Dynamic Fear in Fear Appeals: Applying Fear Appeals to Environmental Communication in China.

This study investigates the role of dynamic fear in the effectiveness of communicating health threats (i.e. fear appeals) of ground-level ozone among Chinese citizens. An online survey revealed that fear appeal messages effectively enhance the audience's risk perceptions, efficacy beliefs, and acceptance of the message. Crucially, dynamic fear reduction process positively predicts engagement in protective behaviors (i.e. danger control process) and negatively predicts engagement in fear control processes, such as message denial. Presenting severity before susceptibility resulted in a more positive attitude toward the message recommendation. These findings highlight that communicating health-threats about climate pollution is effective in raising awareness and motivating protective behaviors. Furthermore, our study underscores the importance of dynamic fear, specifically fear reduction, in increasing fear appeals' effectiveness in communicating climate issues from a health perspective.

A Systems Map of the Challenges of Climate Communication.

Over the past sixty years, scientists have been warning about climate change and its impacts on human health, but evidence suggests that many may not be heeding these concerns. This raises the question of whether new communication approaches are needed to overcome the unique challenges of communicating what people can do to slow or reverse climate change. To better elucidate the challenges of communicating about the links between human activity, climate change and its effects, and identify potential solutions, we developed a systems map of the factors and processes involved based on systems mapping sessions with climate change and communication experts. The systems map revealed 27 communication challenges such as "Limited information on how individual actions contribute to collective human activity," "Limited information on how present activity leads to long-term effects," and "Difficult to represent and communicate complex relationships." The systems map also revealed several themes among the identified challenges that exist in communicating about climate change, including a lack of available data and integrated databases, climate change disciplines working in silos, a need for a lexicon that is easily understood by the public, and the need for new communication strategies to describe processes that take time to manifest.

Sex differences in informational needs and media dependencies during the 2018 California wildfires.

Previous research has suggested that men and women differ in a number of crisis-related behaviors including information-seeking behavior and media dependencies. The 2018 California wildfires provided a context where demographic differences are largely unexplored, as most prior emergency communication research has focused on slower moving events such as hurricanes and storm surges. Participants were identified based on their residence in areas affected by the Camp and Woolsey fires (N = 363). Sex differences were discovered for how people found out about the fires, perceptions of medium utility, and informational needs. Implications for emergency management practitioners are discussed.

Reliability but not bias: Developing a scale to measure preferred channels for risk information during the COVID pandemic.

To develop a new measure of preferred sources for risk information, two studies asked respondents to indicate what channels they were reliant on for information about COVID-19, from 25 news channels ranging across the political spectrum. Unexpectedly, dependencies clustered around level of reliability rather than the political orientation of the news channel. In other words, each cluster included media channels from both the left and right side of the political spectrum, while dependencies clustered into sources that varied by the degree to which their content is reliable. Participants who turned to lower reliability channels indicated lower risk perceptions, less accurate probability estimations, reduced vaccination intentions, and lower protective behavioral intentions. Those inclined to use higher reliability channels indicated higher risk perceptions, more accurate probability estimations, increased vaccination intentions, and higher protective behavioral intentions. These relationships are discussed in terms of implications for our understanding of source reliance and risk perception, information sufficiency, and implications for both future research and public health interventions.

Numerical simulation data of bubble-structure interactions in near-field underwater explosion.

The simulation data presented in this paper describes the interaction between a thin-walled aluminum cylinder and a gas bubble in a near-field underwater explosion. The simulation is performed using the AERO-F/S solvers. The finite element AERO-S solver is used to simulate the structural dynamics of the cylinder, including its yielding and collapse. The AERO-F solver is used to simulate the fluid dynamics of the explosion bubble, the surrounding liquid water, and the air inside the cylinder. The two solvers are coupled using an embedded boundary method and the FInite Volume method with Exact two-material Riemann problems (FIVER). The data presented in this paper corresponds to a representative case with initial pressure p 0 = 12.5 MPa inside the bubble (cf. [1]). Simulation data include structural stress and deformation, fluid velocity, pressure and bubble dynamics. The input files and the workflow to perform this simulation are also provided. With the information provided in this paper, researchers can repeat this simulation, and use it as a starting point to study related problems involving cavitation bubbles, underwater explosion, and fluid-structure interaction in general.

Perceptions on barriers, facilitators, and recommendations related to mental health service delivery during the COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec, Canada: a qualitative descriptive study.

