Domestic Violence Service Providers’ Needs and Perceptions of Technology: A Qualitative Study

There is growing recognition of the need to better understand the intersections between the work of domestic violence service providers and technology. Professionals who work with clients impacted by domestic violence are increasingly using technologies across different aspects of their work, including communicating with other professionals and seeking information and resources via the Internet. The current study used qualitative data from two sources—individual interviews and two focus groups—to learn about domestic violence service providers’ needs and perceptions related to technology use. The results provide insights about technologies used currently, expected benefits of future technological advances, barriers to using technology, and participants’ self-rated levels of comfort with technology.     

Perception of Multisensory Gender Coherence in 6‐ and 9‐Month‐Old Infants

One of the most salient social categories conveyed by human faces and voices is gender. We investigated the developmental emergence of the ability to perceive the coherence of auditory and visual attributes of gender in 6‐ and 9‐month‐old infants. Infants viewed two side‐by‐side video clips of a man and a woman singing a nursery rhyme and heard a synchronous male or female sound track. Results showed that 6‐month‐old infants did not match the audible and visible attributes of gender, and 9‐month‐old infants matched only female faces and voices. These findings indicate that the ability to perceive the multisensory coherence of gender emerges relatively late in infancy and that it reflects the greater experience that most infants have with female faces and voices.     

Does Drinking Alcohol Prior to Sexual Activity Influence College Students’ Consent?

Objectives: This study assessed the extent to which consuming alcohol prior to sexual activity influenced college students' verbal/behavior cues utilized to communicate consent (external consent) as well as their feelings associated with consent (internal consent). Methods: Data was collected via paper-and-pencil surveys administered to heterosexual college students (N = 794) in the United States. Results: After controlling for gender, relationship status, rape myth acceptance, and alcohol expectancies, findings indicated that alcohol consumption prior to sexual activity was associated with both internal and external consent. Conclusions: Current findings can help inform sexual assault prevention education programming given the high rates of sexual assault occurring on college campuses that involve alcohol consumption.     

A New Test for Short Memory in Long Memory Time Series

This article considers short memory characteristics in a long memory process. We derive new asymptotic results for the sample autocorrelation difference ratios. We used these results to develop a new portmanteau test that determines if short memory parameters are statistically significant. In simulations, the new test can detect short memory components more often than the Ljung-Box test when these short memory components are in fact within a long memory process. Interestingly, our test finds short memory autocorrelations in U.S. inflation rate data, whereas the Ljung-Box test fails to find these autocorrelations. Modeling these short memory autocorrelations of the inflation rate data leads to improved model accuracy and more precise prediction.     

When Costs Are Unequal and Unknown: A Subtree Grafting Approach for Unbalanced Data Classification*

In binary classifications, a decision tree learned from unbalanced data typically creates an important challenge related to the high misclassification rate of the minority class. Assigning different misclassification costs can address this problem, though usually at the cost of accuracy for the majority class. This effect can be particularly hazardous if the costs cannot be specified precisely. When the costs are unknown or difficult to determine, decision makers may prefer a classifier with more balanced accuracy for both classes rather than a standard or cost‐sensitively learned one. In the context of learning trees, this research therefore proposes a new tree induction approach called subtree grafting (STG). On the basis of a real bank data set and several other data sets, we test the proposed STG method and find that our proposed approach provides a successful compromise between standard and cost‐sensitive trees.     

A Review of Trauma Specific Treatments (TSTs) for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Clinical Social Work Journal - Trauma is a significant public health concern that has widespread and adverse effects on people. There is a high prevalence of trauma and PTSD in general populations,...     

Hypergamy Among South Korean Women and Its Implications for the Marriage Rate

Population Research and Policy Review - This study aims to examine how income-based hypergamy among South Korean women affects the marriage rate. In a society that continues to practice income...