such that strong ground motion cannot be expected from an earthquake unless the earthquake itself is very close or has grown to be very large. We use simple seismological relationships to calculate the minimum time that must elapse before such ground motion can be expected at a distance from the earthquake, assuming that the earthquake magnitude is not predictable. Earthquake early warning (EEW) systems are in operation or development for many regions around the world, with the goal of providing enough warning of incoming ground shaking to allow people and automated systems to take protective actions to mitigate losses. However, the question of how much warning time is physically possible for specified levels of ground motion has not been addressed. We consider a zero-latency EEW system to determine possible warning times a user could receive in an ideal case. In this case, the only limitation on warning time is the time required for the earthquake to evolve and the time for strong ground motion to arrive at a user’s location. We find that users who wish to be alerted at lower ground motion thresholds will receive more robust warnings with longer average warning times than users who receive warnings for higher ground motion thresholds. EEW systems have the greatest potential benefit for users willing to take action at relatively low ground motion thresholds, whereas users who set relatively high thresholds for taking action are less likely to receive timely and actionable information.

Implementation of Traditional Malay Design Values in Contemporary Malay Houses

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Elham Hosseini

2016-05-01

Full Text Available Traditional houses are the most essential architectural experience that is in harmony with the people's culture, beliefs, environment and lifestyles. The development of design values in contemporary architecture by tracking traditional design values in architecture paves the way for arguments concerning the implementation of authentic Malay traditional house design values in contemporary Malay houses. In addition, it is hypothesized that the Malay traditional houses theoretically provide a constructive innovative framework for the design performance of the contemporary Malay house. In this research, data was compiled through field observation and documentary review. The evidence revealed that Malay traditional houses convey a concrete message of richness encompassing architectural design values and theoretical propositions. The credibility of the results was improved and confirmed by a confluence of evidence via a confirmation process. The findings suggested that there is a rich source of subjective support, lending proof to the premise of the research investigation. The research has highlighted the significance of traditional architectural design values towards innovative design in the architecture of contemporary Malay houses as a workable pattern for use in the design of contemporary architecture.

Application of instant messaging software in the follow-up of patients using peritoneal dialysis, a randomised controlled trial.

Science.gov (United States)

Cao, Fang; Li, Lanfei; Lin, Miao; Lin, Qinyu; Ruan, Yiping; Hong, Fuyuan

2018-04-20

This study aims to investigate the application value of Internet-based instant messaging software in the follow-up of patients using peritoneal dialysis. Peritoneal dialysis is an effective renal replacement treatment for end-stage renal disease. The clinical usefulness of Internet-based instant messaging software in the follow-up of peritoneal dialysis patients, including the incidence of peritonitis and exit-site infection, the levels of albumin and electrolytes and the degree of patients' satisfaction, remains unknown. Between January 2009-April 2016, a total of 160 patients underwent continuous peritoneal dialysis in the Department of Nephrology, Fujian Provincial Hospital were invited to participate voluntarily in this study. The patients were randomly assigned to the instant messenger (QQ) follow-up group (n = 80) and the traditional follow-up group (n = 80). The differences in death, hospitalisation, peritonitis, exit-site infection, and patients' satisfaction were investigated during 1 year of follow-up. The mean follow-up duration is 11.4 ± 1.5 months. Compared with the patients in the traditional follow-up group, patients in the QQ follow-up group showed higher levels of serum albumin (p = .009) and haemoglobin (p = .009), lower levels of phosphorus (p instant messaging software appears to be a feasible and acceptable method of delivering peritoneal dialysis treatment for patients with end-stage renal disease. © 2018 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Implications of Tobacco Industry Research on Packaging Colors for Designing Health Warning Labels.

Science.gov (United States)

Lempert, Lauren K; Glantz, Stanton A

2016-09-01

Health warning labels (HWLs) are an important way to educate the public about the dangers of tobacco products. Tobacco companies conducted research to understand how pack colors affect consumers' perceptions of the products and make packages and their labeling more visually prominent. We analyzed previously secret tobacco industry documents concerning the tobacco industry's internal research on how cigarette package colors and design influence the visual prominence of packages and consumers' perceptions of the harmfulness of the products. The companies found that black is visually prominent, placing dark pack elements on a contrasting light background makes them stand out more, and black text on a white background is more prominent than white text on a black background. Yellow most quickly and effectively seizes and holds consumers' attention and signals warning or danger, while white connotes health and safety. Using black text on a bright contrasting background color, particularly yellow, attracts consumers' attention to the message. Tobacco industry research on pack color choices that make pack elements more prominent, attract and keep consumers' attention, and convey danger instead of health should guide governments in specifying requirements for HWLs. These factors suggest that HWLs printed on a yellow background with black lettering and borders would most effectively seize and keep consumers' attention and signal the danger of cigarettes and other tobacco products. Tobacco companies' internal research on improving the prominence of pack elements suggests that HWLs using black lettering on a contrasting yellow background would most effectively seize and hold consumers' attention and signal the danger of cigarettes and other tobacco products. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

