scholarly journals Tornadoes in Romania—from Forecasting and Warning to Understanding Public’s Response and Expectations

Atmosphere ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (9) ◽  
pp. 966
Author(s):  
Simona Andrei ◽  
Meda Daniela Andrei ◽  
Mihăiţă Huştiu ◽  
Sorin Cheval ◽  
Bogdan Antonescu
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
General Public ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Significant Progress ◽  
Tornado Warnings ◽  
Forecasting And Warning ◽  
Tornado Event ◽  
First Time ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Further Development

Significant progress in tornado research and management can be claimed over the last few decades worldwide. However, tornado forecasting and warning continue to be permanent challenges for most European national meteorological services because they require particular skills and experience. Moreover, tornado warnings may generate panic. Therefore, one can remark that the main difficulties are related to (1) forecasting the tornado genesis, and (2) finding the most efficient way to communicate to the general public the possibility of tornado occurrence. This article presents the main characteristics of two convective events that occurred in Romania in order to emphasize the similarities and disparities between the tornado event (30 April 2019) and the non-tornado event (6 May 2019), from the warning perspective. Further, we investigate, for the first time in Romania, the general public’s comprehension, risk perception and reactions regarding the tornado events. The survey performed in 2020 emphasized that the Romanian public is able to recognize tornadoes (60%), understand the risks (over 80%), can manage the panic (over 70%), and is rather desirous to receive clear (over 90%) and real-time (95%) tornado warnings. The lessons learned may support the further development of tornado forecasting and warning procedures, and foster the public’s awareness related to tornado events.

scholarly journals Tornadoes in Europe: An Underestimated Threat

2017 ◽  
Vol 98 (4) ◽  
pp. 713-728 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bogdan Antonescu ◽  
David M. Schultz ◽  
Alois Holzer ◽  
Pieter Groenemeijer
Keyword(s):  
General Public ◽  
The United States ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Warning Systems ◽  
Tornado Warnings ◽  
Emergency Managers ◽  
European Database ◽  
The Social ◽  
Forecasting And Warning ◽  
First Time

Abstract The social and economic impact of tornadoes in Europe is analyzed using tornado reports from the European Severe Weather Database between 1950 and 2015. Despite what is often assumed by the general public and even by meteorologists and researchers, tornadoes do occur in Europe and they are associated with injuries, fatalities, and damages, although their reported frequencies and intensities are lower compared with the United States. Currently, the threat of tornadoes to Europe is underestimated. Few European meteorological services have developed and maintained tornado databases and even fewer have issued tornado warnings. This article summarizes our current understanding of the tornado threat to Europe by showing the changes in tornado injuries and fatalities since the 1950s and by estimating for the first time the damages associated with European tornadoes. To increase awareness of tornadoes and their threat to Europe, we propose a strategy that includes 1) collaboration between meteorological services, researchers, and the general public toward a pan-European database; 2) development of national forecasting and warning systems and of pan-European convective outlooks; and 3) development by decision-makers and emergency managers of policies and strategies that include tornadoes.

scholarly journals First-Time Fathers’ Experience of Support from Midwives in Maternity Clinics: An Interview Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Huusko ◽  
S. Sjöberg ◽  
A. Ekström ◽  
E. Hertfelt Wahn ◽  
S. Thorstensson
Keyword(s):  
Parental Education ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Professional Support ◽  
Clinical Implications ◽  
Expectant Fathers ◽  
Open Question ◽  
First Time ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Further Development ◽  
Maternity Clinics

