Terrorism threats and preparedness in Canada: the perspective of the Canadian public

Although Canada has not experienced a major terrorist attack, an increased global pending threat has put preparedness at the top of the Canadian government's agenda. Given its strong multicultural community and close proximity to the recently targeted United States, the Canadian experience is unique. However, minimal research exists on the public's reactions to terrorism threats and related preparedness strategies. In order for response initiatives to be optimally effective, it is important that the public's opinions regarding terrorism and preparedness be considered. This qualitative study examined perceptions of terrorism threats among Canadians living in Central and Eastern Canada (N = 75) in the fall of 2004. Conceptualizations of terrorism threat, psychosocial impacts, and sense of preparedness were explored in a series of qualitative interviews. Findings revealed that the majority of Canadians did not feel overly threatened by terrorist attacks, due in part to a perception of terrorist threats as related to global sociopolitical events and a positive Canadian identity. In addition, while most respondents did not feel they were individually affected by the threat of terrorism, there was some concern regarding larger societal impacts, such as increased paranoia, discrimination, and threats to civil liberties. Participants' views on preparedness focused largely on the utility of emergency preparedness strategies and the factors that could mitigate or inhibit preparedness at the individual and institutional levels, with a specific focus on education. Finally, the significant relevance of these findings in shaping terrorism preparedness, both in Canada and generally, is discussed.     

Community response grids: using information technology to help communities respond to bioterror emergencies

Access to accurate and trusted information is vital in preparing for, responding to, and recovering from an emergency. To facilitate response in large-scale emergency situations, Community Response Grids (CRGs) integrate Internet and mobile technologies to enable residents to report information, professional emergency responders to disseminate instructions, and residents to assist one another. CRGs use technology to help residents and professional emergency responders to work together in community response to emergencies, including bioterrorism events. In a time of increased danger from bioterrorist threats, the application of advanced information and communication technologies to community response is vital in confronting such threats. This article describes CRGs, their underlying concepts, development efforts, their relevance to biosecurity and bioterrorism, and future research issues in the use of technology to facilitate community response.     

How the FDA food safety modernization act responds to terrorism threats: a primer

Legal Perspectives is aimed at informing healthcare providers, emergency planners, and other decision makers about important legal issues related to public health and healthcare preparedness and response. The articles describe these potentially challenging topics and conclude with the authors' suggestions for further action. The articles do not provide legal advice. Therefore, those affected by the issues discussed in this column should seek further guidance from legal counsel. Readers may submit topics of interest to the column's editor, Ryan Morhard, JD, through the Journal's editorial office at jfox@upmc-biosecurity.org .     

Discounting the freedom to choose: implications for the paradox of choice

Organisms prefer to make their own choices. However, emerging research from behavioral decision making sciences has demonstrated that there are boundaries to the preference for choice. Specifically, many decision makers find an extensive array of choice options to be aversive, often leading to negative emotional states and poor behavioral outcomes. This study examined the degree to which human participants discounted hypothetical rewards that were (a) delayed, (b) probabilistic, and (c) chosen from a large array of options. The present results suggest that the "paradox of choice" effect may be explained within a discounting model for individual patterns of decision making.     

Regulating Emotions during Difficult Multiattribute Decision Making: The Role of Pre-Decisional Coherence Shifting

Almost all real-life decisions entail attribute conflict; every serious choice alternative is better than its competitors on some attribute dimensions but worse on others. In pre-decisional “coherence shifting,” the decision maker gradually softens that conflict psychologically to the point where one alternative is seen as dominant over its competitors, or nearly so. Specifically, weaknesses of the eventually chosen alternative come to be perceived as less severe and less important while its strengths seem more desirable and significant. The research described here demonstrates that difficult multiattribute decision problems are aversive and that pre-decisional coherence shifting aids individuals in regulating that emotional discomfort. Across three studies, attribute conflict was confirmed to be aversive (Study 1), and skin conductance responses and ratings of decision difficulty both decreased in participants who coherence shifted (Study 2). Coherence shifting was also diminished among decision makers who were depleted of regulatory resources, known to be required for common emotion regulation mechanisms. Further, coherence shifting was shown to be relatively common among people who reported strong suppression tendencies in everyday emotion regulation (Study 3). Overall, the data suggest that, at least in part, coherence shifting serves as a tool that helps decision makers manage the pre-decisional discomfort generated by attribute conflict. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Planning for exercises of chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) forensic capabilities

