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Firms from a variety of industries regularly partner with Formula One racing teams to achieve marketing objectives on an international scale. The sponsored properties offer signals of brand foreignness/localness, country of origin, and the potential for highly visible achievements. Firms enter and exit brand partnerships with some of the world's most famous athletes and iconic teams, yet the partnership decision-making process remains opaque, particularly concerning the impact of geographic origin and team performance among other criteria, including macroeconomic conditions and brand-related factors. This study contributes a quantitative model that analyzes 53 years of data encompassing more than 3,000 sponsorships across six continents. The findings improve understanding of brand partnership continuity/dissolution by explicating a shared nationality effect and a link with sponsored organizational performance that is robust across three distinct eras of Formula One. In doing so, the study contributes to theory by completing the sponsorship performance cycle and distilling partnership limits with regard to brand foreignness. The theory and quantitative analyses are buttressed by interviews with brand decision-makers, excerpts from which also shape the discussion of managerial applications. Implications include efficiencies in partner prospecting that enhance the likelihood of enduring brand relationships in sponsorship-linked international marketing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parcel hub (PH), as one of the logistic system entities, plays a significant role in delivering packages. PH operations are identical to a cross-docking system. Numerous studies were conducted to examine solutions in PH and cross-docking in general. This paper aims to investigate scientific references published within the last fifteen years through a systematic literature review (SLR). The objectives are to determine the critical decisions related to PH problems, classify the applied solution approach, and identify the future challenges regarding the transformation towards intelligent logistics. This study implements an SLR methodology that consists of five stages: planning, searching, screening, analysing, and reporting. This study utilises two publication databases and one reference management system. More than four thousand documents were collected in the searching stage. Then, five assessments are conducted to sort the most relevant papers. One hundred and forty-six articles are included in the further analysis. This study classifies four important decisions associated with PH problems: truck scheduling, internal process planning, facility planning, and technology selection. In addition, this study categorises ten solution approaches employed to find the best decision in the prior research. Moreover, this study explains the future research directions and managerial implications of managing parcel hub systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article chronicles the evolution of the two main paradigms within the Journal of Consumer Research : consumer information processing and behavioral decision-making. The work synthesizes interviews with preeminent scholars who have shaped these paradigms, featuring theoretical developments, key findings, and methodological innovations. This article also connects these perspectives to practical applications in advertising, branding, and retailing and identifies knowledge gaps to be addressed in future consumer research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

PURPOSE OF REVIEW: The application of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance clinical decision-making in Peyronies disease (PD) has generated significant interest. This review explores the current landscape of AI in PD evaluation. RECENT FINDINGS: Recent advances in 3D modeling offer a more sophisticated approach to assessing PD deformities; however, the implementation of 3D modeling in clinical practice faces challenges, including the need for specialized equipment and time-consuming data processing, sometimes taking several hours of labor. AI holds promise for overcoming these hurdles through its ability to efficiently process large volumes of data and to perform accurate predictions based on such data. Future integration of AI with 3D modeling techniques could revolutionize PD evaluation by improving patient counseling, surgical planning, and clinical decision-making. Significant gaps in the literature have yet to be addressed, including the absence of robust evidence that incorporating such technology is superior to standard diagnostics.

This research explores prospective determinants of trust in the recommendations of artificial agents regarding decisions to kill, using a novel visual challenge paradigm simulating threat-identification (enemy combatants vs. civilians) under uncertainty. In Experiment 1, we compared trust in the advice of a physically embodied versus screen-mediated anthropomorphic robot, observing no effects of embodiment; in Experiment 2, we manipulated the relative anthropomorphism of virtual robots, observing modestly greater trust in the most anthropomorphic agent relative to the least. Across studies, when any version of the agent randomly disagreed, participants reversed their threat-identifications and decisions to kill in the majority of cases, substantially degrading their initial performance. Participants subjective confidence in their decisions tracked whether the agent (dis)agreed, while both decision-reversals and confidence were moderated by appraisals of the agents intelligence. The overall findings indicate a strong propensity to overtrust unreliable AI in life-or-death decisions made under uncertainty.