Background. Research shows that first-time fathers want to take part in preparation for birth and parenthood but they describe being excluded by health professionals. Aim. The aim of this study was to illustrate first-time fathers’ experiences of support from midwives in maternity clinics as a step in the validation of “The Father Perceived-Professional-Support” (The FaPPS) scale. Methods. A qualitative content analysis with an inductive and deductive approach was used; seven first-time fathers were strategically selected and interviewed. In the inductive part the following open question was asked: “How did you perceive the support from the antenatal midwife/midwives?” In the deductive part, the fathers were asked to respond to the FaPPS scale, in order to receive their thoughts and understanding of the scale, inspired by the “Think-aloud” method. Findings. The inductive results showed two main categories: Experience of not knowing what support they needed and Experience of being excluded. The fathers found support from other fathers in parental education classes, but they lack time to discuss. Overall it seems as if the fathers answered both from their own perspective and from the mothers’ perspective. This was not evident in the deductive results. The FaPPs scale should therefore include professionals’ ability to strengthen social support from other first-time fathers and professionals’ ability to offer support to the mother. Conclusion and Clinical Implications. The fathers experienced exclusion both by themselves and also by midwives. Midwives should offer both parents the opportunity to pose questions. It is important for expectant fathers that time for discussion is planned in parental education classes. The FaPPS scale is useful but needs further development. Parts of our result are in line with earlier research, for decades; therefore it is necessary to focus more on support for fathers.

Europe's Growth Champion

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marcin Piatkowski
Keyword(s):  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Central And Eastern Europe ◽  
High Income ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
The West ◽  
Success Stories ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
Inclusive Society ◽  
First Time ◽  
Global Growth

The book is about one of the biggest economic success stories that one has hardly ever heard about. It is about a perennially backward, poor, and peripheral country, which over the last twenty-five years has unexpectedly become Europe’s and a global growth champion and joined the ranks of high-income countries during the life of just one generation. It is about the lessons learned from its remarkable experience for other countries in the world, the conditions that keep countries poor, and challenges that countries need face to grow and become high-income. It is also about a new growth model that this country—Poland—and its peers in Central and Eastern Europe and elsewhere need to adopt to continue to grow and catch up with the West for the first time ever. The book emphasizes the importance of the fundamental sources of growth—institutions, culture, ideas, and leaders—in economic development. It argues that a shift from an extractive society, where the few rule for the benefit of the few, to an inclusive society, where many rule for the benefit of many, was the key to Poland’s success. It asserts that a newly emerged inclusive society will support further convergence of Poland and Central and Eastern Europe with the West and help sustain the region’s Golden Age, but moving to the core of the European economy will require further reforms and changes in Poland’s developmental DNA.

scholarly journals H3ABioNet genomic medicine and microbiome data portals hackathon proceedings

Database ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faisal M Fadlelmola ◽  
Kais Ghedira ◽  
Yosr Hamdi ◽  
Mariem Hanachi ◽  
Fouzia Radouani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Groups ◽  
Genomic Medicine ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Team Work ◽  
Significant Progress ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Pan African ◽  
Scientific Expertise ◽  
Microbiome Data ◽  
Made In

Abstract African genomic medicine and microbiome datasets are usually not well characterized in terms of their origin, making it difficult to find and extract data for specific African ethnic groups or even countries. The Pan-African H3Africa Bioinformatics Network (H3ABioNet) recognized the need for developing data portals for African genomic medicine and African microbiomes to address this and ran a hackathon to initiate their development. The two portals were designed and significant progress was made in their development during the hackathon. All the participants worked in a very synergistic and collaborative atmosphere in order to achieve the hackathon's goals. The participants were divided into content and technical teams and worked over a period of 6 days. In response to one of the survey questions of what the participants liked the most during the hackathon, 55% of the hackathon participants highlighted the familial and friendly atmosphere, the team work and the diversity of team members and their expertise. This paper describes the preparations for the portals hackathon and the interaction between the participants and reflects upon the lessons learned about its impact on successfully developing the two data portals as well as building scientific expertise of younger African researchers. Database URL: The code for developing the two portals was made publicly available in GitHub repositories: [https://github.com/codemeleon/Database; https://github.com/codemeleon/AfricanMicrobiomePortal].

