Author: Freya Tsuda MacCaie Affiliation: University of Derby Changing careers is a major change in life-direction and typically involves a lot of stress: education and prior work experience may become redundant; work-based friendships are lost; financial strain may occur due to lower pay; and there is anxiety associated with being an inexperienced, entry-level worker all over again. For medical workers switching professions, the years of (sometimes costly) training and a strong career-based identity may make career change an even more daunting and stressful experience. How do people cope with this instability and make their previous work experiences and the challenges they face meaningful? O
Authors: Kat Smith and Paul Cairney This post was originally published by the Evidence & Policy blog on 11 May 2020. We have re-issued the article that has already been published by the Evidence & Policy blog. We would like to express gratitude to the kind offer of the editorial board of the Evidence & Policy blog. (Image credit: Stockcrafterpro on Shutterstock) The COVID-19 pandemic is shining a light on the roles that evidence and expertise can play in policy and practice. Understanding the nature of these debates, and developing tools to help decision-makers navigate them, is the focus of the Evidence & Policy community. In this post, we consider how our reflections on the field’s key ins
Author: Masaharu Tsubokura Editors: Akihiko Ozaki M.D., Yuki Senoo 109. The acceleration of nuclear weapon development after the Cold War The assertive global rivalry between the East and West following World War II accelerated the race for nuclear weapons and the advancement of arms. Following the U.S. acquiring nuclear weapon in 1945, the former Soviet Union acquired nuclear weapons in 1949. Ten years later (in 1955), the U.S. possessed several thousand nuclear missiles. In another ten years (in 1965), the U.S. possessed over 30,000 nuclear weapons. On the other hand, the former Soviet Union possessed about 40,000 nuclear missiles in 1985. At that time, over 70,000 nuclear weapons existed
Author: Masaharu Tsubokura Editors: Akihiko Ozaki M.D., Yuki Senoo 107. Differences between two post-nuclear disaster evacuation plans Among all the nuclear incidents that have occurred in the past, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident and the 1986 Chernobyl disaster are the only such events classified as level 7 accidents according to the International Nuclear Events Scale. Although these two events received the same rating, their circumstances and subsequent countermeasures differed. In both cases, evacuation plans were formulated based on the estimated annual accumulated air dose rate. However, their estimated levels differed. Following the Chernobyl accident, the air dose r
Author: Masaharu Tsubokura Editors: Akihiko Ozaki M.D., Yuki Senoo 105. Getting a sufficient amount of iodine from food Among all the nuclear accidents that have occurred in the past, the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident and the Chernobyl disaster in 1986 are the only nuclear accidents classified as level 7 accidents according to the International Nuclear Events Scale. Although these two events received the same rating, their circumstances and subsequent countermeasures differed. For example, in Fukushima, internal thyroid gland exposure to radioactive iodine was about two orders of magnitude lower compared to after the Chernobyl disaster. Another major difference between the t
Author: Masaharu Tsubokura Editors: Akihiko Ozaki M.D., Yuki Senoo 103. Circumstances vary after nuclear accidents Nuclear accidents are rated according to the International Nuclear Events Scale from Level 0 to Level 7, depending on their impact and intensity. Among global nuclear accidents, those at the Chernobyl power plant in 1986 and Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011 were the only accidents rated Level 7. Although the classification of these two accidents is the same, the circumstances and subsequent countermeasures were not. First, the type of radioactive materials and their levels were different at Chernobyl and Fukushima. The levels of iodine-131, cesium-137, strontium-90,
Authors: Kat Smith and Paul Cairney This post was originally published by the Evidence & Policy blog on 11 May 2020. We have re-issued the article that has already been published by the Evidence & Policy blog. We would like to express gratitude to the kind offer of the editorial board of the Evidence & Policy blog. (Image credit: Evidence & Policy blog Kat Smith and Paul Cairney) This new blog helps make the insights within Evidence & Policy accessible to all. In this opening post, the current Editors reflect on what they feel are some of the key insights about the interplay between evidence and policy: 1. Evidence does not tell us what to do. It helps reduce uncertainty, but does not tell u
Author: Masaharu Tsubokura Editors: Akihiko Ozaki M.D., Yuki Senoo 201. It takes a long time for cancer to grow to a detectable size. According to recent statistics, around one in every two people in Japan will develop cancer in his or her lifetime. Thus, it can be said that cancer has become a common disease that anyone can develop. The causes of cancer are diverse and include eating habits, heavy drinking, smoking, infectious diseases, and radiation exposure. In fact, it is said that thousands of cancer cells are generated in our bodies every day, even in healthy people. Our bodies’ immune systems eradicate most cancer cells; however, some of them develop genetic changes that help them to
Author: Anonymous Editors: Akihiko Ozaki M.D., Yuki Senoo I am a third-year medical student studying at the University of Péc’s medical school in Hungary. I am an Uyghur and have grown up in the small city of Bole, which covers an area of 7,802 km2 with a total population of approximately 10,600 people. In a previous article published by MRIC Global, I shared my story from before coming to Hungary. In this article, I would like to share my experience of studying at the University of Péc in Hungary as an Uyghur student. When I came to Hungary for the first time, I was anxious because of the language barrier. My score for IELTS, an international standardized test of English language proficienc
