Resources Repository
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ReviewPublication 2016Decision Support for Infectious Disease Control
This report from RAND reviews decision-support tools, including models and nonmodeling approaches, that are relevant to …
This report from RAND reviews decision-support tools, including models and nonmodeling approaches, that are relevant to infectious disease prevention, detection, and response and aligns these tools with real-world policy questions that the tools can help address. This overview is designed to help modelers and other technical experts understand the questions that policymakers will raise and the decisions they must make. The report also presents policymakers with the capabilities and limitations of the different tools that may…
Dynamic Simulation | Dynamic Transmission | Military/Defense | Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Microsimulation | Infectious Diseases | Global Governance | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Global -
ReviewPublication 2015Agent-Based Models and Microsimulation
This article reviews the principles and applications of agent-based models (ABMs). ABMs are computational models …
This article reviews the principles and applications of agent-based models (ABMs). ABMs are computational models used to simulate the actions and interactions of “agents” within a system. Usually, each agent has a set of rules for how he or she responds to the environment and to other agents. These models are used to gain insight into the emergent behavior of complex systems with many agents, in which the emergent behavior depends upon the micro-level behavior…
Dynamic Simulation | Military/Defense | Science/Technology | Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Microsimulation | Energy/Engineering | Health/Medicine -
ReviewPublication 2008Modeling Cervical Cancer Prevention in Developed Countries
Decision-analytic models are increasingly developed to simulate disease burden and interventions in different settings in …
Decision-analytic models are increasingly developed to simulate disease burden and interventions in different settings in order to evaluate the benefits and cost-effectiveness of primary and secondary interventions. This article is a review of mathematical models that have been used to evaluate HPV vaccination in the context of developed countries with existing screening programs. Despite variations in model assumptions and uncertainty in existing data, pre-adolescent vaccination of females in the setting of current screening practices has…
Calibration/Validation | Dynamic Transmission | Science/Technology | Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Microsimulation | Infectious Diseases | Chronic Disease/Risk | Health/Medicine -
ReviewPublication 2008Cost-Effectiveness of Vaccination: Review of Modelling Approaches
This review examines the modelling approaches used in cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) of vaccination programs. After …
This review examines the modelling approaches used in cost-effectiveness analyses (CEAs) of vaccination programs. After overviewing the key attributes of models used in CEAs, a framework for categorizing theoretical models is presented. Categories are based on three main attributes: static/dynamic; stochastic/deterministic; and aggregate/individual based.
Dynamic Simulation | Dynamic Transmission | Science/Technology | Mathematical Models | State-Transition | Microsimulation | Cost-Effectiveness Analysis | Infectious Diseases | Health/Medicine | Global -
ReportPublication 2021What It Means to Be a Science-Literate Citizen in a Digital World
Science literacy is often held up as crucial for avoiding science-related misinformation and enabling more …
Science literacy is often held up as crucial for avoiding science-related misinformation and enabling more informed individual and collective decision-making. But research has not yet examined whether science literacy actually enables this, nor what skills it would need to encompass to do so. This report addresses three questions to outline what it should mean to be science literate in today’s world: (1) How should we conceptualize science literacy? (2) How can we achieve this science…
Decision Psychology | Science/Technology | Preferences/Values | Social Determinants | Culture/Society | Energy/Engineering | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine | Global | North America -
ReportPublication 2017Communicating Science Effectively: A Research Agenda
Science and technology are embedded in virtually every aspect of modern life. As a result, …
Science and technology are embedded in virtually every aspect of modern life. As a result, people face an increasing need to integrate information from science with their personal values and other considerations as they make important life decisions about medical care, the safety of foods, what to do about climate change, and many other issues. Communicating science effectively, however, is a complex task and an acquired skill. Moreover, the approaches to communicating science that will…
Decision Psychology | Science/Technology | Preferences/Values | Priority Setting/Ethics | Social Determinants | Climate/Environment | Culture/Society | Energy/Engineering | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine | North America -
ReviewPublication 2021European News Consumers' Perceptions of Misinformation
This study indicated that news users across ten different European countries are quite concerned about …
This study indicated that news users across ten different European countries are quite concerned about misinformation in their information environment. Respondents were most likely to associate politicians, corporations, and foreign actors with misinformation. They perceived misinformation to be most common for topics like immigration, the economy, and the environment. This offered support for the increasingly more relative and politicized status of facts in people’s credibility perceptions. Yet, differences across sources and issues were relatively modest,…
Decision Psychology | Science/Technology | Preferences/Values | Social Determinants | Culture/Society | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine | Europe -
BookPublication 2016Foundations of Decision Analysis
This book is described by the authors as emerging from what they have learned by …
This book is described by the authors as emerging from what they have learned by "teaching decision analysis to thousands of people in the United States and around the world in university classes and special professional educational programs". The early chapters and certain later chapters are written to be accessible to a general audience. Chapters 1 through 17 introduce the foundations of decision analysis without requiring significant mathematical sophistication. Chapter 26 discusses multi-attribute decision problems…
Decision Psychology | Military/Defense | Decision Theory | Probability/Bayes | Decision Analysis | Operations Research | Business/Industry | Economics/Finance | Energy/Engineering | Government/Law | Health/Medicine | Global -
BookPublication 2010Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisions
This book explores the “hidden forces” that shape decisions as an argument against the common …
This book explores the “hidden forces” that shape decisions as an argument against the common assumption that people act in fundamentally rational ways. From drinking coffee to losing weight, people consistently overpay, underestimate, and procrastinate. Ariely shows that such misguided behaviors are systematic and predictable or “predictably irrational.”
Decision Psychology | Science/Technology | Business/Industry | Culture/Society | Economics/Finance | Education/Labor | Health/Medicine