A forensic capability to help identify perpetrators and exclude innocent people should be an integral part of a strategy against terrorist attacks. Exercises have been conducted to increase our preparedness and response capabilities to chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) terrorist attacks. However, incorporating forensic components into these exercises has been deficient. CBRN investigations rely on forensic results, so the need to integrate a forensic component and forensics experts into comprehensive exercises is paramount. This article provides guidance for planning and executing exercises at local, state, federal, and international levels that test the effectiveness of forensic capabilities for CBRN threats. The guidelines presented here apply both to situations where forensics is only a component of a more general exercise and where forensics is the primary focus of the exercise.     

Planning for Restoration: A Decision Analysis Approach to Prioritization

Ecological restoration often relies on the use of expert opinion to make management decisions in the face of uncertainty. The quantification of expert opinion can be difficult, especially when more than one expert is consulted and experts are not in agreement. Decision analysis can provide a framework to systematically deconstruct a complex problem and provide greater objectivity to restoration decisions. We utilized decision analysis techniques to identify restoration objectives and to quantify expert opinions to prioritize restoration activities at 112 prairie openings in the Edge of Appalachia Preserve in southern Ohio, U.S.A. We first created an objectives hierarchy to model how decision‐makers decide which prairies to manage. We then determined how to measure each component of the hierarchy and sampled all prairies for percent woody cover, geology, indicator species index (an index of plant species richness), slope, aspect, and distance to nearest prairie. We modeled seven different experts’ preferences for managing prairies with varying values for each of these ecological measures. We then interviewed the same decision‐makers to determine relative weights for each component of the objectives hierarchy using trade‐off analysis. By combining the weights, preference relationships, and sampling data, we were able to rank each prairie and management unit based on its management priority. Experts had similar preferences except for the measure of distance to nearest prairie. We found that decision‐makers gave different weights to each of the different components of the hierarchy. Generally, experts weighted percent woody cover, indicator species index, and geology more highly than slope, aspect, and distance to nearest prairie. Despite these differences, priorities for management, once all factors were weighted and combined, were similar.     

Hemispheric Specialization Varies with EEG Brain Resting States and Phase of Menstrual Cycle

A growing body of behavioral studies has demonstrated that women’s hemispheric specialization varies as a function of their menstrual cycle, with hemispheric specialization enhanced during their menstruation period. Our recent high-density electroencephalogram (EEG) study with lateralized emotional versus neutral words extended these behavioral results by showing that hemispheric specialization in men, but not in women under birth-control, depends upon specific EEG resting brain states at stimulus arrival, suggesting that hemispheric specialization may be pre-determined at the moment of the stimulus onset. To investigate whether EEG brain resting state for hemispheric specialization could vary as a function of the menstrual phase, we tested 12 right-handed healthy women over different phases of their menstrual cycle combining high-density EEG recordings and the same lateralized lexical decision paradigm with emotional versus neutral words. Results showed the presence of specific EEG resting brain states, associated with hemispheric specialization for emotional words, at the moment of the stimulus onset during the menstruation period only. These results suggest that the pre-stimulus EEG pattern influencing hemispheric specialization is modulated by the hormonal state.     

Seeking a spotless mind: extinction, deconsolidation, and erasure of fear memory

Learning to contend with threats in the environment is essential to survival, but dysregulation of memories for traumatic events can lead to disabling psychopathology. Recent years have witnessed an impressive growth in our understanding of the neural systems and synaptic mechanisms underlying emotional memory formation. As a consequence, interest has emerged in developing strategies for suppressing, if not eliminating, fear memories. Here, I review recent work employing sophisticated behavioral, pharmacological, and molecular tools to target fear memories, placing these memories firmly behind the crosshairs of neurobiologically informed interventions.     

