How safe is radiotherapy practice in India: perceptions and practical experiences among the workers of radiotherapy facilities in North East, India?

2018 ◽  
Vol 17 (4) ◽  
pp. 427-435
Author(s):  
Dewan Thokchom Singh
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Internal Audit ◽  
Patient Treatment ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Regulatory Requirements ◽  
Indian States ◽  
North East India ◽  
North East

AbstractPurposeThe aim of this study was to understand how the regulatory requirements for functioning radiotherapy practices in India to control risk were conceptualised, perceived and applied accordingly in the radiotherapy facilities. It further examined how the social factors influenced the decision-making process for implementing regulatory requirements in the radiotherapy facilities.Material and methodThis study was carried out in nine radiotherapy facilities located in the northeastern Indian states of Manipur, Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura and Mizoram. The study adopted both the semi-structured and in-depth questionnaire, developed on the basis of multidisciplinary fields.ResultThe study found that the facilities in the northeastern regions were commissioned in line with the regulatory requirements. The facilities had adequate structural shielding rooms to protect workers, patients and the public from the risk of ionising radiation. However, in the operational phase of the facilities, majority of the facilities had the improper management of existing resources and non-implementation of regulatory requirements on time. It was observed that workers in some facilities continued the practice, despite the failure of specific safety functions, or not meeting regulatory requirements. Such practices led to the suspension of patient treatment in three of the facilities by the regulator. The existence of a varying nature of risk perceptions among oncologists, medical physicists, radiological safety officers, radiotherapy technologists in the facilities were observed and these influenced the decision-making process of the facilities on the implementation of regulatory requirements.ConclusionThe study found that the facilities needed to explore various means, including to narrow the gap that existed in respects of perceived risk (within the facilities), communication to enhance work coordination and mutual trust among workers. The adoption of the institutional policy for conducting an internal audit of working practices, encouragement of workers to participate in continuing education programs would enhance effective utilisation of already existing infrastructure/equipment and work procedures including quality assurance programs.

2010 Meltdown – Airport Closure Risk Communications in London and NYC

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-110
Author(s):  
Sweta Chakraborty ◽  
Naomi Creutzfeldt-Banda
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
New York ◽  
New York City ◽  
York City ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
City Area ◽  
Risk Communications ◽  
The City ◽  
Economic And Social Impacts

Saturday, 18 December 2010 was the first of a two day complete closure of all London area airports due to freezing temperatures and approximately five inches of snow. A week later on December 26th, New York City area airports closed in a similar manner from the sixth largest snowstorm in NYC history, blanketing the city approximately twenty inches of snow. Both storms grounded flights for days, and resulted in severe delays long after the snow stopped falling. Both London and NYC area airports produced risk communications to explain the necessity for the closures and delays. This short flash news report examines, in turn, the risk communications presented during the airport closures. A background is provided to understand how the risk perceptions differ between London and NYC publics. Finally, it compares and contrasts the perceptions of the decision making process and outcomes of the closures, which continue to accumulate economic and social impacts.

ADOLESCENTS’ DECISION-MAKING AND ATTITUDES TOWARDS ABORTION IN NORTH-EAST BRAZIL

2002 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 71-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
PATRICIA E. BAILEY ◽  
ZENILDA V. BRUNO ◽  
MARIA F. BEZERRA ◽  
IVANY QUEIRÓS ◽  
CRISTIANA M. OLIVEIRA
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Prenatal Visit ◽  
The Third ◽  
Unintended Pregnancies ◽  
North East ◽  
The Future ◽  
Adolescent Attitudes ◽  
Post Abortion

Three groups of adolescents are compared with regard to their own considerations of abortion and when they believe abortion is justified. One group of adolescents terminated their pregnancies (n=95), a second became pregnant and carried their pregnancies to term but considered abortion (n=68), and the third also carried their pregnancies to term but did not consider abortion (n=204). The study was carried out between 1995 and 1998 in Fortaleza, Brazil. Adolescents were interviewed at the time of their hospitalization or their first prenatal visit and again at 6 weeks and 1 year post-abortion or postpartum. Friends and family recommended abortion to at least half of the teenagers in each group. Teenagers who aborted were more accepting of abortion than those who did not abort, while those who considered abortion found the practice more justified than those who did not consider abortion. Teenagers who aborted became less accepting a year later, while those who did not consider abortion became more accepting. A better understanding of adolescent attitudes towards abortion and their decision-making process should help adults and professionals meet the needs of adolescents for support in the process and in the reduction of the number of unintended pregnancies in the future.

