Treatment Decision-making in Chinese Inflammatory Bowel Disease Patients

BACKGROUND Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is rising in China, and the tendency for lifelong recurrence decreases patients’ quality of life. However, no studies on treatment decision-making in Chinese patients with IBD exist. Thus, this study aimed to determine the actual and ideal decision-making as well as factors affecting decision-making in Chinese IBD patients. METHODS A multi-center online questionnaire was distributed among patients diagnosed with IBD. To assess factors that influence treatment decision-making, univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed. RESULTS From March 20, 2018, to May 20, 2018, 866 patients completed the questionnaires, including 222 patients with ulcerative colitis, 588 patients with Crohn’s disease and 56 patients with unclassified IBD. There was a significant difference between ideal and actual decision-making in Chinese IBD patients (P ˂ .005). The factors affecting ideal decision-making included income, education, illness severity, religiosity, the importance of the treatment decision, the employment situation, and occupation area. The factors affecting actual decision-making included age, illness severity, religiosity, the employment situation, economic anxiety, concern about the side effects, and the importance of the treatment decision. CONCLUSION There is a significant difference between ideal and actual decision-making in IBD patients in China. That is, the economy, religiosity, illness severity, and concern about the side effects of treatment are the most important factors affecting treatment decisions in Chinese IBD patients.

Denmark: How to Form and Govern Minority Coalitions

Not much has changed in Denmark in the past few decades when it comes to the institutional setting and government formation: Danish governments remain predominantly of the minority form, most of them coalitions; the formal institutions of the constitution and the procedures for government formation have not been altered, and neither has the party system changed much. Likewise, the number of portfolios remain steady at around twenty. Yet, the internal workings of Danish governments have changed. Based on interviews with leading former ministers, the chapter shows how, over the last thirty years, Danish coalition governance has shifted towards more centralized decision-making through hierarchical coordination committees and oversight from the office of the prime minister and the ministry of finance. Actual decision moves away from the model of full individual responsibility for ministers found in the constitution. Furthermore, Danish governments now usually remain in office for the full term. All of this indicates that the Danish case provides a scenario in which political parties have developed a form to make minority governments function effectively.

Factors Influencing the Action Point of the Collision Avoidance Manoeuvre

Perhaps the most problematic issue regarding navigation safety management is the unknown, or unknowable, is the navigator’s decision made in the face of a dangerous situation. This applies particularly to collision-avoidance. The aim of the article is to identify factors that influence the moment of decision during a collision-avoidance manoeuvre and to define theoretical distributions that can be used during modelling of a navigator’s behaviour. The applicable research was divided into two stages. In the first, the distance between ships and the time to closest point of approach (TCPA) were analysed. In the second, the influence of the size of the target ships and relative speed were investigated. The advantage of the paper is its use of actual observations collected in real situations. The proposed approach allows for a better understanding of the navigator’s actual decision-making, which will be instructive in measures taken to improve navigational safety.

Plebiscitarianism Revisited: A Typology of Independence Referendums

This article explores the strategic functions of independence referendums. These referendums are normally framed as popular decisions on statehood over a certain territory. However, I argue that the popular will does not always have the decisory function that plebiscitarian theories suggest. In fact, actual decision referendums are rare; often independence referendums are instead used strategically as a leverage and signalling tactic. The article is structured as follows. First, I propose two key criteria to classify independence referendums regarding actors and timing. Through the application of these criteria, I build a typology proposing four main uses of referendums: leverage, signalling, decision and ratification. Second, I focus on the specific case of leverage referendums. I argue that analyzing the outcomes of leverage referendums can provide some clues about why secessionists still call for these referendums even though they almost never result in internationally recognized statehood. Finally, I conclude by discussing the implications of my findings.

Towards Automatic Part Identification in Sheet Metal Workshops

Pallets and forklifts equipped with Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) technology can be a suitable option for bridging the information gap between cutting and bending stages in sheet metal production. However, a decision on how tagged pallets can be assigned to their content needs to be made. In this paper, a reactive and a proactive approach for the near-automatic identification of parts on pallets after cutting are discussed and their performance is evaluated through a series of simulations. In both approaches, the nesting information along with the measured net weight of the pallets are used to determine the parts on top of each pallet. The influence of the alternative solutions problem on the performance is investigated for both approaches. It is concluded that the actual decision on the approach selection depends on the time that is required for each recalculation and each pre-allocation. Those times are workshop dependent and, therefore, a decision should be made for each workshop specifically.