生态旅游及其规划的研究进展

以自然资源为基础的生态旅游作为一种促进可持续发展的旅游形式日益为旅游决策者、研究者及规划人员所重视。本文从生态旅游的定义分析入手,对目前国内外就其内涵、特征、功能分区及规划模式和管理的研究现状作出了评价。在此基础上,提出了生态旅游的可操作性定义与实施措施,并强调文脉(地理背景)特征及产品形象策划对生态旅游规划的重要意义。     

The national framework and consequence management guidance following a biological attack

Consequence management following a release of aerosolized Bacillus anthracis spores requires a high level of technical understanding and direction. National policies and regulations address the topics of preparedness goals and organizational structure, but they do not tell responders how to perform remediation. Essential considerations include determining what must be cleaned, evaluating health risks, ascertaining the priority of cleanup, and selecting appropriate decontamination technologies to meet consensus and risk-derived clearance goals. This article highlights key features of a national-level framework that has been developed to guide a risk-based decision process and inform technical personnel of the best practices to follow during each activity leading to the restoration of functions at affected facilities or areas. The framework and associated guidance follows the scheme of 6 phases for response and recovery arrived at through interagency consensus and approval. Each phase is elaborated in a series of detailed decision flowcharts identifying key questions that must be addressed and answered from the time that first indications of a credible biological attack are received to final reoccupancy of affected areas and a return to normal daily functions.     

A Biopsychosocial Approach to Surgical Evaluation and Outcome

There is increasing necessity for including an evaluation of psychosocial as well as biomedical factors when assessing the need for surgical intervention and its possible outcomes. Potential problems between patient and surgeon can arise when these factors are not taken into account. Recent behavioral science literature supports the use of a conceptual framework and concise clinical method for evaluating psychosocial factors and negotiating treatment with a patient. Such a method may be useful in reducing patient-surgeon conflicts and the negative outcomes (such as patient noncompliance, dissatisfaction, medical-legal suits and poor patient care) that can result when such an assessment is not mutually discussed.     

An engineering approach to modelling, decision support and control for sustainable systems

Engineering research and development contributes to the advance of sustainable agriculture both through innovative methods to manage and control processes, and through quantitative understanding of the operation of practical agricultural systems using decision models. This paper describes how an engineering approach, drawing on mathematical models of systems and processes, contributes new methods that support decision making at all levels from strategy and planning to tactics and real-time control. The ability to describe the system or process by a simple and robust mathematical model is critical, and the outputs range from guidance to policy makers on strategic decisions relating to land use, through intelligent decision support to farmers and on to real-time engineering control of specific processes. Precision in decision making leads to decreased use of inputs, less environmental emissions and enhanced profitability-all essential to sustainable systems.     

Rationality Wars and the War on Terror: Explaining Terrorism and Social Unrest

Terrorism is problematic at multiple levels. Social scientists debate its cause; policymakers debate what to do about it; many debate the meaning and political use of the term; and many live in fear of it. Current explanations of terrorism hinge on competing models of decision making. Anthropologists are increasingly influential in decision theory as issues of rationality, culture, and evolutionary psychology are invoked to explain patterns in human decision making. In this article, I review and critique current explanations of terrorism, I relate these explanations to larger debates in decision theory and anthropology, and I present an example of how current schisms may be transcended.     

Emergency communication and information issues in terrorist events involving radioactive materials

With the threat posed by terrorism involving radioactive materials now high on the nation's agenda, local, state, and federal agencies are moving to enhance preparedness and response capabilities. Crucial to these efforts is the development of effective risk communication strategies. This article reports findings from an ongoing study of risk communication issues in nuclear/radiological terrorism situations. It is part of a larger CDC-funded effort that aims to better understand communication challenges associated with weapons of mass destruction terrorism incidents. Presented here are formative research findings from 16 focus groups (n = 163) in which a multi-part, hypothetical radioactive materials terrorism situation was discussed. Twelve of the focus groups were carried out with members of the general public (drawn from a variety of ethnic backgrounds and geographic locations), and four groups were composed of first responders, hospital emergency department personnel, and public health professionals. One aim of the focus groups was to elicit detailed information on people's knowledge, views, perceptions, reactions, and concerns related to a nuclear/radiological terrorism event, and to better understand people's specific information needs and preferred information sources. A second aim was to pretest draft informational materials prepared by CDC and NIOSH. Key findings for the public and professional groups are presented, and the implications of the research for developing messages in radiological/nuclear terrorism situations are explored.     

