Differential gaze behavior towards sexually preferred and non-preferred human figures

The gaze pattern associated with image exploration is a sensitive index of our attention, motivation, and preference. To examine whether an individual's gaze behavior can reflect his or her sexual interest, this study compared gaze patterns of young heterosexual men and women (M?=?19.94 years, SD?=?1.05) while they viewed photographs of plain-clothed male and female figures aged from birth to 60 years old. The analysis revealed a clear gender difference in viewing sexually preferred figure images. Men displayed a distinctive gaze pattern only when viewing 20-year-old female images, with more fixations and longer viewing times dedicated to the upper body and waist-hip regions. Women also directed more attention at the upper body on female images in comparison to male images, but this difference was not age-specific. Analysis of local image salience revealed that observers' eye-scanning strategies could not be accounted for by low-level processes, such as analyzing local image contrast and structure, but were associated with attractiveness judgments. The results suggest that the difference in cognitive processing of sexually preferred and non-preferred figures can be manifested in gaze patterns associated with figure viewing. Thus, eye-tracking holds promise as a potential sensitive measure for sexual preference, particularly in men.     

Reclaiming Futures initiative from a Sicangu Lakota tribal perspective: Lessons shared

This paper tells a story about one of the initiatives sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation known as Oyate Teca Owicakiya (Helping Young People). Oyate Teca Owicakiya was located on the Rosebud reservation, an extremely rural area in South Dakota. This was the only indigenous-based initiative funded by the Foundation. The initiative was undertaken by the Sinte Gleska University to provide services to reclaim youth from the justice system. This collaborative built on existing structures and community networks to strengthen and coordinate services for youth. The Reclaiming Futures model was adapted to the local setting by utilizing tribal resources. The background of the setting, its unique tribal governmental structure, demographics, and socioeconomic indicators are presented, and finally, eleven lessons are discussed. The success of the initiative was the strength and resiliency of the community itself, its members, and the network of individuals and organizations who came together for troubled tribal youth and their families.     

The height of two types of generalised Motzkin paths

Consider Motzkin paths which are lattice paths in the plane starting at the origin, running weakly above the x-axis and after n   unit steps returning at the point (n,0)$(n,0)$. The allowed steps are the up and down steps (1,1)$(1,1)$ and (1,−1)$(1,-1)$ respectively and certain horizontal steps. We consider two types of horizontal steps that have attracted recent attention in the literature. First, we consider unit horizontal steps (1,0)$(1,0)$ coloured with k colours, secondly, we look at paths where the horizontal steps are of length k, for a non-negative integer k. Using generating functions, we study the sum of heights of such paths of size n. With the use of the Mellin transform, we find asymptotic expressions for the mean heights as n tends to infinity.     

‘Nothing happened’: Legal implications of false denials among abused children

People lie on a frequent basis. However, when a victim of maltreatment lies by denying the abuse, lies can become forensically relevant. We have reviewed the relevant literature on the prevalence and memory consequences of such false denials. The way forensic interviewers proceed in the face of denying children will be shaped by their beliefs about the frequency with which truly abused children deny abuse. We discuss that estimates of the prevalence of false denials among abused children vary but that such false denials do happen. When falsely denying children eventually come forward with their experiences, a second issue lingers: how valid are maltreated children's statements after a false denial? We review the literature indicating that false denials can negatively affect memory for the investigative interview during which the lie was told. Yet, memory for the denied experience itself seems to be mostly preserved, and some research even found potential protective effects of false denials. We conclude that denials should always be handled with care in the court room, since the ground truth usually is not known, but that statements should not be dismissed based solely on previous denials.     

Combining evidence from clinical trials in conditional or accelerated approval

Conditional (European Medicines Agency) or accelerated (U.S. Food and Drug Administration) approval of drugs allows earlier access to promising new treatments that address unmet medical needs. Certain post-marketing requirements must typically be met in order to obtain full approval, such as conducting a new post-market clinical trial. We study the applicability of the recently developed harmonic mean ${\chi }^2$-test to this conditional or accelerated approval framework. The proposed approach can be used both to support the design of the post-market trial and the analysis of the combined evidence provided by both trials. Other methods considered are the two-trials rule, Fisher's criterion and Stouffer's method. In contrast to some of the traditional methods, the harmonic mean ${\chi }^2$-test always requires a post-market clinical trial. If the $p$-value from the pre-market clinical trial is $\ll 0.025$, a smaller sample size for the post-market clinical trial is needed than with the two-trials rule. For illustration, we apply the harmonic mean ${\chi }^2$-test to a drug which received conditional (and later full) market licensing by the EMA. A simulation study is conducted to study the operating characteristics of the harmonic mean ${\chi }^2$-test and two-trials rule in more detail. We finally investigate the applicability of these two methods to compute the power at interim of an ongoing post-market trial. These results are expected to aid in the design and assessment of the required post-market studies in terms of the level of evidence required for full approval.