Northampton Community College

About: Northampton Community College is a education organization based out in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 3410 authors who have published 4582 publications receiving 130398 citations. The organization is also known as: Northampton County Area Community College.

‘Does My Bump Look Big in This?’ the Meaning of Bodily Changes for First-time Mothers-to-be

Abstract: Research on the impact of bodily changes during the transition to motherhood is contradictory. The aim of the study reported here was to provide more useful insights by employing an inductive qualitative approach. Interviews with six women in the latter stages of pregnancy were analysed drawing upon aspects of interpretative phenomenological analysis and Foucauldian discourse analysis. These analyses suggest generally negative consequence, and discursive constructions that have a greater potential to be limiting than empowering. The impact of gender ideologies on women's ways of being while pregnant is highlighted, as is the importance of developing alternative representations of the female, and the pregnant body, which do not pathologize women.

Experiments on interfaces to support query expansion

Abstract: This paper focuses on the user and human‐computer interaction (HCI) aspects of the research based on the Okapi text retrieval system. Three experiments implementing different approaches to query expansion are described, highlighting the close relationship between the system’s functionality and different interface designs. The projects evaluated the retrieval effectiveness and usability of an automatic query expansion facility in a VT100 character‐based interface, and two different forms of interactive query expansion implemented in graphical user interface (GUI) environments with different windowing techniques. The experimental conditions, variables and constraints in undertaking operational user testing are discussed in relation to the interface features, and in terms of: the visibility of the system’s operations; the system/user control; and the cognitive load on the user. It is suggested that the quality and effectiveness of the search interaction for query expansion is dependent on resolving the tension between seemingly opposing interface and functional aspects, e.g. automatic vs interactive query expansion, explicit vs implicit use of a thesaurus, document vs query space.

A comparison of usability techniques for evaluating design

Abstract: We report on a series of experiments designed to compare usability testing methods in a novel information retrieval interface. The purpose of this ongoing work is to investigate the problems people encounter while performing information retrieval tasks, and to assess evaluation methods by looking at the problem focus, the quality of the results and the cost effectiveness of each method. This ftrst communication compares expett evaluation using heuristics [15] with end user testing [24].

Commercial property market prices and valuations: Analysing the correspondence

Abstract: Summary Previous studies of the correspondence between prices and valuations in the UK are considered to be deficient in their formulation of the regression relationship between prices and valuations, in their statistical analyses and in their interpretation of pricing accuracy. Applying a rigorous econometric approach, this paper reports the results of more extensive testing than has been undertaken to date, thereby enabling robust conclusions. In particular, evidence is found for valuation bias under three different market environments. This supports the claim that valuers may not be using all available information at the time of valuation. Figures for pricing/valuation accuracy are reported, showing a wide range of uncertainty as regards the eventual selling price. The results imply that performance measurement and league table rankings may need to be qualified and that the routine application of fixed parameter unsmoothing procedures to valuation‐based property indices may be invalid.

An empirical evaluation of proposed changes for gambling diagnosis in the DSM-5

Abstract: Aims—Recommendations related to pathological gambling for the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistic Manual for Mental Disorders (DSM) are to eliminate the criterion related to committing illegal acts and reduce the threshold for diagnosis from five to four criteria. This study evaluated the impact of these changes on prevalence rates and classification accuracy. Design—Data were analyzed from five samples, varying in severity of gambling problems. Settings and participants—Surveys of randomly-selected household residents in the US (n=2417), gambling patrons (n=450), individuals in brief intervention studies (n=375), patients in community-based gambling treatment programs (n=149), and participants in randomized intervention studies (n=319). Measurements—The National Opinion Research Center DSM-IV Screen for Gambling Problems (NODS) was administered to all participants. Internal consistency and factor structure were evaluated using both ten and nine criteria. Base rates, hit rates, sensitivity, specificity, and overall agreement were compared across classification systems, using DSM-IV classification as the standard. Findings—Eliminating the illegal acts criterion did not impact internal consistency and modestly improved variance accounted for in the factor structure. In comparing a classification system using four of ten criteria versus one using four of nine, the four of nine system yielded equal or slightly better classification accuracy in all comparisons and across all samples. Conclusions—These data suggest that inclusion of the illegal acts criterion does not appear necessary for diagnosis of pathological gambling, and, if it is eliminated, reducing the cutpoint to four results in more consistent diagnoses relative to the current classification system.