Functional role of the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex in decision making

To make deliberate decisions, we have to utilize detailed information about the environment and our internal states. The ventral visual pathway provides detailed information on object identity, including color and shape, to the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (VLPFC). The VLPFC also receives motivational and emotional information from the orbitofrontal cortex and subcortical areas, and computes the behavioral significance of external events; this information can be used for elaborate decision making or design of goal-directed behavior. In this review, we discuss recent advances that are revealing the neural mechanisms that underlie the coding of behavioral significance in the VLPFC, and the functional roles of these mechanisms in decision making and action programming in the brain.     

Valuing ecosystem services to explore scenarios for adaptive spatial planning

As the ecosystem services concept increasingly gains importance, it needs translation into practical applications. Recent efforts of EU member states to map ES are opening new opportunities to include ES in spatial planning and adaptive land management. For this, spatial planners and policy makers need practical tools that integrate a variety of social and biophysical information in an accessible way. We argue that monetary valuation of ES can contribute to this challenge. A methodological framework was developed to explore adaptive management of bioproductive space. The first stage in the methodology is a spatially explicit evaluation of various ecosystem services for different land uses. In a second stage, bio-physical and socio-economic drivers or shocks are introduced that can influence the value society attributes to specific ecosystem services. The third stage of the methodology takes policy priorities into account. In a final stage, the output of the approach is synthesised by ranking the analysis results for different scenarios and policy priority settings. This methodology allows spatial planners to explore and evaluate policy decisions against trade-offs between various land use alternatives, while taking ecosystem services into account. To demonstrate its use, the methodology is applied to a small-scale case study that combines extensive livestock production with the development of natural values. The application to the case demonstrates that the optimal strategy from a societal perspective, can be highly context-dependent. Besides the potential for supporting policy makers to think about the broader implications of land use changes for community wellbeing, the methodology provides useful feedback for adaptive farm and landscape management. We underline both the potential and possible caveats in using this approach for land use evaluation.     

The CODE RED Solution: biothreat response training for first responders

The terrorist events of 2001 brought to light the need for a close working relationship between the first responder communities and the public health laboratories in New York State (NYS). Since 2002, the Wadsworth Center's Biodefense Laboratory (BDL) has been providing outreach training to first responders in New York, to enable them to respond safely, correctly, and confidently to biothreat events. A pocket trifold was developed, titled "CODE RED," which describes sampling protocols, risk analysis criteria, and important contact information for use during an emergency response to a potential bioterrorism situation. In addition, the BDL has provided training to more than 1,000 first responders in the basic knowledge of biothreat agents, routes of dissemination, sampling and decontamination methods, contamination control protocols, biothreat risk assessment, and legal chain of custody procedures. The training methods have been established for use by first responders wearing personal protective equipment (PPE). All states can benefit from highly trained first responders who are capable of efficient, safe, and effective biothreat response, resulting in increased safety of the first responders and laboratorians, as well as decreased turnaround times for laboratory results. The CODE RED trifold provides a working model for training first responders at the state and county levels for emergency biothreat response.     

Loss of Resilience, Crisis, and Institutional Change: Lessons from an Intensive Agricultural System in Southeastern Australia

Linked social-ecological systems in which surprise and crisis are interspersed with periods of stability and predictability are inherently difficult to manage. This condition, coupled with the legacies of past management actions, typically leaves policy and decision makers few options other than to incrementally adapt and reinforce the current trajectory of the system. Decision making becomes increasingly reactive and incremental as the system moves from one crisis to another. Eventually the system loses its capacity to cope with perturbations and surprise. Using a combination of dynamical-systems modeling and historical analysis, we studied a process of this kind as it developed in the Goulburn Broken Catchment in southeastern Australia over the past 150 years. Using the model to simulate trajectories of the biohydrological system, we correlate the state of the physical system to historical events and management action. We show how sequential management decisions have eroded the resilience of the system (its ability to cope with shocks and surprises) and reduced options for future change. Using the model in a forward-looking mode, we explore future management options and their implications for the resilience of the system.     

公立医院开展突发公共事件医疗应急救援的SWOT分析

采用SWOT分析方法对新形势下我国公立医院开展突发公共事件医疗应急救援工作的优势、劣势、机会与威胁进行系统分析,并提出我国公立医院开展突发公共事件医疗应急救援工作的发展策略,为更好地开展相关工作提供参考。