Everyone agrees that feelings and actions are intertwined, but cannot agree how. According to dominant models, actions are directed by estimates of value and these values shape or are shaped by affect. I propose instead that affect is the only form of value that drives actions. Our mind constantly represents potential future states and how they would make us feel. These states collectively form a gradient reflecting feelings we could experience depending on actions we take. Motivated behavior reflects the process of traversing this affective gradient, towards desirable states and away from undesirable ones. This affective gradient hypothesis solves the puzzle of where values and goals come from, and offers a parsimonious account of apparent conflicts between emotion and cognition.

Four decades of research into the influences of time pressure on risky decisions have produced widely contrasting findings: 38.5% of the effects indicate that time pressure increases risk preferences, whereas 61.5% show the opposite. A theoretical framework with four conceptual categories of moderators is proposed to explain these heterogeneous findings: nature of the time constraint, negative outcome salience, negative outcome severity, and vulnerability to the outcomes. This framework is tested through a meta-analysis of 213 effect sizes reported in 83 papers, representing 65,574 unique respondents. The four categories of moderators effectively resolve notable conflicts. For example, regarding the nature of the time constraint, an absolute versus relative constraint increases risk preferences, but an ambiguous versus objective constraint decreases risk preferences. In terms of negative outcome salience, risk preferences decrease if the risk is learned about from a description (vs. experience) or the outcome is framed as a loss (vs. gain). Negative outcome severity also exerts an effect, as discrete choices lower risk preferences compared with attitudinal risk. In addition to managerial and public policy implications based on simulations, a comprehensive research agenda that builds on the robust insights of this meta-analysis is offered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Decision-making on childbearing and safer conception use in HIV sero-different couples involves an intricate balance of individual desires and perceived HIV acquisition risk. This paper addresses an important knowledge gap regarding HIV sero-different couples considerations and the relationship and power dynamics involved when deciding to use a safer conception method. Between February and June 2019, we conducted semi-structured in-depth interviews among 14 men and 17 women, representing 17 couples, who exited the SAFER study - a pilot study assessing the feasibility, acceptability and cost-effectiveness of a safer conception programme for HIV sero-different couples in Zimbabwe. All couples in SAFER were provided with a choice of safer conception methods and were followed for up to 12 months of pregnancy attempts and 3 months following pregnancy. While couples generally perceived their safer conception discussions to be easy and consensus-driven, the decision-making process also involved complex gender dynamics and trade-offs in relationship power, which resulted in differing interpretations of what constituted a joint or shared couple decision. Participants regarded effective couple communication as an essential component of and precursor to good safer conception conversations and requested additional training in couple communication. Couples relied on information from healthcare providers to kickstart their safer conception discussions. Safer conception programmes should address relationship power imbalances, promote effective couple communication and offer healthcare provider support to enable HIV sero-different couples to make informed choices about conception in a manner that upholds their safety and reproductive autonomy.

How accurate are people in judging someone elses knowledge based on their language use, and do more knowledgeable people use different cues to make these judgments? We address this by recruiting a group of participants (informants) to answer general knowledge questions and describe various images belonging to different categories (e.g., cartoons, basketball). A second group of participants (evaluators) also answer general knowledge questions and decide who is more knowledgeable within pairs of informants, based on these descriptions. Evaluators perform above chance at identifying the most knowledgeable informants (65% with only one description available). The less knowledgeable evaluators base their decisions on the number of specific statements, regardless of whether the statements are true or false. The more knowledgeable evaluators treat true and false statements differently and penalize the knowledge they attribute to informants who produce specific yet false statements. Our findings demonstrate the power of a few words when assessing others knowledge and have implications for how misinformation is processed differently between experts and novices.

Social interactions unfold within networks of relationships. How do beliefs about others social ties shape-and how are they shaped by-expectations about how others will behave? Here, participants joined a fictive online game-playing community and interacted with its purported members, who varied in terms of their trustworthiness and apparent relationships with one another. Participants were less trusting of partners with untrustworthy friends, even after they consistently showed themselves to be trustworthy, and were less willing to engage with them in the future. To test whether people not only expect friends to behave similarly but also expect those who behave similarly to be friends, an incidental memory test was given. Participants were exceptionally likely to falsely remember similarly behaving partners as friends. Thus, people expect friendship to predict similar behavior and vice versa. These results suggest that knowledge of social networks and others behavioral tendencies reciprocally interact to shape social thought and behavior.

