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Exposure Path Perceptions and Protective Actions in Biological Water Contamination Emergencies

Lindell, Michael K.; Mumpower, Jeryl L.; Huang, Shih-kai; Wu, Hao-che; Samuelson, Charles D. (2015). Exposure Path Perceptions and Protective Actions in Biological Water Contamination Emergencies. Environmental Health Insights, 9, 13 – 21.

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Abstract

This study extends the Protective Action Decision Model, developed to address disaster warning responses in the context of natural hazards, to boil water advisories. The study examined 110 Boston residents' and 203 Texas students' expectations of getting sick through different exposure paths for contact with contaminated water. In addition, the study assessed respondents' actual implementation (for residents) or behavioral expectations (for students) of three different protective actions - bottled water, boiled water, and personally chlorinated water - as well as their demographic characteristics and previous experience with water contamination. The results indicate that people distinguish among the exposure paths, but the differences are small (one-third to one-half of the response scale). Nonetheless, the perceived risk from the exposure paths helps to explain why people are expected to consume (or actually consumed) bottled water rather than boiled or personally chlorinated water. Overall, these results indicate that local authorities should take care to communicate the relative risks of different exposure paths and should expect that people will respond to a boil water order primarily by consuming bottled water. Thus, they should make special efforts to increase supplies of bottled water in their communities during water contamination emergencies.

Keywords

Water Contamination; Exposure Paths; Risk Perception; Protective Action

Behavioral Response in the Immediate Aftermath of Shaking: Earthquakes in Christchurch and Wellington, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan

Jon, Ihnji; Lindell, Michael K.; Prater, Carla S.; Huang, Shih-kai; Wu, Hao-che; Johnston, David M.; Becker, Julia S.; Shiroshita, Hideyuki; Doyle, Emma E. H.; Potter, Sally H.; Mcclure, John; Lambie, Emily. (2016). Behavioral Response in the Immediate Aftermath of Shaking: Earthquakes in Christchurch and Wellington, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan. International Journal Of Environmental Research And Public Health, 13(11).

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Abstract

This study examines people's response actions in the first 30 min after shaking stopped following earthquakes in Christchurch and Wellington, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan. Data collected from 257 respondents in Christchurch, 332 respondents in Hitachi, and 204 respondents in Wellington revealed notable similarities in some response actions immediately after the shaking stopped. In all four events, people were most likely to contact family members and seek additional information about the situation. However, there were notable differences among events in the frequency of resuming previous activities. Actions taken in the first 30 mins were weakly related to: demographic variables, earthquake experience, contextual variables, and actions taken during the shaking, but were significantly related to perceived shaking intensity, risk perception and affective responses to the shaking, and damage/infrastructure disruption. These results have important implications for future research and practice because they identify promising avenues for emergency managers to communicate seismic risks and appropriate responses to risk area populations.

Keywords

Adjustment; Hazard; Model; Earthquakes; Post-impact Response Actions; Risk Perception

Immediate Behavioural Responses To Earthquakes In Christchurch, New Zealand, And Hitachi, Japan.

Lindell, Michael K.; Prater, Carla S.; Wu, Hao Che; Huang, Shih-kai; Johnston, David M.; Becker, Julia S.; Shiroshita, Hideyuki. (2016). Immediate Behavioural Responses To Earthquakes In Christchurch, New Zealand, And Hitachi, Japan. Disasters, 40(1), 85 – 111.

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Abstract

This study examines people's immediate responses to earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand, and Hitachi, Japan. Data collected from 257 respondents in Christchurch and 332 respondents in Hitachi revealed notable similarities between the two cities in people's emotional reactions, risk perceptions, and immediate protective actions during the events. Respondents' physical, household, and social contexts were quite similar, but Hitachi residents reported somewhat higher levels of emotional reaction and risk perception than did Christchurch residents. Contrary to the recommendations of emergency officials, the most frequent response of residents in both cities was to freeze. Christchurch residents were more likely than Hitachi residents to drop to the ground and take cover, whereas Hitachi residents were more likely than Christchurch residents to evacuate immediately the building in which they were situated. There were relatively small correlations between immediate behavioural responses and demographic characteristics, earthquake experience, and physical, social, or household context.

Keywords

Natural Disasters; Risk Perception; Earthquakes; Social Context; Emotions; Christchurch (n.z.); Cross‚Äênational Research; Cross-national Research; Emotional Response; Protective Action; Disaster Victims Speak; Risk; Preparedness; Evacuation; Hazard

Perceptions, Behavioral Expectations, and Implementation Timing for Response Actions in a Hurricane Emergency

Huang, Shih-kai; Wu, Hao-che; Lindell, Michael K.; Wei, Hung-lung; Samuelson, Charles D. (2017). Perceptions, Behavioral Expectations, and Implementation Timing for Response Actions in a Hurricane Emergency. Natural Hazards, 88(1), 533 – 558.