76 FR 36627 - Required Warnings for Cigarette Packages and Advertisements

Science.gov (United States)

2011-06-22

...The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is amending its regulations to add a new requirement for the display of health warnings on cigarette packages and in cigarette advertisements. This rule implements a provision of the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) that requires FDA to issue regulations requiring color graphics, depicting the negative health consequences of smoking, to accompany the nine new textual warning statements required under the Tobacco Control Act. The Tobacco Control Act amends the Federal Cigarette Labeling and Advertising Act (FCLAA) to require each cigarette package and advertisement to bear one of nine new textual warning statements. This final rule specifies the color graphic images that must accompany each of the nine new textual warning statements.

Patients’ attention to and understanding of adverse drug reaction warnings

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Tresa Muir McNeal

2010-12-01

Full Text Available Tresa Muir McNeal1, Colleen Y Colbert1, Christian Cable1, Curtis R Mirkes1, June G Lubowinski2, John D Myers11Department of Medicine, Texas A&M University System HSC College of Medicine, Scott & White Healthcare, Temple, TX, USA; 2RD Haynes Medical Library, Scott & White Healthcare, Temple, TX, USAIntroduction: Medications are critical to the management of patient conditions, and they can have significant effects on the success or failure of medical interventions. Patient perceptions of drug warnings play an important role in medication compliance and ultimately disease management. Several factors may affect patients’ understanding of drug warnings and drug labeling, including health literacy and interactions with physicians and pharmacists.Purpose: The purpose of this article is to provide a review of the literature related to patient perceptions of drug warnings and drug labeling. Descriptive articles and studies regarding patient perceptions and knowledge of adverse drug reaction warnings were reviewed.Methods: The following databases were utilized to search the literature related to patient perceptions of drug warnings: PubMed, Academic Search Premiere, CINAHL, Medline, Psych Info, Business Source Complete, Alternative Healthwatch, Health Source (both Nursing/Academic and Consumer additions, JSTOR, and Master File Premiere. For the purpose of this review, any peer-reviewed article was eligible. Exclusionary criteria included: articles published in languages other than English, articles/studies on patient perceptions of vaccines and chemotherapy, and articles related to perceptions of medications administered in the inpatient setting. Forty-six articles were included in the review.Results: Health literacy has been shown to have a major impact on patients’ ability to understand potential adverse reactions and instructions on correct dosing of medications. Direct communication with physicians and pharmacists is one of the most important and

49 CFR 571.125 - Standard No. 125; Warning devices.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... TRAFFIC SAFETY ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION FEDERAL MOTOR VEHICLE SAFETY STANDARDS Federal... in motor vehicles and used to warn approaching traffic of the presence of a stopped vehicle, except... the driver activate the vehicular hazard warning signal lamps before leaving the vehicle to erect the...

A scheme for evaluating a local queue warning system.

NARCIS (Netherlands)

Botma, H. & Oei, H.-L.

2018-01-01

This article outlines a method of evaluating a 'local queue warning system', in principle intended only to warn drivers of unexpected congestion at known discontinuities of the road geomctry (bottleneck) and give them advisory speed indications. A prerequisite for installing this system is therefore

49 CFR 234.211 - Security of warning system apparatus.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-10-01

... 49 Transportation 4 2010-10-01 2010-10-01 false Security of warning system apparatus. 234.211... ADMINISTRATION, DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION GRADE CROSSING SIGNAL SYSTEM SAFETY AND STATE ACTION PLANS Maintenance, Inspection, and Testing Maintenance Standards § 234.211 Security of warning system apparatus...