Since its inception in 1983, NOAA's Regional Climate Center (RCC) Program has been providing timely, customized climate services for decision making across all climate-sensitive sectors. Through this 40-yr period, the RCC Program has not only seen but also has played an active role in, the evolution of climate services from the days of climate data libraries--where books of data were consulted to fulfill simple data requests--to coproduced tools that can calculate sectoral-specific, on-the-fly climate analyses in a matter of seconds. With new technologies emerging, the RCC Program is poised to build on its reputation as a trusted climate service provider by incorporating advanced methods for climate service delivery to continue to meet the needs of the nation. This publication will provide a look back at the evolution of regional climate services over the past 40 years, along with a vision for the future. KEYWORDS: Climate services; Decision support; History, 1. Celebrating 40 years of the Regional Climate Center Program The Regional Climate Center (RCC) Program has its roots in the National Climate Program Act of 1978, which recognized the [...]

At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, many public libraries offered virtual storytimes (VSTs). Who proposed, authorized, and developed these programs? What impact did they have in the short term and long term? To find out, we created a survey on the decision and evaluation processes behind VST. We received 415 responses from children's librarians throughout the United States. Our findings indicate that children's librarians exercised keen administrative and management skills in launching VSTs and the programs prioritized children's socioemotional development and learning. However, assessment of the programs is somewhat lacking as libraries tended to focus on outputs like the number of views rather than more meaningful indicators of program value for the community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The industry has embraced digitalisation leading to a greater reliance on models derived from data. Understanding and getting insights into the models generated by machine learning algorithms is a challenge due to their non-explicit nature. Explainable artificial intelligence (XAI) is to enhance understanding of the digital models and confidence in the results they produce. The paper makes two contributions. First, the XRule algorithm proposed in the paper generates explicit rules meeting user's preferences. A user may control the nature of the rules generated by the XRule algorithm, e.g. degree of redundancy among the rules. Second, in analogy to federated learning, the concept of federated explainable artificial intelligence (fXAI) is proposed. Besides providing insights into the models built from data and explaining the predicted decisions, the fXAI provides additional value. The user-centric knowledge generated in support of fXAI may lead to discovery of previously unknown parameters and subsequently models that may benefit the non-explicit and explicit perspectives. The insights from fXAI could translate into new ways of modelling the phenomena of interest. A numerical example and three industrial applications illustrate the concepts presented in the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Deliberative democracy theory highlighted democratic deliberation as a modus operandi for facilitating group decision-making. In 2023, members of Romanian labor unions in several sectors took to the streets in strikes and protests, demanding higher revenues and better work conditions. Nevertheless, misunderstandings and internal ruptures shadowed their noble ends and fueled mistrust amongst unionists. This dynamic reminds rather of interest party politics as it employs vertical power relations, influenced by social and professional background segmentation. One question that reasonably arises in this context is how deliberative the decision-making process is within the unions in Romania. We specifically analyze elements of deliberative organizational leadership and the power relations within labor unions through a qualitative study in the form of interviews. Keywords: Labor Unions, Romania, Deliberation, Representation, Leadership, Context Neo-liberalism triggered more dynamism in the labor market and new work relations, forcing unions to reshape and adjust their working procedures repeatedly. Their efficiency in coping with capitalist interests [...]

The Internet of Things (IoT) is one of the key technologies for the digital transformation of both business and society. The paper primarily aims to investigate the structure and dynamics of academic publications in English dealing with issues of IoT development - from a marketing perspective, using methods of systematic mapping, i.e., co-citation analysis, bibliographic coupling, and analysis of the co-occurrence of keywords in the Scopus and Web of Science (WoS) databases. Analysis of research papers enables the identification of the most influential articles, papers, and journals, as well as visualization of the keywords and co-authorship co-occurrences. There has been an exponential increase in studies on IoT applications in marketing, indexed in Scopus and WoS citation databases. An insight into analyzed papers shows that companies utilize large amounts of data generated by the IoT to gain insights into customers' supply and value creation, which helps strengthen their relationships with customers and pursue more efficient marketing policies and practices, ultimately leading to a competitive advantage. The IoT is expected to evolve into a vast network that includes smart devices and significantly influences people's behavior, especially decision-making at different stages of the purchasing process. KEYWORDS: internet of Things, marketing, bibliometric analysis, 1. INTRODUCTION We are living in the age of the fourth--digital - industrial revolution (Guven & Akkaya, 2020), whose main driver is data. How data can be collected, analyzed, and [...]

