Content analysis, a widely-applied social science research method, is increasingly being supplemented by topic modeling. However, while the discourse on content analysis centers heavily on reproducibility, computer scientists often focus more on scalability and less on coding reliability, leading to growing skepticism on the usefulness of topic models for automated content analysis. In response, we introduce TopicCheck, an interactive tool for assessing topic model stability. Our contributions are threefold. First, from established guidelines on reproducible content analysis, we distill a set of design requirements on how to computationally assess the stability of an automated coding process. Second, we devise an interactive alignment algorithm for matching latent topics from multiple models, and enable sensitivity evaluation across a large number of models. Finally, we demonstrate that our tool enables social scientists to gain novel insights into three active research questions.

Juvenile offenders have a high prevalence of trauma exposure and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, as well as aggressive behavior. However, relationships between exposure to different specific types of traumatic events, PTSD symptoms, and aggression have not been systematically investigated. Subgroups of male juvenile offenders were identified based on their self-reported exposure to different types of traumatic events. Male juvenile offenders who endorsed multiple types of trauma exposure or traumatic exposure involving violence endorsed higher levels of PTSD symptomatology but not selfreported aggression. In addition, meeting the DSM-IV PTSD diagnosis Criterion A for traumatic exposure was associated with more severe emotional and behavioral problems in the youth who were exposed to community violence. Implications for theory and research on violent trauma and polyvictimization, and the use of self-report trauma history and PTSD measures for screening, with youth involved in the juvenile justice system, are discussed.

Immigration trends are rapidly increasing the diversity present in individuals who require psychological evaluation. Forensic psychologists in particular are often faced with evaluatees from diverse backgrounds, about which they may have little or no prior knowledge. Furthermore, the measures commonly used in forensic assessment have rarely been developed for, or validated in, individuals from nonmajority cultural backgrounds, let alone in languages other than English. This article examines a range of topics that impact cross-cultural validity in psychological assessments more generally, with particular attention to the issues most relevant for forensic assessment (e.g., clinical interviewing, diagnostic assessment, and psychological testing). Additionally, recommendations for best practice in forensic assessment with culturally diverse evaluatees are offered.

The number of text messaging interventions designed to initiate and support behavioral health changes have been steadily increasing over the past five years. Messaging interventions can be tailored and adapted to an individual’s needs in their natural environment--fostering just-in-time therapies and making them a logical intervention for addiction continuing care. This study assessed the acceptability of using text messaging for substance abuse continuing care and the intervention preferences of individuals in substance abuse treatment in order to develop an interactive mobile text messaging intervention. Fifty individuals enrolled in intensive outpatient substance abuse treatment completed an assessment battery relating to preferred logistics of mobile interventions, behavior change strategies, and types of messages they thought would be most helpful to them at different time points. Results indicated that 98% participants were potentially interested in using text messaging as a continuing care strategy. Participants wrote different types of messages that they perceived might be most helpful based on various hypothetical situations often encountered during the recovery process. While individuals tended to prefer benefit driven over consequence driven messages, differences in the perceived benefits of change among individuals predicted message preference. Implications for the development of mobile messaging interventions for the addictions are discussed.

Fibroblast growth factors (FGFs) mediate many cell-cell signaling events during early development. While the actions of FGFs have been well-studied, the roles played by specific members of the FGF receptor (FGFR) family are poorly understood. To characterize the roles played by individual FGFRs we compared the regulation and expression of the three Xenopus FGFRs described to date (XFGFR-1, XFGFR-2, and XFGFR-4). First, we describe the expression of Xenopus FGFR-4; XFGFR-4 is present as a maternal mRNA and is found in the embryo through at least the tadpole stage. XFGFR-4 and XFGFR-1 mRNAs are present at comparable levels, arguing that both mediate FGF signaling during early development. Second, the expression of XFGFR-4 in animal caps differs from the expression of XFGFR-1 and XFGFR-2, suggesting that the FGFRs are independently regulated in ectoderm. Third, using whole-mount in situ hybridization, we show that XFGFR-1, XFGFR-2, and XFGFR-4 are expressed in dramatically different patterns, arguing that specific FGF signaling events are mediated by different members of the FGFR family. Among these, FGF signaling during the induction of neural crest cells is likely to be mediated by XFGFR-4. Comparison of our results with previously reported FGFR expression patterns reveals that FGFR-1 expression is highly conserved among vertebrate embryos, and FGFR-2 expression shows many features that are conserved and some that are divergent. In contrast, the expression pattern of FGFR-4 is highly divergent among vertebrate embryos.