The Financial Benefit of Early Flood Warnings in Europe

Science.gov (United States)

Pappenberger, Florian; Cloke, Hannah L.; Wetterhall, Fredrik; Parker, Dennis J.; Richardson, David; Thielen, Jutta

2015-04-01

Effective disaster risk management relies on science based solutions to close the gap between prevention and preparedness measures. The outcome of consultations on the UNIDSR post-2015 framework for disaster risk reduction highlight the need for cross-border early warning systems to strengthen the preparedness phases of disaster risk management in order to save people's lives and property and reduce the overall impact of severe events. In particular, continental and global scale flood forecasting systems provide vital information to various decision makers with which early warnings of floods can be made. Here the potential monetary benefits of early flood warnings using the example of the European Flood Awareness System (EFAS) are calculated based on pan-European Flood damage data and calculations of potential flood damage reductions. The benefits are of the order of 400 Euro for every 1 Euro invested. Because of the uncertainties which accompany the calculation, a large sensitivity analysis is performed in order to develop an envelope of possible financial benefits. Current EFAS system skill is compared against perfect forecasts to demonstrate the importance of further improving the skill of the forecasts. Improving the response to warnings is also essential in reaping the benefits of flood early warnings.

Impact of social preparedness on flood early warning systems

Science.gov (United States)

Girons Lopez, M.; Di Baldassarre, G.; Seibert, J.

2017-01-01

Flood early warning systems play a major role in the disaster risk reduction paradigm as cost-effective methods to mitigate flood disaster damage. The connections and feedbacks between the hydrological and social spheres of early warning systems are increasingly being considered as key aspects for successful flood mitigation. The behavior of the public and first responders during flood situations, determined by their preparedness, is heavily influenced by many behavioral traits such as perceived benefits, risk awareness, or even denial. In this study, we use the recency of flood experiences as a proxy for social preparedness to assess its impact on the efficiency of flood early warning systems through a simple stylized model and implemented this model using a simple mathematical description. The main findings, which are based on synthetic data, point to the importance of social preparedness for flood loss mitigation, especially in circumstances where the technical forecasting and warning capabilities are limited. Furthermore, we found that efforts to promote and preserve social preparedness may help to reduce disaster-induced losses by almost one half. The findings provide important insights into the role of social preparedness that may help guide decision-making in the field of flood early warning systems.

Quantum signature scheme for known quantum messages

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Kim, Taewan; Lee, Hyang-Sook

2015-01-01

When we want to sign a quantum message that we create, we can use arbitrated quantum signature schemes which are possible to sign for not only known quantum messages but also unknown quantum messages. However, since the arbitrated quantum signature schemes need the help of a trusted arbitrator in each verification of the signature, it is known that the schemes are not convenient in practical use. If we consider only known quantum messages such as the above situation, there can exist a quantum signature scheme with more efficient structure. In this paper, we present a new quantum signature scheme for known quantum messages without the help of an arbitrator. Differing from arbitrated quantum signature schemes based on the quantum one-time pad with the symmetric key, since our scheme is based on quantum public-key cryptosystems, the validity of the signature can be verified by a receiver without the help of an arbitrator. Moreover, we show that our scheme provides the functions of quantum message integrity, user authentication and non-repudiation of the origin as in digital signature schemes. (paper)

Instant Messaging by SIP

Science.gov (United States)

Muhi, Daniel; Dulai, Tibor; Jaskó, Szilárd

2008-11-01

SIP is a general-purpose application layer protocol which is able to establish sessions between two or more parties. These sessions are mainly telephone calls and multimedia conferences. However it can be used for other purposes like instant messaging and presence service. SIP has a very important role in mobile communication as more and more communicating applications are going mobile. In this paper we would like to show how SIP can be used for instant messaging purposes.

Farmers’ Preferences for Mobile Agro Advisory Services

Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

Duraisamy Prabha

2017-12-01

Full Text Available This study was conducted in Coimbatore district of Tamil Nadu to understand the service preferences of the mobile agro advisory services offered by the public extension system. The agro advisories offered by the e-extension centre of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University were selected for the study. A sample of 200 respondents was selected employing proportionate random sampling method. The study was carried out in terms of dimensions viz., technical components, message frequency and timings, message physical dimension, message channel and message follow up. Results of the survey showed that among the technical components majority of the respondents opined that the information on advance warning of weather risks was very much adequate, the messages on plant protection were relevant and that the messages on advance warning of weather risks were timely. With reference to the message frequency, a majority preferred frequency of the messages on daily basis and preferred to receive messages during mornings.