INTRODUCTION: Existing advance care planning (ACP) definitional frameworks apply to individuals with decision-making capacity. We aimed to conceptualize ACP for dementia in terms of its definition and issues that deserve particular attention. METHODS: Delphi study with phases: (A) adaptation of a generic ACP framework by a task force of the European Association for Palliative Care (EAPC); (B) four online surveys by 107 experts from 33 countries, September 2021 to June 2022; (C) approval by the EAPC board. RESULTS: ACP in dementia was defined as a communication process adapted to the persons capacity, which includes, and is continued with, family if available. We identified pragmatic boundaries regarding participation and time (i.e., current or end-of-life care). Three interrelated issues that deserve particular attention were capacity, family, and engagement and communication. DISCUSSION: A communication and relationship-centered definitional framework of ACP in dementia evolved through international consensus supporting inclusiveness of persons with dementia and their family. HIGHLIGHTS: This article offers a consensus definitional framework of advance care planning in dementia. The definition covers all stages of capacity and includes family caregivers. Particularly important are (1) capacity, (2) family, (3) engagement, and communication. Fluctuating capacity was visualized in relation to roles and engaging stakeholders.

BACKGROUND: Tissue-based gene expression (genomic) tests provide estimates of prostate cancer aggressiveness and are increasingly used for patients considering or engaged in active surveillance. However, little is known about patient experiences with genomic testing and its role in their decision-making. METHODS: We performed a qualitative study consisting of in-depth, semi-structured interviews of patients with low- or favourable-intermediate-risk prostate cancer managed with active surveillance. We purposively sampled to include patients who received biopsy-based genomic testing as part of clinical care. The interview guide focused on experiences with genomic testing during patients decision-making for prostate cancer management and understanding of genomic test results. We continued interviews until thematic saturation was reached, iteratively created a code key and used conventional content analysis to analyse data. RESULTS: Participants (n = 20) mean age was 68 years (range 51-79). At initial biopsy, 17 (85%) had a Gleason grade group 1, and 3 (15%) had a grade group 2 prostate cancer. The decision to undergo genomic testing was driven by both participants and physicians recommendations; however, some participants were unaware that testing had occurred. Overall, participants understood the role of genomic testing in estimating their prostate cancer risk, and the test results increased their confidence in the decision for active surveillance. Participants had some misconceptions about the difference between tissue-based gene expression tests and germline genetic tests and commonly believed that tissue-based tests measured hereditary cancer risk. While some participants expressed satisfaction with their physicians explanations, others felt that communication was limited and lacked sufficient detail. CONCLUSION: Patients interact with and are influenced by the results of biopsy-based genomic testing during active surveillance for prostate cancer, despite gaps in understanding about test results. Our findings indicate areas for improvement in patient counselling in order to increase patient knowledge and comfort with genomic testing.

