Leaving an Abusive Partner: An Empirical Review of Predictors, the Process of Leaving, and Psychological Well-Being

Four facets of leaving an abusive relationship are reviewed: (a) factors related to initially leaving an abusive partner; (b) the process of leaving an abusive relationship; (c) the psychological well-being of survivors after leaving; and (d) the predictors of this well-being. The conceptual and methodological limitations of studies in each of these areas are presented. Consistently found predictors of leaving include both material and psychological factors. Because battered women typically undergo several shifts in their thinking about the abuse before leaving permanently, research on leaving as a process is highlighted. Astress-process framework is used to explain the seemingly paradoxical finding that some women just out of the abusive relationship may have greater psychological difficulties than those who are still in it. For those experiencing the most stress, psychological health can worsen over time. Researchers and practitioners need to pay more attention to the plight of women who have left abusive partners.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90017/1/Anderson-DK-Saunders-DG-2003 Leaving an Abusive Partner TVA.pd

Operating experience with four 200 kW Mod-0A wind turbine generators

The windpowered generator, Mod-0A, and its advantages and disadvantages, particularly as it affects reliability, are discussed. The machine performance with regard to power availability and power output is discussed

Post-Disaster Housing Reconstruction in Sri Lanka: What Methodology?

Research methodology is the procedural framework within which the research is conducted. This includes the overall approach to a problem that could be put into practice in a research process, from the theoretical underpinning to the collection and analysis of data. Choice of methodology depends on the primary drivers: topic to be researched and the specific research questions. Hence, methodological perspectives of managing stakeholder expectations of PDHR context are composed of research philosophies, research strategy, research design, and research techniques. This research belonged to social constructivism or interpretivism within a philosophical continuum. The nature of the study was more toward subjectivism where human behavior favored voluntary stance. Ontological, methodological, epistemological, and axiological positioning carried the characteristics of idealism, ideographic, anti-positivism, and value laden, respectively. Data collection comprises two phases, preliminary and secondary. Exploratory interviews with construction experts in the United Kingdom and Sri Lanka were carried out to refine the interview questions and identify the case studies. Case study interviews during the secondary phase took place in Sri Lanka. Data collected at the preliminary stage were used to assess the attributes of power, legitimacy/proximity, and urgency of stakeholders to the project using Stakeholder Circle™ software. Moreover, the data collected at secondary phase via case studies will be analyzed with NVivo 8. This article aims to discuss these methodological underpinnings in detail applied in a post-disaster housing reconstruction context in Sri Lanka

The IRAS 1-Jy Survey of Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxies: I. The sample and Luminosity Function

A complete flux-limited sample of 118 ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIGs) has been identified from the IRAS Faint Source Catalog (FSC). The selection criteria were a 60 micron flux density greater than 1 Jy in a region of the sky delta > -40 deg, |b| > 30 deg. All sources were subsequently reprocessed using coadded IRAS maps in order to obtain the best available flux estimates in all four IRAS wavelength bands. The maximum observed infrared luminosity is L_ir = 10^{12.90} L_{sun}, and the maximum redshift is z = 0.268. The luminosity function for ULIGs over the decade luminosity range L_ir = 10^{12} - 10^{13} L_{sun} can be approximated by a power law Phi (L) ~= L^{-2.35} Mpc^{-3} mag^{-1}. In the local Universe z < 0.1, the space density of ULIGs appears to be comparable to or slightly larger than that of optically selected QSOs at comparable bolometric luminosities. A maximum likelihood test suggests strong evolution for our sample; assuming density evolution proportional to (1+z)^{alpha} we find alpha = 7.6+/-3.2. Examination of the two-point correlation function shows a barely significant level of clustering, xi (r) = 1.6 +/- 1.2, on size scales r ~= 22 h^{-1} Mpc.Comment: 18 pages of text, 10 pages of figures 1 to 6, 6 pages of tables 1 to 3, ApJS accepte

Integration of Action and Language Knowledge: A Roadmap for Developmental Robotics

“This material is presented to ensure timely dissemination of scholarly and technical work. Copyright and all rights therein are retained by authors or by other copyright holders. All persons copying this information are expected to adhere to the terms and constraints invoked by each author's copyright. In most cases, these works may not be reposted without the explicit permission of the copyright holder." “Copyright IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or to reuse any copyrighted component of this work in other works must be obtained from the IEEE.”This position paper proposes that the study of embodied cognitive agents, such as humanoid robots, can advance our understanding of the cognitive development of complex sensorimotor, linguistic, and social learning skills. This in turn will benefit the design of cognitive robots capable of learning to handle and manipulate objects and tools autonomously, to cooperate and communicate with other robots and humans, and to adapt their abilities to changing internal, environmental, and social conditions. Four key areas of research challenges are discussed, specifically for the issues related to the understanding of: 1) how agents learn and represent compositional actions; 2) how agents learn and represent compositional lexica; 3) the dynamics of social interaction and learning; and 4) how compositional action and language representations are integrated to bootstrap the cognitive system. The review of specific issues and progress in these areas is then translated into a practical roadmap based on a series of milestones. These milestones provide a possible set of cognitive robotics goals and test scenarios, thus acting as a research roadmap for future work on cognitive developmental robotics.Peer reviewe