The Message Logging System for NOνA Experiment

International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

Lu Qiming; Kowalkowski, J B; Biery, K A

2011-01-01

The message logging system provides the infrastructure for all of the distributed processes in the data acquisition (DAQ) to report status messages of various severities in a consistent manner to a central location, as well as providing the tools for displaying and archiving the messages. The message logging system has been developed over a decade, and has been run successfully on CDF and CMS experiments. The most recent work to the message logging system is to build it as a stand-alone package with the name MessageFacility which works for any generic framework or applications, with NOνA as the first driving user. System designs and architectures, as well as the efforts of making it a generic library will be discussed. We also present new features that have been added.

30 CFR 77.410 - Mobile equipment; automatic warning devices.

Science.gov (United States)

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Mobile equipment; automatic warning devices. 77... UNDERGROUND COAL MINES Safeguards for Mechanical Equipment § 77.410 Mobile equipment; automatic warning devices. (a) Mobile equipment such as front-end loaders, forklifts, tractors, graders, and trucks, except...

Cannabis Users' Recommended Warnings for Packages of Legally Sold Cannabis: An Australia-Centered Study.

Science.gov (United States)

Malouff, John M; Johnson, Caitlin E; Rooke, Sally E

2016-01-01

Introduction: Although cannabis use creates health risks, governments have recently been legalizing either medical use or leisure use. These governments can mandate health warnings on cannabis packages. Prior research examined recommended warnings of cannabis experts. The aim of this study was to obtain suggested cannabis health and safety warnings from cannabis users. Methods: We used a media release, Facebook postings, and announcements in university classes to seek individuals who had used cannabis at least once according to their own report. Using online data collection software that keeps participants anonymous, we asked the individuals to suggest a warning that governments could mandate on cannabis packages. Results: In total, 288 users suggested warnings. Categorizing the warnings into content categories led to six warning topics: (1) risk of harm to mental health and psychological functioning; (2) risk of operating machinery while under the influence; (3) short-term physical side effects; (4) responsible use; (5) long-term negative physical effects; and (6) dependence, addiction, or abuse. The user-suggested warnings overlapped with six expert-recommended warnings identified in prior survey research and included two content areas that did not feature in expert-recommended warnings: short-term physical side effects and the importance of responsible use. Conclusions: The results are consistent with prior findings that some youths perceive cannabis use as potentially harmful. The current findings provide possible new content for warnings on cannabis packages.

Effects of redundancy in the comparison of speech and pictorial displays in the cockpit environment.

Science.gov (United States)

Byblow, W D

1990-06-01

Synthesised speech and pictorial displays were compared in a spatially compatible simulated cockpit environment. Messages of high or low levels of redundancy were presented to subjects in both modality conditions. Subjects responded to warnings presented in a warning-only condition and in a dual-task condition, in which a simulated flight task was performed with visual and manual input/output modalities. Because the amount of information presented in most real-world applications and experimental paradigms is quantifiably large with respect to present guidelines for the use of synthesised speech warnings, the low-redundancy condition was hypothesised to allow for better performance. Results showed that subjects respond quicker to messages of low redundancy in both modalities. It is suggested that speech messages with low-redundancy levels were effective in minimising message length and ensuring that messages did not overload the short-term memory required to process and maintain speech in memory. Manipulation of phrase structure was used to optimise message redundancy and enhance the conceptual compatibility of the message without increasing message length or imposing a perceptual cost or memory overload. The results also suggest that system response times were quicker when synthesised speech warnings were used. This result is consistent with predictions from multiple resource theory which states that the resources required for the perception of verbal warnings are different from those for the flight task. It is also suggested that the perception of a pictorial display requires the same resources used for the perception of the primary flight task. An alternative explanation is that pictorial displays impose a visual scanning cost which is responsible for decreased performance. Based on the findings reported here, it is suggested that speech displays be incorporated in a spatially compatible cockpit environment because they allow equal or better performance when

The Influence of Sugar-Sweetened Beverage Health Warning Labels on Parents' Choices.