As the number of people with cancer increases, so does the number of informal caregivers. These caregivers frequently have multiple unmet needs and experience numerous burdens. Here we explore the crucial roles of these caregivers and categorize their unmet needs into four areas: information, relationship and communication, emotional support, and practical or financial needs. We provide evidence on emerging interventions aimed at supporting caregivers, including patient/caregiver assessments, education, collaborative care, financial assistance, wellness, informational programs, and an integrated caregiver clinic. Finally, we delve into the vital role that patient advocacy groups play in addressing the unmet needs of cancer patients and their caregivers by providing comprehensive support, including education, resources, counseling, guidance, and financial aid. Plain Language Summary As the number of people living with cancer increases, the number of informal caregivers is also increasing. Most often, these caregivers are family members, friends, or spouses of the person with cancer. Caregivers of patients with cancer help with medical tasks and routine chores, like driving, and even personal care, such as bathing. Caregiving can be challenging, emotionally taxing, and time-consuming, all while being unpaid. In this review, we identify four unmet needs of caregivers of patients with cancer and examine how they are being addressed. First, caregivers need cancer care information that is presented in an understandable way. This will help the caregiver and the patient make better decisions about cancer care and treatment. Second, caregivers need better relationships and communication with the patient's clinicians. In addition, caregivers must also navigate, and sometimes mend, challenging relationships with the patients that they care for. Third, caregivers need more emotional support, including the option for counseling and therapy. Fourth, caregivers may need practical and financial support, particularly since the time demands and stress of caregiving can disrupt their ability to earn a living. Although many attempts have been made to address these caregiver needs, gaps still remain. Increasing awareness of information targeting caregivers and patients could reduce their uncertainty and help with decision-making. Even when resources are available, caregivers may not always be aware of or linked to them. Patient advocacy groups play a critical role in connecting caregivers with available resources. They also provide a variety of support services, including education, navigation, and financial assistance. Article highlights Caregivers play a critical role in cancer care Informal caregivers provide unpaid, ongoing care or assistance to a patient with cancer. Caregiver burden & unmet needs Most caregivers of patients with cancer are overburdened. The unmet needs of caregivers can be divided into four categories: informational, relationship/communication, emotional, and practical/financial. Informational There is a need for "objective" and "trusted" medical information and advice about the patient's condition and treatment plan written in plain language. Caregivers may need information to assist patients in decision-making about care and treatment options. Relationship/communication Caregivers often face challenging relationships with the patients they care for, who are often family members and/or they struggle with complex extended family dynamics. There may be barriers that prevent open communication between caregivers and the patient's clinicians. Although telehealth provides benefits to patients and caregivers, there are barriers that prevent access. Emotional Nearly half of caregivers struggle with depression and anxiety. Caregivers are often challenged by mental healthcare needs, which are not covered by the same insurance plans that cover the patient's medical care. Practical/financial Caregiving can often amount to a full-time job. The considerable commitment required to care for a cancer patient can have a significant practical and financial impact, potentially affecting the caregiver's employment and their family/home needs. Evidence on interventions to support caregivers: a work in progress Caregiver assessments during patient medical visits are feasible and beneficial. Programs designed to provide information and education to patients and caregivers reduce uncertainty and assist in decision-making. Collaborative care consisting of a team-based approach with an oncologist, care manager, and mental health professional who collaborate to enhance psychosocial outcomes is effective in reducing depression and improving quality of life for patients and caregivers. Massage and mindfulness training may reduce the physical and emotional stress and suffering of caregivers. An innovative caregiver clinic based in Toronto, Canada, takes an integrated approach and provides psychosocial support to caregivers, much like patients receive. A call to action: how patient advocacy groups can help in the caregiving process Importantly, patient advocacy groups fill many gaps that may not otherwise be addressed by other interventions due to access and availability barriers. They play critical roles in supporting patients and their caregivers by providing resources including education, information, counseling, navigation, and financial assistance. They also engage in policy and legislative advocacy efforts on behalf of patients with cancer and their caregivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Intelligent algorithms have shown promise in supporting marketing strategy decisions through data mining. However, existing methods have primarily relied on expertise, lacking autonomous decision-making abilities. Consequently, a marketing strategy decision model based on particle swarm optimization and multi-objective programming is proposed. This study first explores the potential for integrating particle optimization and multi-objective programming models partially, and then assesses the overall effectiveness of each marketing strategy by defining a fitness function. Subsequently, the particle swarm optimization algorithm is employed to search for and optimize decision variables to identify the optimal combination of marketing strategies. Finally, several simulation experiments are conducted using external real data. The research findings indicate that the algorithm's error rate in this study was initially 0.23. However, after 500 training sessions, it decreased to 0.08 and maintained a relatively low level. The proportion of marketing strategy revenue increased by 15.2 percentage points between 0 and 100 training sessions, then remained relatively stable at over 30%. Its revenue proportion continued to rise during the training process, significantly surpassing that of other algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The household waste (HW) disposal and recycling have become a significant challenge due to increasing quantities of generated household wastes and increased levels of urbanization. Selecting locations/sites for building new HW recycling plant comprises numerous sustainability dimensions, thus, this work aims to develop new decision-making model for evaluating and prioritizing the HW recycling plant locations. This paper is categorized into three