Out of the Picture: Latinx and White Male Youths’ Facial Features Predict Their Juvenile Justice System Processing Outcomes

2021 ◽  
pp. 001112872199934
Author(s):  
Jacqueline M. Chen ◽  
Adam D. Fine ◽  
Jasmine B. Norman ◽  
Paul J. Frick ◽  
Elizabeth Cauffman
Keyword(s):  
Criminal Justice ◽  
Juvenile Justice ◽  
Justice System ◽  
Juvenile Justice System ◽  
White Male ◽  
Facial Features ◽  
Legal Decisions ◽  
Increased Risk ◽  
First Time ◽  
To Receive

Adults’ facial characteristics predict whether and how severely they are sentenced in the adult criminal justice system. We investigate whether characteristics of White and Latinx male youths’ faces predict the severity of their processing in the juvenile justice system. Among a sample of first-time offenders, despite no differences in the severity of their offenses, youth who were perceived by naïve observers as more dominant, less trustworthy, less healthy, and having darker skin were more likely to receive harsher sanctions. Thus, extralegal factors like appearance may bias legal decisions that place some youth at increased risk for more restrictive sanctioning. Our findings highlight the need for structured approaches to juvenile processing decisions that take youths’ appearance out of the picture.

scholarly journals COT-13 Current situation and problems of cancer genomic profiling test in Kyoto University Hospital

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (Supplement_3) ◽  
pp. ii22-ii22
Author(s):  
Yoshiki Arakawa ◽  
Junko Suga ◽  
Yukinori Terada ◽  
Kohei Nakajima ◽  
Masahiro Tanji ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Treatment Options ◽  
Insurance Coverage ◽  
Germline Mutations ◽  
University Hospital ◽  
Genomic Profiling ◽  
Test Results ◽  
Final Test ◽  
First Time ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Secondary Finding

Abstract Objective: Kyoto University Hospital has introduced the cancer genomic profiling tests, Oncoprime in 2015, Guardant360 in 2018, which are not under insurance coverage, FoundationOne CDx(F1CDx) and OncoGuide NCC Oncopanel system(NCC OP) in 2019, which received approval for insurance coverage for the first time in Japan. We investigated the results of cancer genomic profiling test under insurance coverage in our hospital. Methods: A special facility for the cancer genomic profiling tests was produced. To perform the cancer genomic profiling test, an outpatient must visit the facility three times (learning, ordering of the test, and getting the results). The expert panels decide the final test results and treatment options with the all information of the patients. Results: From November 2019 to March 2020, 51 and 9 patients were tested with F1CDx and NCC OP, respectively. 16 patients (31%) of F1CDX and 2 patients (22%) of NCC OP got treatment recommendations from the expert panels. However, only 5 patients (9.8%) of F1CDX and 1 patient (11%) of NCC OP received the treatments. The secondary finding suspecting germline mutations was found in 8 patients of F1CDX. Conclusion: After the approval the cancer genomic profiling tests with insurance coverage in Japan, it becomes easy for the patients to perform the test and get the genetic information of the tumor. However, it remains not easy to receive the recommended drugs because of several limitations of their usages.

Measuring the Hidden Numbers of Human Trafficking Through Multiple Systems Estimation: Lessons Learned and Challenges Outstanding

2021 ◽  
pp. 001112872098719
Author(s):  
Davina Durgana ◽  
Jan van Dijk
Keyword(s):  
Human Trafficking ◽  
Migrant Workers ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Multiple Systems ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Gender And Age ◽  
Prevalence Estimates ◽  
Trafficking Victims ◽  
Developed Nations ◽  
Further Development

This article takes stock of studies conducted in eight countries to estimate the prevalence of human trafficking by employing the technique of Multiple Systems Estimation on data on victims of human trafficking recorded by state and non-state institutions. It presents an overview of MSE-based prevalence estimates of human trafficking victims per 100,000 inhabitants of these countries, disaggregated by type of exploitation, gender, and age. For some countries it also presents the different likelihoods of various sub-categories of trafficking victims, such as minors and migrant workers, to be detected by authorities and/or NGOs. Next, the article recounts what these studies have taught us about the suitability of applying MSE on existing multi-source databases to estimate the prevalence of trafficking victimization. The article concludes with a discussion on the promises and limitations of MSE and its prospects for further development, especially among developed nations.

scholarly journals Acceptability of COVID-19 Vaccines and Protective Behavior among Adults in Taiwan: Associations between Risk Perception and Willingness to Vaccinate against COVID-19

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (11) ◽  
pp. 5579
Author(s):  
Feng-Jen Tsai ◽  
Hsiu-Wen Yang ◽  
Chia-Ping Lin ◽  
Jeffrey Zen Liu
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
Personal Health ◽  
College Level ◽  
Protective Behavior ◽  
Protective Behaviors ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Vaccine Acceptance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
To Receive