Science.gov (United States)

Roberto, Christina A; Wong, Diandra; Musicus, Aviva; Hammond, David

2016-02-01

US states have introduced bills requiring sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs) to display health warning labels. This study examined how such labels may influence parents and which labels are most impactful. In this study, 2381 demographically and educationally diverse parents participated in an online survey. Parents were randomly assigned to 1 of 6 conditions: (1) no warning label (control); (2) calorie label; or (3-6) 1 of 4 text versions of a warning label (eg, Safety Warning: Drinking beverages with added sugar[s] contributes to obesity, diabetes, and tooth decay). Parents chose a beverage for their child in a vending machine choice task, rated perceptions of different beverages, and indicated interest in receiving beverage coupons. Regression analyses controlling for frequency of beverage purchases were used to compare the no warning label group, calorie label group, and all warning label groups combined. Significantly fewer parents chose an SSB for their child in the warning label condition (40%) versus the no label (60%) and calorie label conditions (53%). Parents in the warning label condition also chose significantly fewer SSB coupons, believed that SSBs were less healthy for their child, and were less likely to intend to purchase SSBs. All P values parents' understanding of health harms associated with overconsumption of such beverages and may reduce parents' purchase of SSBs for their children. Copyright © 2016 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Gain versus loss-framed messaging and colorectal cancer screening among African Americans: A preliminary examination of perceived racism and culturally targeted dual messaging.

Science.gov (United States)

Lucas, Todd; Hayman, Lenwood W; Blessman, James E; Asabigi, Kanzoni; Novak, Julie M

2016-05-01

This preliminary study examined the effect of gain versus loss-framed messaging as well as culturally targeted personal prevention messaging on African Americans' receptivity to colorectal cancer (CRC) screening. This research also examined mechanistic functions of perceived racism in response to message framing. Community samples of African Americans (N = 132) and White Americans (N = 50) who were non-compliant with recommended CRC screening completed an online education module about CRC, and were either exposed to a gain-framed or loss-framed message about CRC screening. Half of African Americans were exposed to an additional and culturally targeted self-control message about personal prevention of CRC. Theory of planned behavior measures of attitudes, normative beliefs, perceived behavioural control, and intentions to obtain a CRC screen served as primary outcomes. The effect of messaging on perceived racism was also measured as an outcome. Consistent with prior research, White Americans were more receptive to CRC screening when exposed to a loss-framed message. However, African Americans were more receptive when exposed to a gain-framed message. The contrary effect of loss-framed messaging on receptivity to screening among African Americans was mediated by an increase in perceived racism. However, including an additional and culturally targeted prevention message mitigated the adverse effect of a loss-framed message. This study identifies an important potential cultural difference in the effect of message framing on illness screening among African Americans, while also suggesting a culturally relevant linking mechanism. This study also suggests the potential for simultaneously presented and culturally targeted messaging to alter the effects of gain and loss-framed messaging on African Americans. What is already known on this subject? African Americans are at an increased risk of both developing and dying from colorectal cancer (CRC). These disparities can be

Forecasting, Warning and Responding to Transnational Risks

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

, but are also sensitive to differences between actors and types of risk. The overall thrust is to challenge both technocratic and popularised accounts of the warning-response problem. Successful prevention or mitigation involves difficult cognitive, normative and political judgements. Whilst these difficulties...... areas to conceptualise and empirically study the interlinked problems of forecasting, warning and mobilising preventive action. Contributors comment on key problems such as uncertainty, silo-mentality, spotting weak-signals, cultures of blame, conflicts of interest and divergent risk perceptions...

Actors with Multi-Headed Message Receive Patterns

DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

Sulzmann, Martin; Lam, Edmund Soon Lee; Van Weert, Peter

2008-01-01

style actors with receive clauses containing multi-headed message patterns. Patterns may be non-linear and constrained by guards. We provide a number of examples to show the usefulness of the extension. We also explore the design space for multi-headed message matching semantics, for example first-match......The actor model provides high-level concurrency abstractions to coordinate simultaneous computations by message passing. Languages implementing the actor model such as Erlang commonly only support single-headed pattern matching over received messages. We propose and design an extension of Erlang...... and rule priority-match semantics. The various semantics are inspired by the multi-set constraint matching semantics found in Constraint Handling Rules. This provides us with a formal model to study actors with multi-headed message receive patterns. The system can be implemented efficiently and we have...

Distribution of new graphic warning labels: Are tobacco companies following regulations?