phases. First, we propose new improved score function to compare the Fermatean fuzzy numbers. Moreover, an example is presented to validate the effectiveness of proposed score function over the extant ones. Second, we introduce new distance measure to estimate the discrimination degree between Fermatean fuzzy sets (FFSs) and further discuss its advantages over the prior developed Fermatean fuzzy distance measures. Third, we introduce an integrated methodology by combining the method with the removal effects of criteria (MEREC), the stepwise weight assessment ratio analysis (SWARA) and the measurement alternatives and the ranking according to compromise solution (MARCOS) approaches with Fermatean fuzzy (FF) information, and named as the "FF-MEREC-SWARA-MARCOS" framework. In this method, the FF-distance measure is used to find the weights of involved decision-making experts. Moreover, an integrated criteria weighting method is presented with the combination of MEREC and SWARA models under the context of FFSs, while the combined FF-MEREC-SWARA-MARCOS model is applied to evaluate and prioritize the locations for HW recycling plant development, which illustrates its feasibility of the developed framework. Comparative study and sensitivity assessment are conducted to validate the obtained outcomes. This work provides a hybrid decision analysis approach, which marks a significant impact to the HW recycling plant location selection process with uncertain information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lateral ankle sprain (LAS) is one of the most common types of injury in professional football (soccer) players with high risk of recurrence. The rehabilitation after LAS in professional football players is often still time-based and relies on anecdotal experience of clinicans. There is still a lack of utilization of criteria-based rehabilitation concepts after LAS in professional football. The aims of this clinical commentary are (1) to critically discuss the need for criteria-based rehabilitation concepts after LAS in professional football players, (2) to highlight the current lack of these approaches and (3) to present a novel clinical guideline-based rehabilitation algorithm. Short time-loss (15 days) and high recurrence rate (17%) raise the question of trivialization of LAS in professional football. Despite consequences for many stakeholders involved (players, teams, clubs, insurers), there is still a lack of of criteria-based, step-by-step approaches. The use of a criteria-based rehabilitation approach might reduce the high recurrence rate after LAS in professional football players and will lead, in turn, to increased long-term player availability. Practical experiences of he authors demonstrate the feasibility of such an approach. The effectiveness of this novel rehabilitation algorithm remains to be evaluated in future studies. Level of Evidence: 5 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OT SPOKR PHYSICAL TOEBAfY [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic posed many unprecedented challenges to health care systems and public health efforts worldwide. Policy making and science were deeply intertwined, in particular with regard to the justification of health policy measures. In this context, ethical considerations were often at the core of decision-making trade-offs. However, not much is known about the actual ethical challenges encountered by policy makers and scientists involved in policy advice. With this study, we therefore aim to explore the ethical challenges during COVID-19-related political decision-making in Switzerland as perceived by policy makers and scientists involved in policy making. We also explore the role ethics advice had during the pandemic response and what can be learned for future public health crises. Methods: We conducted thirteen qualitative expert interviews with policy makers and scientists involved in decision-making on COVID-19 policy responses in Switzerland on the regional and national level. We used inductive content analysis to analyse the interviews. Results: Among the multitude of ethical challenges highlighted, interviewees perceived making trade-offs between the common good vs. the individual good and between economic welfare vs. health of the population, as well as proportionality of the policy measures, and the capacity of the public to accept uncertainty as central. Interviewees had diverging opinions on whether ethical considerations were sufficiently raised and discussed on the Swiss policy level during the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the reasons why ethics was not sufficiently discussed, they mentioned a lack of time in the fast-paced dynamic of the pandemic, ethics as a complex subject area, the interconnectedness between ethics and law, too much focus on few topics (mostly on vaccination-related ethical questions), and power relationships, such as dominance of medical professionals over ethicists. They evaluated ethics support to have been adequately present in the decision-making process, but wished for ethics training, involvement of the public in the discourse and for accompanying communication to build trust among the population for the future. Conclusions: The study provides empirical insights into the ethical considerations of COVID-19 policy making in practice in Switzerland. It can help to develop ethics assistance for future crises and inform ethical health policy and decision-making not only in Switzerland, but also in other countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban areas are emerging as "strategic sites" in the ongoing sustainable energy (SE) transitions. This has rekindled the importance of urban governments in initiating this transition urgently, a departure from the actors managing more mainstream centralized energy governance. However, while there is a growing international and academic interest in urban energy transitions, the political presence of cities in the global clean energy landscape remains largely underwhelming. Scholars studying urban energy transitions or governance have often pointed toward the lack of material and knowledge capacities of the urban governments as the key barrier for their muted actions. I argue that decision-making by urban governments with respect to clean energy adoption needs deeper inspection wherein aspects such as capacity, or the lack of it, are symptoms of underlying power contestations and conflicts that are negotiated in multi-level governance systems. The scholarship of power captures the ideas of contestation, control, and acquiescence, going beyond the ideas of cooperation prevalent in multilevel governance. In this article, I juxtapose these with concepts from multi-level governance and socio-technical studies to offer an analytical framework for understanding energy decision-making by city governments. The framework presented in this article attempts to capture both direct and indirect forms of power, their operationalization, and manifestation in constituting identities, actual decisions (and indecisions) as well as the conditions of decision-making. I also use the framework to understand the role of power in sustainable energy decision-making in three cities in India as an illustration of possible application of the framework. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