The Roads (Not) Taken: The Materiality, Poetics and Politics of Infrastructure in Manipur, India

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vibha Arora ◽  
Raile Rocky Ziipao
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Uneven Development ◽  
Capital City ◽  
Ethnographic Research ◽  
Political Protest ◽  
The Road ◽  
North East India ◽  
North East ◽  
Indian State ◽  
Development Route

Roads are bitumen covered concrete metaphors of modernity and development, and they materially represent fantasies, collective hopes, and aspirations of future(s). They symbolize movement, connectivity, transactions and transportation, and eminently reflect governmentality. Our article is about Manipur’s connective infrastructures, and it focuses on internal roads, and a border highway that connects Imphal (Manipur’s capital city) to Dimapur at Nagaland in North-east India. We explain the infrastructural deficit within Manipur and decision-making about them being influenced by a hill-valley socio-ecological ethnic distributional conflict. The road links and is part of the uneven development route. We provide an ethnographic account of a truck journey undertaken between Imphal and Dimapur in 2018, and this enables us to understand routinized corruption and the collusion of state and non-state actors therein. The road is the symbol of hope, and a developmental desire, and epitomizes state’s governmentality and developmental project of progress, nonetheless it also gets transformed into the central locale of political protest, ethnic conflict when ethnic groups appropriate it forcibly to erect blockades and organize protests in its arterial space. The roads and highways spatially produce and reproduce (il)legality, (il)legibility, and (il)legitimacy of the Indian state. Our ethnographic research unpacks and invokes the multivalence of roads.

scholarly journals WOMEN EMPOWERMENT THROUGH PANCHAYATI RAJ INSTITUTIONS IN EAST SIANG DISTRICT OF ARUNACHAL PRADESH

2021 ◽  
pp. 10-14
Author(s):  
Minbi Kaye
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Social Economic ◽  
Constitutional Amendment ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Women Empowerment ◽  
Arunachal Pradesh ◽  
North East ◽  
Tribal Women ◽  
Grassroots Level ◽  
Panchayati Raj

The introduction of Panchayati Raj Institution in 1969 in the then, North East Frontier Agency (NEFA) and present Arunachal Pradesh brought landmark changes in the outlook of tribal society especially towards its women. The introduction of modern democratic institutions in grassroots level legally empowered the tribal women to participate in rd the decision-making process of the society. This was further boosted by 73 Constitutional Amendment Act, 1992 that reserved thirty three percent of the seats in Panchayat Institutions for the women. This really helped and empowered the women. Accordingly women are also elected as the member of PRIs. But it is often found that the rural tribal women lack in decision-making in various aspects whether it is social, economic, political or family matters and hence are dictated by their male counterparts.

scholarly journals A SWOT ANALYSIS OF DEVELOPMENT IN NORTH EAST INDIA

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-2
Author(s):  
Ranju Kumar Bharali
Keyword(s):  
Land Surface ◽  
Swot Analysis ◽  
South East Asia ◽  
Indian States ◽  
Hydro Power ◽  
Policy Initiatives ◽  
North East India ◽  
North East ◽  
Hydro Power Potential ◽  
International Border

North East India comprising eight North Indian States covering 8 percent of India's land surface and 3.1 percent of India's population is a centre stage of India's Act East Policy as this region is a gateway to South East Asia. This region has great potential to develop not just as a self sustaining economic unit but also critical for overall development of the country. North East India has vast natural resources. The region is endowed with rich hydro power potential, coal, petroleum, natural gas and other minerals, forest wealth, horticulture etc. As about 98 percent of the region is covered with international border it has great potential for trade and collaboration. Again the region has vast potential for all types of tourism. Inspite of all these, the region is relatively backward. This might be due to lack of proper developmental strategy and policy. To formulate proper roadmap and strategy for development it is very necessary to analyse the strength, weakness, opportunities, and threat (SWOT) of North East India. This paper makes an attempt for SWOT analysis of development in North East India which may be helpful in making proper policy initiatives and strategy for overall development of the region.

scholarly journals Planning horizon affects prophylactic decision-making and epidemic dynamics

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis G. Nardin ◽  
Craig R. Miller ◽  
Benjamin J. Ridenhour ◽  
Stephen M. Krone ◽  
Paul Joyce ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Planning Horizon ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Risk Of Infection ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Epidemic Dynamics ◽  
Behavioral Decision ◽  
Protection Efficacy ◽  
Planning Horizons

AbstractHuman behavior can change the spread of infectious disease. There is limited understanding of how the time in the future over which individuals make a behavioral decision, their planning horizon, affects epidemic dynamics. We developed an agent-based model (along with an ODE analog) to explore the decision-making of self-interested individuals on adopting prophylactic behavior. The decision-making process incorporates prophylaxis efficacy and disease prevalence with individuals' payoffs and planning horizon. Our results show that for short and long planning horizons individuals do not consider engaging in prophylactic behavior. In contrast, individuals adopt prophylactic behavior when considering intermediate planning horizons. Such adoption, however, is not always monotonically associated with the prevalence of the disease, depending on the perceived protection efficacy and the disease parameters. Adoption of prophylactic behavior reduces the peak size while prolonging the epidemic and potentially generates secondary waves of infection. These effects can be made stronger by increasing the behavioral decision frequency or distorting an individual’s perceived risk of infection.

scholarly journals Math matters during a pandemic: A novel, brief educational intervention combats whole number bias to improve health decision-making and predicts COVID-19 risk perceptions and worry across 10 days