BACKGROUND: There was an increase in self-reported mental health needs during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada, with research showing reduced access to mental health services in comparison to pre-pandemic levels. This paper explores 1) barriers and facilitating factors associated with mental health service delivery via primary care settings during the first two pandemic waves in Quebec, Canada, and 2) recommendations to addressing these barriers. METHODS: A qualitative descriptive study design was used. Semi-structured interviews with 20 participants (health managers, family physicians, mental health clinicians) were conducted and coded using a thematic analysis approach. RESULTS: Barriers and facilitating factors were organized according to Chaudoir et al. (2013)'s framework of structural, organizational, provider- and patient-related, as well as innovation (technological modalities for service delivery) categories. Barriers included relocation of mental health staff to non-mental health related COVID-19 tasks (structural); mental health service interruption (organizational); mental health staff on preventive/medical leave (provider); the pandemic's effect on consultations (i.e., perceptions of increased demand) (patients); and challenges with the use of technological modalities (innovation). Facilitating factors included reinforcements to mental health care teams (structural); perceptions of reductions in wait times for mental health evaluations during the second wave due to diminished FP referrals in the first wave, as well as supports (i.e., management, private sector, mental health trained staff) for mental health service delivery (organizational); staff's mental health consultation practices (provider); and advantages in increasing the use of technological modalities in practice (innovation). CONCLUSIONS: To our knowledge, this is the first study to explore barriers and facilitating factors to mental health service delivery during the pandemic in Quebec, Canada. Some barriers identified were caused by the pandemic, such as the relocation of staff to non-mental health services and mental health service interruption. Offering services virtually seemed to facilitate mental health service delivery only for certain population groups. Recommendations related to building and strengthening human and technological capacity during the pandemic can inform mental health practices and policies to improve mental health service delivery in primary care settings and access to mental health services via access points.

To Blame is Human: A Quantitative Systematic Review of the Relationship Between Outcome Severity of Large-Scale Crises and Attributions of Blame.

In crisis situations, time is of the essence. Effective messaging to individuals at risk is critical to mitigating the most severe outcomes. Extant crisis communication literature has focused on differentiating crisis types based on perceived blame, particularly in cases of for-profit company malfeasance, but less work has been done to understand how the public makes these types of attributions. This quantitative systematic review investigates the relationship between severity of a large-scale crisis outcome and attributions of blame toward relevant entities. Moderators of interest include the attribution term used with participants (e.g., blame, responsibility), the type of crisis event, and the entity presented as at fault. Overall, a small but significant positive relationship is identified in the majority of studies between severity of a large-scale crisis outcome and attributions of blame. Results suggest that while crisis type and entity to blame are moderators, the attribution term(s) used with participants plays a less significant role. Implications and future directions are considered.

Exploring sex differences in information needs, media dependencies, and attention allocation during Hurricane Dorian.

In September 2019, Hurricane Dorian struck the Bahamas and the southeast United States, resulting in widespread damage and loss of life. Drawing from previous crisis communication research on both natural and man-made disasters, this study examines information seeking and medium preferences, attention allocation, and sex differences in these outcomes. Extant literature has found differences between men and women in terms of the volume and types of information wanted during a crisis event, as well as preferences for different media in times of crisis. This literature has yet to examine the degree to which attention allocation may be related to these outcomes. To address these issues in a naturalistic context, a large-scale survey was targeted at residents of states impacted by Hurricane Dorian. Results are consistent with previous research indicating that females engaged in more overall information seeking and sought more information seeking related to tangible goals. Females found interactive media (Internet and social media) to be more useful than males. Evidence was not detected concerning sex differences in the way people found out about the storm and sex differences in attention allocation detected. Results suggested small effects for perceived usefulness of television and Internet on attention allocation for both men and women. Implications for emergency management personnel and public officials are discussed.

Ready in the face of danger? Investigating preparation, mitigation, and media dependencies amongst those affected by the 2018 California Wildfires.

The current study analyzes information-seeking tendencies, preparation, and mitigation behavior among those impacted by the 2018 Camp Fire and Woolsey Fire in California. Similar to previous work, results suggest that socio-economic status was a strong positive predictor of having an emergency kit and evacuation plan in place. The internet and television were the two preferred sources of information, while the relative lack of importance of radio, inter-personal communication, and social media runs counter to past research in the area. Implications for emergency management are discussed.

COVID-19 Echo Chambers: Examining the Impact of Conservative and Liberal News Sources on Risk Perception and Response.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has created substantial challenges for public health officials who must communicate pandemic-related risks and recommendations to the public. Their efforts have been further hampered by the politicization of the pandemic, including media outlets that question the seriousness and necessity of protective actions. The availability of highly politicized news from online platforms has led to concerns about the notion of "echo chambers," whereby users are exposed only to information that conforms to and reinforces their existing beliefs. Using a sample of 5,000 US residents, we explored their information-seeking tendencies, reliance on conservative and liberal online media, risk perceptions, and mitigation behaviors. The results of our study suggest that risk perceptions may vary across preferences for conservative or liberal bias; however, our results do not support differences in the mitigation behavior across patterns of media use. Further, our findings do not support the notion of echo chambers, but rather suggest that people with lower information-seeking behavior may be more strongly influenced by politicized COVID-19 news. Risk estimates converge at higher levels of information seeking, suggesting that high information seekers consume news from sources across the political spectrum. These results are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for the study of online echo chambers and their practical implications for public health officials and emergency managers.

[Insulin injection technique, practices observed by patients and nurses]. / La technique d'injection de l'insuline, pratiques observées par les patients et les infirmières.

A study was carried out in 2008-2009 on the practices of patients with diabetes with regard to insulin self-injection techniques. The results highlight in particular the importance of patient education.