This study aims to evaluate acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines and the impact of risk perception on vaccine acceptance and personal health protective behaviors in Taiwan. A nationwide cross-sectional study was conducted from 19 to 30 October 2020; 1020 participants were included in the final analysis; chi-square and logistic regression analyses were conducted. In total, 52.7% of participants were willing to receive COVID-19 vaccines, 63.5% perceived the severity of COVID-19 in Taiwan as “not serious”, and nearly 40% were worried about COVID-19 infection. Participants with higher perceived severity of COVID-19 had significantly higher odds of refusing the vaccine (OR = 1.546), while those worried about infection had lower odds of poor health protective behaviors (OR = 0.685). Vaccine refusal reasons included “the EUA process is not strict enough” (48.7%) and “side effects” (30.3%). Those who had previously refused other vaccinations were 2.44 times more likely to refuse the COVID-19 vaccines. Participants’ age had an influence on COVID-19 vaccine acceptance. In general, the Taiwanese public’s acceptance of the vaccine was lower than that in other high-income countries. Elderly participants and those with college-level education and above who had previously refused vaccines had lower willingness to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Risk perception was positively associated with personal health protective behaviors but negatively associated with COVID-19 vaccine acceptance.

scholarly journals Willingness of Taiwan’s Healthcare Workers and Outpatients to Vaccinate against COVID-19 during a Period without Community Outbreaks

Vaccines ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 246
Author(s):  
Shikha Kukreti ◽  
Mei-Yun Lu ◽  
Yi-Hsuan Lin ◽  
Carol Strong ◽  
Chung-Ying Lin ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Risk Perception ◽  
Healthcare Workers ◽  
Online Survey ◽  
Rapid Test ◽  
University Hospital ◽  
Preventive Behaviors ◽  
Vaccination Uptake ◽  
Community Outbreaks ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Significant Factors

To control the spread of the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), COVID-19 vaccination has been quickly developed. However, the COVID-19 pandemic will not be controlled if the COVID-19 vaccination uptake willingness is low. Therefore, the study aim was to explore the COVID-19 vaccination uptake willingness among the outpatient population and healthcare workers in Taiwan during the worldwide pandemic period without community outbreaks. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among healthcare workers (HCWs; n = 500; mean age = 32.96 years) of National Cheng Kung University Hospital (NCKUH) and outpatients (n = 238; mean age = 34.43 years) arriving at NCKUH. We used an online survey conducted between September 24 and 21 November 2020, for healthcare workers, and between 27 October and 31 December 2020, for the outpatient sample. Information regarding willingness to receive vaccination, willingness to rapid test, fear of COVID-19, risk perception, and preventive behaviors was collected in both samples; information regarding willingness to care for patients was collected in healthcare workers. Willingness to receive vaccination was the main variable in the present study; willingness to rapid test, willingness to care for patients, fear of COVID-19, risk perception, and preventive behaviors were the secondary variables in the study. The factors associated with vaccination willingness were identified through logistic regression analysis. The participants’ willingness to receive vaccination was low for both healthcare workers (23.4%) and the outpatient sample (30.7%). Similarly, their willingness to take rapid tests was low (23.6% for healthcare workers and 28.6% for outpatient sample). Risk perception (crude odds ratio (COR) = 1.29; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.03, 1.63), willingness to take rapid test (COR = 9.24; 95% CI = 5.76, 14.83), and preventive COVID-19 infection behaviors (COR = 2.32; 95% CI = 1.52, 3.56) were significant factors explaining the healthcare workers’ willingness to receive vaccination. Willingness to take a rapid test (COR = 8.91; 95% CI = 4.71, 16.87) and preventive COVID-19 infection behaviors (COR = 1.69; 95% CI = 1.09, 2.60) were significant factors explaining the outpatient sample’s willingness to receive vaccination. Willingness to vaccinate against COVID-19 among HCWs and outpatients is low due to the relatively safe status of COVID-19 infection in Taiwan. These findings can help policymakers advocate for the effectiveness of and provide transparent information on COVID-19 vaccination uptake in a country/region with a relatively safe COVID-19 outbreak status.

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