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clarissa A. Thompson ◽  
Jennifer M Taber ◽  
Pooja Gupta Sidney ◽  
Charles Fitzsimmons ◽  
Marta Mielicki ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Educational Intervention ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Intervention Group ◽  
Science Research ◽  
Future Health ◽  
Health Decision Making ◽  
Whole Number ◽  
Health Decision

At the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, our interdisciplinary team hypothesized that a mathematical misconception--whole number bias (WNB)--contributed to incorrect beliefs that COVID-19 was less fatal than the flu. We created a novel, five-minute online educational intervention, leveraging evidence-based cognitive science research, to encourage accurate COVID-19 and flu fatality rate calculations and comparisons. As predicted, adults (N = 1,297) randomly assigned to the intervention were more likely to correctly answer health decision-making problems and were less likely to report WNB errors in their problem-solving strategies relative to control participants. There were no immediate effects of condition on COVID-19 risk perceptions and worry; however, those in the intervention group did exhibit increased perceived risk and worry across 10 days of daily diaries. The intervention did not cause distress; instead, it increased positive affect. Ameliorating WNB errors could impact people’s risk perceptions about future health crises.

scholarly journals Consumers’ Decision-Making Process on Social Commerce Platforms: Online Trust, Perceived Risk, and Purchase Intentions

2020 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
George Lăzăroiu ◽  
Octav Neguriţă ◽  
Iulia Grecu ◽  
Gheorghe Grecu ◽  
Paula Cornelia Mitran
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Purchase Intentions ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Social Commerce ◽  
Online Trust

scholarly journals Planning horizon affects prophylactic decision-making and epidemic dynamics

PeerJ ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. e2678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luis G. Nardin ◽  
Craig R. Miller ◽  
Benjamin J. Ridenhour ◽  
Stephen M. Krone ◽  
Paul Joyce ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Planning Horizon ◽  
Decision Making Process ◽  
Risk Of Infection ◽  
Agent Based ◽  
Epidemic Dynamics ◽  
Behavioral Decision ◽  
Protection Efficacy ◽  
Planning Horizons

The spread of infectious diseases can be impacted by human behavior, and behavioral decisions often depend implicitly on a planning horizon—the time in the future over which options are weighed. We investigate the effects of planning horizons on epidemic dynamics. We developed an epidemiological agent-based model (along with an ODE analog) to explore the decision-making of self-interested individuals on adopting prophylactic behavior. The decision-making process incorporates prophylaxis efficacy and disease prevalence with the individuals’ payoffs and planning horizon. Our results show that for short and long planning horizons individuals do not consider engaging in prophylactic behavior. In contrast, individuals adopt prophylactic behavior when considering intermediate planning horizons. Such adoption, however, is not always monotonically associated with the prevalence of the disease, depending on the perceived protection efficacy and the disease parameters. Adoption of prophylactic behavior reduces the epidemic peak size while prolonging the epidemic and potentially generates secondary waves of infection. These effects can be made stronger by increasing the behavioral decision frequency or distorting an individual’s perceived risk of infection.

scholarly journals Modeling Preconception Perceptions of Pregnancy and Birth: A Qualitative Study of Women Living in Italy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sydney Rivera ◽  
Stephanie Meier ◽  
Zeina Naoum ◽  
Andrea DeMaria
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Prenatal Care ◽  
Perceived Risk ◽  
Risk Perceptions ◽  
Emotional Health ◽  
Health Planning ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Preconception Health ◽  
Theory Approach ◽  
Pregnancy And Birth

Abstract Background: Preconception health planning is a recognized resource for optimization of physical and mental-emotional health prior to pregnancy, though few women and providers demonstrate high awareness of preconception health. Furthermore, concerns, fear, and risk perceptions are often absent from the discussion, despite their potential impact on pregnancy and birth decision-making. These themes remain understudied in Italian populations. Methods: Researchers conducted in-depth interviews in 2017 with 43 reproductive-aged women living in or around Florence, Italy, and currently using the Italian health care system. An expanded grounded theory approach was used to explore pregnancy and birth perceptions. HyperRESEARCH facilitated open and axial coding for thematic analyses.Results: Themes emerged in the form of three continuous spectrums across which women view pregnancy and birth decision-making in the preconception period. First, participants identified strong social and healthcare support for pregnancy and birth, which at times was perceived as excessive or limiting (Supported vs. Controlled). Second, participants contrasted Italian preferences for natural and holistic processes with the medical model of prenatal care and birth (Natural vs. Medical). Third, participants constructed pregnancy and birth through risk narratives, placing a high priority on safety (Safe vs. Risky). While women described a culture of social support and natural lifestyle preferences, they also emphasized complications and risk, treatment of pregnant women as sick or fragile, seemingly rigorous prenatal care, and birth choices contingent on as-of-yet unexperienced complications. High levels of social and medical control surrounding pregnancy correlated with high levels of perceived risk. Conclusions: Findings offer opportunities for practitioners to address pregnancy- and birth-related concerns and misinformation through an integrated model demonstrating both the destructive role of risk and control as well as the possibility of a more positive emphasis on safety and support.

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