The role of muscarinic cholinergic signaling in cost-benefit decision making

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Washington, 2016-08

Exercise Prescription for Patients with Non-specific Chronic Low Back Pain: a Qualitative Study of Patients' Experiences in Decision Making

Background The culture of current clinical practice calls for collaboration between therapists and patients, sharing power and responsibility. This paper reports on the findings of a qualitative study of exercise prescription for patients with NSCLBP, taking into account issues such as decision making and how this accords with patient preferences and experiences. Objective To understand the treatment decision making experiences, information and decision support needs of patients with NSCLBP who have been offered exercise as part of their management plan. Design A qualitative study using a philosophical hermeneutic approach. Methods Semi-structured interviews with eight patients (including use of brief patient vignettes) was undertaken to explore their personal experiences of receiving exercise as part of the management of their NSCLBP, and their involvement in decisions regarding their care. Findings The findings provide a detailed insight into patients’ perceptions and experiences of receiving exercise-based management strategies. Four themes were formed from the texts: (1) patients’ expectations and patients’ needs are not synonymous, (2) information is necessary but often not sufficient, (3) not all decisions need to be shared, and (4) wanting to be treated as an individual. Conclusions Shared decision making did not appear to happen in physiotherapy clinical practice, but equally may not be what every patient wants. The overall feeling of the patients was that the therapist was dominant in structuring the interactions, leaving the patients feeling disempowered to question and contribute to the decision making.

Analysis on the connotation of probability in the artificial intelligence algorithm for economic decision making.

This paper analyzes the inner relations between classical sub-scheme probability and statistic probability, subjective probability and objective probability, prior probability and posterior probability, transition probability and probability of utility, and further analysis the goal, method, and its practical economic purpose which represent by these various probability from the perspective of mathematics, so as to deeply understand there connotation and its relation with economic decision making, thus will pave the route for scientific predication and decision making.

Structured decision making as a tool for facilitating stakeholder engagement in non-renewable resource management: using the case study of hydraulic fracturing in the Green Point Shale formation in western Newfoundland

This thesis examines the importance of effective stakeholder engagement that complies with the doctrines of social justice in non-renewable resources management decision-making. It uses hydraulic fracturing in the Green Point Shale Formation in Western Newfoundland as a case study. The thesis uses as theoretical background John Rawls’ and David Miller’ theory of social justice, and identifies the social justice principles, which are relevant to stakeholder engagement. The thesis compares the method of stakeholder engagement employed by the Newfoundland and Labrador Hydraulic Fracturing Review Panel (NLHFRP), with the stakeholder engagement techniques recommended by the Structured Decision Making (SDM) model, as applied to a simulated case study involving hydraulic fracturing in the Green Point Shale Formation. Using the already identified social justice principles, the thesis then developed a framework to measure the level of compliance of both stakeholder engagement techniques with social justice principles. The main finding of the thesis is that the engagement techniques prescribed by the SDM model comply more closely with the doctrines of social justice than the engagement techniques applied by the NLHFRP. The thesis concludes by recommending that the SDM model be more widely used in non- renewable resource management decision making in order to ensure that all stakeholders’ concerns are effectively heard, understood and transparently incorporated in the nonrenewable resource policies to make them consistent with local priorities and goals, and with the social justice norms and institutions.