Science.gov (United States)

Wilson, Nick; Peace, Jo; Li, Judy; Edwards, Richard; Hoek, Janet; Stanley, James; Thomson, George

2009-08-25

To test the hypothesis that tobacco companies would not follow a regulation that required seven new graphic health warnings (GHWs) to be evenly distributed on cigarette packs and that they would distribute fewer packs featuring warnings regarded by smokers as being more disturbing. Cross-sectional survey of purchased packs (n = 168) and street-collected discarded packs (convenience sample of New Zealand cities and towns, n = 1208 packs) with statistical analysis of seven types of new GHWs. A priori warning impact was judged using three criteria, which were tested against data from depth interviews with retailers. The GHWs on the purchased packs and street-collected packs both showed a distribution pattern that was generally consistent with the hypothesis ie, there were disproportionately more packs featuring images judged as "least disturbing" and disproportionately fewer of those with warnings judged "more disturbing". The overall patterns were statistically significant, suggesting an unequal frequency of the different warnings for both purchased (p compliance. As an immediate measure, governments should strictly enforce all regulations applying to health warnings, particularly given that these are an effective tobacco control intervention that cost tax payers nothing.

The role of warning behaviors in threat assessment: an exploration and suggested typology.

Science.gov (United States)

Reid Meloy, J; Hoffmann, Jens; Guldimann, Angela; James, David

2012-01-01

The concept of warning behaviors offers an additional perspective in threat assessment. Warning behaviors are acts which constitute evidence of increasing or accelerating risk. They are acute, dynamic, and particularly toxic changes in patterns of behavior which may aid in structuring a professional's judgment that an individual of concern now poses a threat - whether the actual target has been identified or not. They require an operational response. A typology of eight warning behaviors for assessing the threat of intended violence is proposed: pathway, fixation, identification, novel aggression, energy burst, leakage, directly communicated threat, and last resort warning behaviors. Previous research on risk factors associated with such warning behaviors is reviewed, and examples of each warning behavior from various intended violence cases are presented, including public figure assassination, adolescent and adult mass murder, corporate celebrity stalking, and both domestic and foreign acts of terrorism. Practical applications and future research into warning behaviors are suggested. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Text Messaging Data Collection for Monitoring an Infant Feeding Intervention Program in Rural China: Feasibility Study

Science.gov (United States)

van Velthoven, Michelle Helena; Chen, Li; Car, Josip; Rudan, Igor; Wu, Qiong; Du, Xiaozhen; Scherpbier, Robert W

2013-01-01

Background An effective data collection method is crucial for high quality monitoring of health interventions. The traditional face-to-face data collection method is labor intensive, expensive, and time consuming. With the rapid increase of mobile phone subscribers, text messaging has the potential to be used for evaluation of population health interventions in rural China. Objective The objective of this study was to explore the feasibility of using text messaging as a data collection tool to monitor an infant feeding intervention program. Methods Participants were caregivers of children aged 0 to 23 months in rural China who participated in an infant feeding health education program. We used the test-retest method. First, we collected data with a text messaging survey and then with a face-to-face survey for 2 periods of 3 days. We compared the response rate, data agreement, costs, and participants’ acceptability of the two methods. Also, we interviewed participants to explore their reasons for not responding to the text messages and the reasons for disagreement in the two methods. In addition, we evaluated the most appropriate time during the day for sending text messages. Results We included 258 participants; 99 (38.4%) participated in the text messaging survey and 177 (68.6%) in the face-to-face survey. Compared with the face-to-face survey, the text messaging survey had much lower response rates to at least one question (38.4% vs 68.6%) and to all 7 questions (27.9% vs 67.4%) with moderate data agreement (most kappa values between .5 and .75, the intraclass correlation coefficients between .53 to .72). Participants who took part in both surveys gave the same acceptability rating for both methods (median 4.0 for both on a 5-point scale, 1=disliked very much and 5=liked very much). The costs per questionnaire for the text messaging method were much lower than the costs for the face-to-face method: ¥19.7 (US $3.13) versus ¥33.9 (US $5.39) for all

Urban flood risk warning under rapid urbanization.

Science.gov (United States)