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Abstract

This study examined the perceived attributes, behavioral expectations, and expected implementation timing of 11 organizational emergency response actions for hurricane emergencies. The perceived attributes of the hurricane response actions were characterized by two hazard-related attributes (effectiveness for person protection and property protection) and five resource-related attributes (financial costs, required knowledge/skill, required equipment, required time/effort, and required cooperation). A total of 155 introductory psychology students responded to a hypothetical scenario involving an approaching Category 4 hurricane. The data collected in this study explain previous findings of untimely protective action decision making. Specifically, these data reveal distinctly different patterns for the expected implementation of preparatory actions and evacuation recommendations. Participants used the hazard-related and resource-related attributes to differentiate among the response actions and the expected timing of implementation. Moreover, participants' behavioral expectations and expected implementation timing for the response actions were most strongly correlated with those actions' effectiveness for person protection. Finally, participants reported evacuation implementation times that were consistent with a phased evacuation strategy in which risk areas are evacuated in order of their proximity to the coast. However, the late initiation of evacuation in risk areas closest to the coast could lead to very late evacuation of risk areas farther inland.

Keywords

Action Decision-making; Interrater Agreement; Evacuation; Time; People; Preparatory Actions; Response Action Attributes; Trigger Timing; Hurricane; Psychology; Hurricanes; Costs; Emergency Response; Data; Proximity; Coastal Environments; Hazards; Decision Making; Emergencies; Emergency Preparedness; Risk; Equipment Costs; Cooperation; Protection; Equipment; Evacuations & Rescues; Behavioral Psychology; Time Measurement

Perceptions of Protective Actions for a Water Contamination Emergency

Lindell, Michael K.; Mumpower, Jeryl L.; Huang, Shih-kai; Wu, Hao-che; Samuelson, Charles D.; Wei, Hung-lung. (2017). Perceptions of Protective Actions for a Water Contamination Emergency. Journal Of Risk Research, 20(7), 887 – 908.

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Abstract

Local authorities who believe their water systems are contaminated need to warn those at risk to take protective actions. In the past, such efforts have often achieved only partial success in preventing people from deciding to continue consumption of contaminated drinking water. To examine the possible antecedents of decisions to comply with water consumption advisories, this study examined 110 Boston residents' actual protective actions and 203 Texas students' expected protective actions; their perceptions of three protective actions on seven attributes; and their risk perceptions, water contamination experience, facilitating conditions, and demographic characteristics. The profiles of the protective actions for the hazard-related and resource-related attributes suggest reasons why people preferred to use bottled water rather than boil or personally chlorinate water. In particular, perceived effectiveness in protecting health was the most important correlate of protective action, which means that a protective action can have a high level of implementation even though it has poor ratings on other attributes such as cost. In addition, this study indicates public health officials may also need to address people's misconceptions about the hazard-related and resource-related attributes of any relevant protective actions. Finally, consistent with an extensive body of previous research, students were similar to residents in many important respects even though were some statistically significant differences.

Keywords

Action Decision-model; Hazard Adjustments; College-students; Plant Accident; Risks; Metaanalysis; Triviality; Attitudes; Behavior; Adoption; Water Contamination; Risk Perception; Protective Action; Protective Action Attributes; Student Vs; Population Samples

A Tutorial on Dynasearch: A Web-Based System for Collecting Process-Tracing Data in Dynamic Decision Tasks

Lindell, Michael K.; House, Donald H.; Gestring, Jordan; Wu, Hao-Che. (2019). A Tutorial on Dynasearch: A Web-Based System for Collecting Process-Tracing Data in Dynamic Decision Tasks. Behavior Research Methods, 51(6), 2646 – 2660.

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Abstract

This tutorial describes DynaSearch, a Web-based system that supports process-tracing experiments on coupled-system dynamic decision-making tasks. A major need in these tasks is to examine the process by which decision makers search over a succession of situation reports for the information they need in order to make response decisions. DynaSearch provides researchers with the ability to construct and administer Web-based experiments containing both between- and within-subjects factors. Information search pages record participants' acquisition of verbal, numeric, and graphic information. Questionnaire pages query participants' recall of information, inferences from that information, and decisions about appropriate response actions. Experimenters can access this information in an online viewer to verify satisfactory task completion and can download the data in comma-separated text files that can be imported into statistical analysis packages.