The Correlation Between Galaxy HI Linewidths and K' Luminosities

The relationship between galaxy luminosities and rotation rates is studied with total luminosities in the K' band. Extinction problems are essentially eliminated at this band centered at 2.1 micron. A template luminosity-linewidth relation is derived based on 65 galaxies drawn from two magnitude-limited cluster samples. The zero-point is determined using 4 galaxies with accurately known distances. The calibration is applied to give the distance to the Pisces Cluster (60 Mpc) at a redshift in the CMB frame of 4771 km/s. The resultant value of the Hubble Constant is 81 km/s/Mpc. The largest sources of uncertainty arises from the small number of zero-point calibrators at this time at K' and present application to only one cluster.Comment: 13 pages including 5 figures and 2 tables. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journa

'Sing Every Day': An evaluation of a VOCES8 Foundation school-based singing project in Hackney, London 2019

The paper reports on a research evaluation of a six-month specialist singing project ‘Sing Every Day’ that was undertaken with young disadvantaged inner-city 6yo children in the London Borough of Hackney. A team of professional singers from the London-based VOCES8 Foundation visited two classes in each of two Primary schools to provide focused mentoring to generalist (non-music specialist) class teachers. Children from two identically aged classes in a neighbouring school acted as controls. The mentoring embraced a specially designed programme of singing and vocal activities across two school terms. This was undertaken in each classroom with the staff and their Year 1 children numbering N=121 in total. An independent evaluation of the impact of the project included both musical and other-than-musical measures of children’s development. In particular, in addition to an assessment of participant children’s singing behaviours at the start and at end of the project, other assessments included measures of possible changes in children’s reading development and in aspects of Executive Functions. Overall, the implications from the data are that the mentored classroom-based singing activities resulted in significant improvements in children’s singing, as well as positive changes in reading and aspects of Executive Function related to inhibition and phonological working memory – the latter being closely correlated to changes in the same children’s reading scores. Although there is previous research literature reporting positive links separately between music, singing, reading and aspects of Executive Functions, this small-scale study is one of the first to explore these three aspects collectively. As such, the current data suggest that more detailed research would be useful, both in seeking possible replication of the findings with a larger group of participants and also to understand the mechanisms of such possible linkage in terms of both basic research and also its implications for music pedagogy

Mid-Infrared Emission from E+A Galaxies in the Coma Cluster

We have used ISO to observe at 12$\mu$m seven E+A galaxies plus an additional emission line galaxy, all in the Coma cluster. E+A galaxies lacking narrow emission lines have 2.2$\mu$m to 12$\mu$m flux density ratios or limits similar to old stellar populations (typical of early-type galaxies). Only galaxies with emission lines have enhanced 12$\mu$m flux density. Excess 12$\mu$m emission is therefore correlated with the presence of on-going star formation or an active galactic nucleus (AGN). By comparing the current star formation rates with previous rates estimated from the Balmer absorption features, we divide the galaxies into two groups: those for which star formation has declined significantly following a dramatic peak $\sim$ 1 Gyr ago; and those with a significant level of ongoing star formation or/and an AGN. There is no strong difference in the spatial distribution on the sky between these two groups. However, the first group has systemic velocities above the mean cluster value and the second group below that value. This suggests that the two groups differ kinematically. Based on surveys of the Coma cluster in the radio, the IRAS sources, and galaxies detected in H$\alpha$ emission, we sum the far infrared luminosity function of galaxies in the cluster. We find that star formation in late type galaxies is probably the dominant component of the Coma cluster far infrared luminosity. The presence of significant emission from intracluster dust is not yet firmly established. The member galaxies also account for most of the far infrared output from nearby rich clusters in general.Comment: AAS Latex, accepted for publication in Ap

‘Sing Every Day’: The wider benefits of a school-based singing project with disadvantaged children

The paper reports on a research evaluation of a six-month specialist singing project ‘Sing Every Day’ that was undertaken with young disadvantaged inner-city 6yo children in the London Borough of Hackney. A team of professional singers from the London-based VOCES8 Foundation visited two classes in each of two Primary schools to provide focused mentoring to generalist (non-music specialist) class teachers. Children from two identically aged classes in a neighbouring school acted as controls. The mentoring embraced a specially designed programme of singing and vocal activities across two school terms. This was undertaken in each classroom with the staff and their Year 1 children numbering N=121 in total. An independent evaluation of the impact of the project included both musical and other-than-musical measures of children’s development. In particular, in addition to an assessment of participant children’s singing behaviours at the start and at end of the project, other assessments included measures of possible changes in children’s reading development and in aspects of Executive Functions. Overall, the implications from the data are that the mentored classroom-based singing activities resulted in significant improvements in children’s singing, as well as positive changes in reading and aspects of Executive Function related to inhibition and phonological working memory – the latter being closely correlated to changes in the same children’s reading scores. Although there is previous research literature reporting positive links separately between music, singing, reading and aspects of Executive Functions, this small-scale study is one of the first to explore these three aspects collectively. As such, the current data suggest that more detailed research would be useful, both in seeking possible replication of the findings with a larger group of participants and also to understand the mechanisms of such possible linkage in terms of both basic research and also its implications for music pedagogy