Interorganizational Information Sharing: Collaboration during Cybersecurity Threats

Information sharing is examined to determine if the willingness to share information relates to the willingness to collaborate in interorganizational actions used to address cybersecurity threats. This study employs ANOVA by placing 85 organizational representatives that participated in a cyber terrorism training exercise into two categories: higher versus lower willingness to share information. The dependent measures in this study are proxies for collaboration measured by willingness to seek assistance from other organizations and willingness to offer assistance to other organizations. There is a significant statistical difference between the two categorizations of organizational representatives. The category that had a lower tendency to share information also had a lower willingness to collaborate with other organizations. This research shows that sharing information is critical when collaborative interorganizational action is required to face cybersecurity threats. Managers of organizations that respond to cybersecurity threats should promote the tendency to share information with other organizations that have the resources to aid in addressing the threat. Organizations involved in cybersecurity threats that are willing to share information are more willing to participate in integrative interorganizational efforts. This study includes a sample of actual decision makers of organizations that would handle cybersecurity attacks in their community. In this study, we demonstrate the role of information sharing for enhancing

Intergenerational sustainability is enhanced by taking the perspective of future generations

The intergenerational sustainability dilemma (ISD) is a situation of whether or not a person sacrifices herself for future sustainability. To examine the individual behaviors, one-person ISD game (ISDG) is instituted with strategy method where a queue of individuals is organized as a generational sequence. In ISDG, each individual chooses unsustainable (or sustainable) option with her payoff of $$X$$ X ($$X-D$$ X - D ) and an irreversible cost of $$D$$ D (zero cost) to future generations in $$36$$ 36 situations. Future ahead and back (FAB) mechanism is suggested as resolution for ISD by taking the perspective of future generation whereby each individual is first asked to take the next generation’s standpoint and request what she wants the current generation to choose, and, second, to make the actual decision from the original position. Results show that individuals choose unsustainable option as previous generations do so or $$\frac{X}{D}$$ X D is low (i.e., sustainability is endangered). However, FAB prevents individuals from choosing unsustainable option in such endangered situations. Overall, the results suggest that some new institutions, such as FAB mechanisms, which induce people to take the perspective of future generations, may be necessary to avoid intergenerational unsustainability, especially when intergenerational sustainability is highly endangered.

A Decision-Making Tool for Planning O&M Activities of Offshore Wind Farms Using Simulated Actual Decision Drivers

Safe and cost-efficient planning Operation&Maintenance (O&M) activities for the turbines of Offshore Wind Farms is crucial for the offshore wind industry. The execution of the planned tasks depends on the workability at sea. Workability assessments aim to find time periods, called weather windows, during which the personnel can execute the job at hand safely. Traditionally, weather windows analyses are based on thresholds applied on relevant metocean conditions in the area of interest, commonly wave height, wave period and wind speed. In this way, tasks are planned in windows during which the forecast metocean conditions do not exceed the defined thresholds. This paper presents a numerical tool that provides weather windows based on more direct measures of workability, that is seasickness on board during the trip to the turbines and bow motions, which endanger crew transfers from vessel to turbine. When assessing weather windows, such parameters better describe the actual decision drivers in a real operational setting than mere metocean thresholds, which are, in practical cases, discretionally judged by the O&M operator upon experience. Therefore, the reliability of workability predictions can increase, leading to financial gains for the wind industry and safer environment for O&M operators. The paper shows an application of the tool, where a full O&M scenario is simulated. The scenario comprises the transit from the port to the offshore site, the work carried out on the turbine and the transit back to the port. In particular, the application highlights the key capability of the tool of calculating vessel motions, which are elaborated to produce weather windows. With its low computational time-demand, the tool aims to support the decision-making processes that produce short- and long-term O&M plans.

Elite Decision-making and International Law: Promises and Perils of the Behavioral Revolution

A growing body of research applies behavioral approaches to the study of international law, mainly by studying convenience samples of students or other segments of the general public. Alongside the promises of this agenda are concerns about applying findings from non-elite populations to the people, and groups of people, charged with most real-world decision-making in the domain of law and governance. This concern is compounded by the fact that it is extremely difficult to recruit these actual decision-makers in a way that allows for direct study.

Hope behind the critique of grand narratives of collective salvation: remarks on ‘The power of metaphors and narratives’

Kratochwil criticizes two important teleological global narratives of universal progress – Luhmannian systems theory and jus cogens – and defends the need for a non-ideal and situated approach to law and politics. Despite the cogency of Kratochwil's analysis, why should we place our hope in his pragmatic program given the complexity of actual decision-making? This paper shows that more needs to be said about the role of hope grounding Kratochwil's account. Which hopes are hopeless, and which warranted? Why should we care and ‘go on’, choosing to be prudential and political rather than focusing on one's inner development or pleasure?