Keywords

Downloading; Text Files; Tasks; Access To Information; Statistics; Dynamic Decision Making; Process Tracing; Web-based Experiments; Information Search; Human-behavior; Eye-tracking; Choice; Expectations; Strategies; Mousetrap; Software; Time

Global Urban Environmental Change Drives Adaptation in White Clover

Santangelo, James S.; Ness, Rob W.; Cohan, Beata; Fitzpatrick, Connor R.; Innes, Simon G.; Koch, Sophie; Miles, Lindsay S.; Munim, Samreen; Peres-neto, Pedro R.; Prashad, Cindy; Tong, Alex T.; Aguirre, Windsor E.; Akinwole, Philips O.; Alberti, Marina; Alvarez, Jackie; Anderson, Jill T.; Anderson, Joseph J.; Ando, Yoshino; Andrew, Nigel R.; Angeoletto, Fabio; Anstett, Daniel N.; Anstett, Julia; Aoki-goncalves, Felipe; Arietta, A. Z. Andis; Arroyo, Mary T. K.; Austen, Emily J.; Baena-diaz, Fernanda; Barker, Cory A.; Baylis, Howard A.; Beliz, Julia M.; Benitez-mora, Alfonso; Bickford, David; Biedebach, Gabriela; Blackburn, Gwylim S.; Boehm, Mannfred M. A.; Bonser, Stephen P.; Bonte, Dries; Bragger, Jesse R.; Branquinho, Cristina; Brans, Kristien, I; Bresciano, Jorge C.; Brom, Peta D.; Bucharova, Anna; Burt, Briana; Cahill, James F.; Campbell, Katelyn D.; Carlen, Elizabeth J.; Carmona, Diego; Castellanos, Maria Clara; Centenaro, Giada; Chalen, Izan; Chaves, Jaime A.; Chavez-pesqueira, Mariana; Chen, Xiao-yong; Chilton, Angela M.; Chomiak, Kristina M.; Cisneros-heredia, Diego F.; Cisse, Ibrahim K.; Classen, Aimee T.; Comerford, Mattheau S.; Fradinger, Camila Cordoba; Corney, Hannah; Crawford, Andrew J.; Crawford, Kerri M.; Dahirel, Maxime; David, Santiago; De Haan, Robert; Deacon, Nicholas J.; Dean, Clare; Del-val, Ek; Deligiannis, Eleftherios K.; Denney, Derek; Dettlaff, Margarete A.; Dileo, Michelle F.; Ding, Yuan-yuan; Dominguez-lopez, Moises E.; Dominoni, Davide M.; Draud, Savannah L.; Dyson, Karen; Ellers, Jacintha; Espinosa, Carlos, I; Essi, Liliana; Falahati-anbaran, Mohsen; Falcao, Jessica C. F.; Fargo, Hayden T.; Fellowes, Mark D. E.; Fitzpatrick, Raina M.; Flaherty, Leah E.; Flood, Padraic J.; Flores, Maria F.; Fornoni, Juan; Foster, Amy G.; Frost, Christopher J.; Fuentes, Tracy L.; Fulkerson, Justin R.; Gagnon, Edeline; Garbsch, Frauke; Garroway, Colin J.; Gerstein, Aleeza C.; Giasson, Mischa M.; Girdler, E. Binney; Gkelis, Spyros; Godsoe, William; Golemiec, Anneke M.; Golemiec, Mireille; Gonzalez-lagos, Cesar; Gorton, Amanda J.; Gotanda, Kiyoko M.; Granath, Gustaf; Greiner, Stephan; Griffiths, Joanna S.; Grilo, Filipa; Gundel, Pedro E.; Hamilton, Benjamin; Hardin, Joyce M.; He, Tianhua; Heard, Stephen B.; Henriques, Andre F.; Hernandez-poveda, Melissa; Hetherington-rauth, Molly C.; Hill, Sarah J.; Hochuli, Dieter F.; Hodgins, Kathryn A.; Hood, Glen R.; Hopkins, Gareth R.; Hovanes, Katherine A.; Howard, Ava R.; Hubbard, Sierra C.; Ibarra-cerdena, Carlos N.; Iniguez-armijos, Carlos; Jara-arancio, Paola; Jarrett, Benjamin J. M.; Jeannot, Manon; Jimenez-lobato, Vania; Johnson, Mae; Johnson, Oscar; Johnson, Philip P.; Johnson, Reagan; Josephson, Matthew P.; Jung, Meen Chel; Just, Michael G.; Kahilainen, Aapo; Kailing, Otto S.; Karinho-betancourt, Eunice; Karousou, Regina; Kirn, Lauren A.; Kirschbaum, Anna; Laine, Anna-liisa; Lamontagne, Jalene M.; Lampei, Christian; Lara, Carlos; Larson, Erica L.; Lazaro-lobo, Adrian; Le, Jennifer H.; Leandro, Deleon S.; Lee, Christopher; Lei, Yunting; Leon, Carolina A.; Tamara, Manuel E. Lequerica; Levesque, Danica C.; Liao, Wan-jin; Ljubotina, Megan; Locke, Hannah; Lockett, Martin T.; Longo, Tiffany C.; Lundholm, Jeremy T.; Macgillavry, Thomas; Mackin, Christopher R.; Mahmoud, Alex R.; Manju, Isaac