Measuring the Effect of Sexual Health Education Training in Professionals: Structure of the Sexual Health Education for Professionals Scale (SHEPS) Among Marriage and Family Therapy Graduate Students

Marriage and family therapists and sexual health therapists are likely to receive training in graduate school that prepares them to encounter sexual concerns among clients, but there are few standard ways to assess the efficacy of this training. The Sexual Health Education for Professionals Scale (SHEPS) was developed to address this deficit. In this preliminary study, 163 marriage and family therapy graduate students completed the SHEPS prior to starting a graduate course in assessing and treating sexual concerns. Exploratory factor analyses indicate that the SHEPS subscales have good psychometric properties. The Skills and Knowledge subscales have factors labeled Typical Clients, Special Clients, Conservative Clients, and Ethically Complicated Clients. The Attitudes subscale had factors called General Sexual Attitudes, Valuing Sexual Health Training, Open to Providing Sexual Help, and Conservatism. This new instrument may be used to assess education and training of sexual health and marriage and family therapists. Larger sample sizes and longitudinal studies are needed in future.     

Predicting treatment efficacy via quantitative magnetic resonance imaging: a Bayesian joint model

The prognosis for patients with high grade gliomas is poor, with a median survival of 1 year. Treatment efficacy assessment is typically unavailable until 5-6 months post diagnosis. Investigators hypothesize that quantitative magnetic resonance imaging can assess treatment efficacy 3 weeks after therapy starts, thereby allowing salvage treatments to begin earlier. The purpose of this work is to build a predictive model of treatment efficacy by using quantitative magnetic resonance imaging data and to assess its performance. The outcome is 1-year survival status. We propose a joint, two-stage Bayesian model. In stage I, we smooth the image data with a multivariate spatiotemporal pairwise difference prior. We propose four summary statistics that are functionals of posterior parameters from the first-stage model. In stage II, these statistics enter a generalized non-linear model as predictors of survival status. We use the probit link and a multivariate adaptive regression spline basis. Gibbs sampling and reversible jump Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are applied iteratively between the two stages to estimate the posterior distribution. Through both simulation studies and model performance comparisons we find that we can achieve higher overall correct classification rates by accounting for the spatiotemporal correlation in the images and by allowing for a more complex and flexible decision boundary provided by the generalized non-linear model.     

Attachment, Parent–Child Discourse and Theory-of-Mind Development

This study investigated the relations among attachment, mother–child discourse, and theory of mind in a sample of 76 four‐year‐old children (mean age = 4.48 years; 36 boys). Mother–child conversations about a past event were coded for maternal use of elaborative discourse and mothers' references to mental states. Mothers completed the attachment q‐sort and children completed four false‐belief tasks. Results revealed that maternal conversational elaboration was a significant predictor of children's theory‐of‐mind performance, whereas maternal mental state references and attachment security were not. The findings provide further evidence for the importance of discourse in children's theory‐of‐mind development.     

Reducing Palilalia by Presenting Tact Corrections to Young Children with Autism

Palilalia, the delayed repetition of words or phrases, occurs frequently among individuals with autism and developmental disabilities. The current study used a combined multiple baseline and reversal design to investigate the effectiveness of presenting tacts as corrections for palilalia. During baseline, five preschoolers with autism emitted high rates of palilalia and low rates of mands and tacts during play and instructional activities. During treatment, when experimenters presented opportunities to echoically tact actions and objects following the emission of palilalia, its frequency decreased to low and stable levels and mands and tacts increased. Functional relationships between the tact corrections and emissions of palilalia, mands, and tacts were established during reversals to baseline and treatment conditions. Similar trends in responding were found for frequency of palilalia, mands, and tacts in non-treatment settings.     

Automated manufacturing—Why is it taking so long?

There are strong forces directed towards automated manufacturing with great potential for increases in productivity and efficiency. However, despite these forces, there are barriers preventing the rapid adoption of the new technologies. The author analyses these factors in relation to a study which aimed to identify market opportunities over the next decade in relation to the developments in microtechnology.     

The role of HRD in bridging the research-practice gap: the case of learning and development

ABSTRACT

An enduring challenge for HRD is ensuring academic research achieves impact on professional practice. We have located this research within debates about the research-practice gap. To investigate this challenge, we analyse case studies of academic impact from all disciplines submitted to the United Kingdom’s 2014 research assessment exercise (REF 2014). We found that Learning and Development was a primary focus of significant number of impact case studies submitted across all disciplines compared to other areas of HR and HRD. We also found that Learning and Development was a key path to Impact. These findings reveal that Learning and Development in a work context plays a pivotal role in helping researchers irrespective of discipline achieve impact. Our findings therefore speak to the research-practice gap across academia. We conclude by considering the potential role for HRD in generating impact.     

The state of applied demography in Australia

What is the state of applied demography in Australia from a practitioner’s perspective? The paper discusses this question by addressing the following aspects: what issues are and are not receiving media coverage; the use and misuse of demographic data; the level of service received by the demography community from the main suppliers of data; the emerging role of some key players on the scene and some suggestions on the teaching of demography in Australia.     

Social factors in facial display and communication: A reply to Chovil and others

This paper discusses the Chovil (1991) study, questioning the assumption that the notion of facial display as communication is incompatible with that of facial display as readout of motivational/emotional response. It is argued that (a) the Chovil paper oversimplifies the view of the competition; (b) social factors can facilitateor inhibit expression depending upon the nature of the emotion being expressed and the expressor's personal relationship with the other; and (c) social factors produce strong social emotions, so that any manipulation of sociality must also manipulate emotion.Preparation of this paper was supported in part by NIMH grant MH-40753 to Ross Buck, and by the University of Connecticut Research Foundation.