Chen, Yangbo; Zhou, Haolan; Zhang, Hui; Du, Guoming; Zhou, Jinhui

2015-05-01

In the past decades, China has observed rapid urbanization, the nation's urban population reached 50% in 2000, and is still in steady increase. Rapid urbanization in China has an adverse impact on urban hydrological processes, particularly in increasing the urban flood risks and causing serious urban flooding losses. Urban flooding also increases health risks such as causing epidemic disease break out, polluting drinking water and damaging the living environment. In the highly urbanized area, non-engineering measurement is the main way for managing urban flood risk, such as flood risk warning. There is no mature method and pilot study for urban flood risk warning, the purpose of this study is to propose the urban flood risk warning method for the rapidly urbanized Chinese cities. This paper first presented an urban flood forecasting model, which produces urban flood inundation index for urban flood risk warning. The model has 5 modules. The drainage system and grid dividing module divides the whole city terrain into drainage systems according to its first-order river system, and delineates the drainage system into grids based on the spatial structure with irregular gridding technique; the precipitation assimilation module assimilates precipitation for every grids which is used as the model input, which could either be the radar based precipitation estimation or interpolated one from rain gauges; runoff production module classifies the surface into pervious and impervious surface, and employs different methods to calculate the runoff respectively; surface runoff routing module routes the surface runoff and determines the inundation index. The routing on surface grid is calculated according to the two dimensional shallow water unsteady flow algorithm, the routing on land channel and special channel is calculated according to the one dimensional unsteady flow algorithm. This paper then proposed the urban flood risk warning method that is called DPSIR model based

Effects of Text Messaging on Academic Performance

OpenAIRE

Barks Amanda; Searight H. Russell; Ratwik Susan

2011-01-01

University students frequently send and receive cellular phone text messages during classroominstruction. Cognitive psychology research indicates that multi-tasking is frequently associatedwith performance cost. However, university students often have considerable experience withelectronic multi-tasking and may believe that they can devote necessary attention to a classroomlecture while sending and receiving text messages. In the current study, university students whoused text messaging were ...

Reactions to threatening health messages.

Science.gov (United States)

Ten Hoor, Gill A; Peters, Gjalt-Jorn Y; Kalagi, Janice; de Groot, Lianne; Grootjans, Karlijne; Huschens, Alexander; Köhninger, Constanze; Kölgen, Lizan; Pelssers, Isabelle; Schütt, Toby; Thomas, Sophia; Ruiter, Robert A C; Kok, Gerjo

2012-11-21

Threatening health messages that focus on severity are popular, but frequently have no effect or even a counterproductive effect on behavior change. This paradox (i.e. wide application despite low effectiveness) may be partly explained by the intuitive appeal of threatening communication: it may be hard to predict the defensive reactions occurring in response to fear appeals. We examine this hypothesis by using two studies by Brown and colleagues, which provide evidence that threatening health messages in the form of distressing imagery in anti-smoking and anti-alcohol campaigns cause defensive reactions. We simulated both Brown et al. experiments, asking participants to estimate the reactions of the original study subjects to the threatening health information (n = 93). Afterwards, we presented the actual original study outcomes. One week later, we assessed whether this knowledge of the actual study outcomes helped participants to more successfully estimate the effectiveness of the threatening health information (n = 72). Results showed that participants were initially convinced of the effectiveness of threatening health messages and were unable to anticipate the defensive reactions that in fact occurred. Furthermore, these estimates did not improve after participants had been explained the dynamics of threatening communication as well as what the effects of the threatening communication had been in reality. These findings are consistent with the hypothesis that the effectiveness of threatening health messages is intuitively appealing. What is more, providing empirical evidence against the use of threatening health messages has very little effect on this intuitive appeal.

Weather warnings predict fall-related injuries among older adults.

Science.gov (United States)

Mondor, Luke; Charland, Katia; Verma, Aman; Buckeridge, David L

2015-05-01

weather predictions are a useful tool for informing public health planning and prevention strategies for non-injury health outcomes, but the association between winter weather warnings and fall-related injuries has not been assessed previously. to examine the association between fall-related injuries among older adults and government-issued winter weather warnings. using a dynamic cohort of individuals ≥65 years of age who lived in Montreal between 1998 and 2006, we identified all fall-related injuries from administrative data using a validated set of diagnostic and procedure codes. We compared rates of injuries on days with freezing rain or snowstorm warnings to rates observed on days without warnings. We also compared the incidence of injuries on winter days to non-winter days. All analyses were performed overall and stratified by age and sex. freezing rain alerts were associated with an increase in fall-related injuries (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 1.20, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.08-1.32), particularly among males (IRR = 1.31, 95% CI: 1.10-1.56), and lower rates of injuries were associated with snowstorm alerts (IRR = 0.89, 95% CI: 0.80-0.99). The rate of fall-related injuries did not differ seasonally (IRR = 1.00, 95% CI: 0.97-1.03). official weather warnings are predictive of increases in fall-related injuries among older adults. Public health agencies should consider using these warnings to trigger initiation of injury prevention strategies in advance of inclement weather. © The Author 2014. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the British Geriatrics Society. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.