A.; Marien, Janine; Martinez, D. Nayeli; Martinez-bartolome, Marina; Meineke, Emily K.; Mendoza-arroyo, Wendy; Merritt, Thomas J. S.; Merritt, Lila Elizabeth L.; Migiani, Giuditta; Minor, Emily S.; Mitchell, Nora; Bazargani, Mitra Mohammadi; Moles, Angela T.; Monk, Julia D.; Moore, Christopher M.; Morales-morales, Paula A.; Moyers, Brook T.; Munoz-rojas, Miriam; Munshi-south, Jason; Murphy, Shannon M.; Murua, Maureen M.; Neila, Melisa; Nikolaidis, Ourania; Njunji, Iva; Nosko, Peter; Nunez-farfan, Juan; Ohgushi, Takayuki; Olsen, Kenneth M.; Opedal, Oystein H.; Ornelas, Cristina; Parachnowitsch, Amy L.; Paratore, Aaron S.; Parody-merino, Angela M.; Paule, Juraj; Paulo, Octavio S.; Pena, Joao Carlos; Pfeiffer, Vera W.; Pinho, Pedro; Piot, Anthony; Porth, Ilga M.; Poulos, Nicholas; Puentes, Adriana; Qu, Jiao; Quintero-vallejo, Estela; Raciti, Steve M.; Raeymaekers, Joost A. M.; Raveala, Krista M.; Rennison, Diana J.; Ribeiro, Milton C.; Richardson, Jonathan L.; Rivas-torres, Gonzalo; Rivera, Benjamin J.; Roddy, Adam B.; Rodriguez-munoz, Erika; Roman, Jose Raul; Rossi, Laura S.; Rowntree, Jennifer K.; Ryan, Travis J.; Salinas, Santiago; Sanders, Nathan J.; Santiago-rosario, Luis Y.; Savage, Amy M.; Scheepens, J. F.; Schilthuizen, Menno; Schneider, Adam C.; Scholier, Tiffany; Scott, Jared L.; Shaheed, Summer A.; Shefferson, Richard P.; Shepard, Caralee A.; Shykoff, Jacqui A.; Silveira, Georgianna; Smith, Alexis D.; Solis-gabriel, Lizet; Soro, Antonella; Spellman, Katie, V; Whitney, Kaitlin Stack; Starke-ottich, Indra; Stephan, Jorg G.; Stephens, Jessica D.; Szulc, Justyna; Szulkin, Marta; Tack, Ayco J. M.; Tamburrino, Italo; Tate, Tayler D.; Tergemina, Emmanuel; Theodorou, Panagiotis; Thompson, Ken A.; Threlfall, Caragh G.; Tinghitella, Robin M.; Toledo-chelala, Lilibeth; Tong, Xin; Uroy, Lea; Utsumi, Shunsuke; Vandegehuchte, Martijn L.; Vanwallendael, Acer; Vidal, Paula M.; Wadgymar, Susana M.; Wang, Ai-ying; Wang, Nian; Warbrick, Montana L.; Whitney, Kenneth D.; Wiesmeier, Miriam; Wiles, J. Tristian; Wu, Jianqiang; Xirocostas, Zoe A.; Yan, Zhaogui; Yao, Jiahe; Yoder, Jeremy B.; Yoshida, Owen; Zhang, Jingxiong; Zhao, Zhigang; Ziter, Carly D.; Zuellig, Matthew P.; Zufall, Rebecca A.; Zurita, Juan E.; Zytynska, Sharon E.; Johnson, Marc T. J. (2022). Global Urban Environmental Change Drives Adaptation in White Clover. Science, 375(6586), 1275+.

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Abstract

Urbanization transforms environments in ways that alter biological evolution. We examined whether urban environmental change drives parallel evolution by sampling 110,019 white clover plants from 6169 populations in 160 cities globally. Plants were assayed for a Mendelian antiherbivore defense that also affects tolerance to abiotic stressors. Urban-rural gradients were associated with the evolution of clines in defense in 47% of cities throughout the world. Variation in the strength of clines was explained by environmental changes in drought stress and vegetation cover that varied among cities. Sequencing 2074 genomes from 26 cities revealed that the evolution of urban-rural dines was best explained by adaptive evolution, but the degree of parallel adaptation varied among cities. Our results demonstrate that urbanization leads to adaptation at a global scale.

Keywords

Surface Temperature Retrieval; Cyanogenesis Clines; Hydrogen-cyanide; Gene Flow; F-st; Evolution; Polymorphism; Emissivity; Discovery; Framework; Drought; Urban Environments; Urbanization; Environmental Changes; Herbivory; Urban Development; Adaptation; Chemical Defense; Urban Areas; Data Collection; Trifolium Repens