When decision-makers use economic evaluation to facilitate making decisions about reimbursing whether to reimburse pharmaceuticals within a publicly funded health care system, they may consider whether to prioritise specific patient populations or diseases: e.g., cancer or rare disease. This can be achieved through applying equity weights to outcomes such as QALYs. Decision makers, however, must choose whether equity weights are applied to solely the treatment of a specific disease or to treatments of the patient with the specific disease. Without such clarification, confusion may arise which can hinder the work of those who must make reimbursement recommendations and decisions. This study examines the repercussions of implementation of equity weights. For illustration, two hypothetical case studies relating to a rare disease are considered. The first case study demonstrates that applying equity weights only to the treatment of the rare disease of interest can lead to a patient with that rare disease accruing less benefits at a higher cost to the payer. The second case study demonstrates that if equity weights are applied to the patients who have a specific rare disease, then funding of a treatment for a common disease may be restricted only to those patients for whom treatment is more costly and less effective. As discussions continue with respect to applying equity weights within economic evaluation, it is important that the repercussions outlined are recognised. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Evidence suggests that people experiencing inequities and who are highly marginalized (e.g., people impacted by racism, sexism, discrimination, stigma, mental illness, substance use issues, disability, and the effects of homelessness; also referred to as structurally vulnerable individuals) often die alone, in pain, and not receiving the care they need. Some research even points to highly marginalized people not feeling worthy of care. The need to consider equity in the context of palliative care has recently emerged but little attention has been paid to how ethical decision-making generally, and relational ethics, specifically, could provide guidance in the care of highly marginalized people who are on a palliative trajectory. Relational ethics offers a model of care and decision-making framework that emphasizes how clients, healthcare providers, and larger social structures are interwoven and acknowledge that structural conditions can position people to have less choice than others. Relational approaches in the context of palliative care for highly marginalized people have the potential to provide a lens to better support the delivery of equitable palliative care. This critical essay explores relational ethics as a way to approach equity in palliative care to support clients facing structural vulnerabilities. We discuss relational ethical considerations to approach collaborative partnerships between clients, healthcare providers, and the larger community with the goal of aligning care with clients' values. An ethical case for how a relational ethics approach might be used to promote equitable access to palliative care will be explored, highlighting how such approaches have the potential to better align client wishes with their needs and to ensure decision-making and care delivery is trauma-informed, harm reduction focused, and culturally respectful. Relational ethics can support social change in equity and palliative care by contributing ethically informed ways of caring for/with/about highly marginalized people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Health information technologies (HIT) provide opportunities to support staff as well as residents and their families in long-term care (LTC) homes. Yet, LTC homes lag behind other healthcare organizations in HIT adoption, and little is known about the factors that inform and shape LTC home managers’ decisions. We conducted an exploratory Delphi study with a panel of 19 Canadian LTC managers who were surveyed through three iterative rounds (brainstorming, narrowing down, and ranking) to solicit their input on the key factors that influence HIT adoption decisions. An authoritative list of 25 factors, described and ranked in importance, was produced. The top five identified factors were (in order of importance): availability of funding, impact on workload and efficiency, value proposition, ease of use, and impact on residents’ outcomes. The findings of this research may inform policies and interventions that provide training and workshop opportunities for managers in LTC and increase the awareness of the advocacy and leadership role that managers can play in advancing technology adoption in support of older adults’ care. The results can also be used to support funding from LTC home governing bodies, which is tied to the technology adoption portfolio, to institutionalize the commitment to technological transformation in LTC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]