Intimate partner violence: A narrative review of the feminist,social and ecological explanations for its causation

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major social and public health problem that affects populations around the world regardless of their culture, religion, and other demographic characteristics. In the last 100 years, many theories have been proposed to explain the phenomenon of IPV. Much research has been conducted using these theories as a guiding or underlying framework. However, it is difficult to find a single account that provides a succinct and up-to-date overview of these theories. As a result, a considerable effort is required to identify and retrieve relevant papers to understand the various theories, which attempt to explain IPV. This article attempts to provide a succinct and up-to-date integrative review of the feminist, social learning, and ecological explanations of IPV. These perspectives have been critically evaluated in the light of the available literature and an effort has been made to discuss the strengths and limitations of each perspective in shedding light on the causation of IPV.     

Socioeconomic status,perceived parental control,and authoritarianism: Development of authoritarianism in Iranian society

The purpose of the current study is to examine the relationship between socioeconomic status, parental control, and authoritarianism in Iran. A sample of 460 students was surveyed from Shahid Chamran University of Ahvaz in Iran. Results demonstrated that subjective socioeconomic status, parental control, and parents' education have significant influence on authoritarianism. Further analysis showed that parental control partially mediates parents' education association with authoritarianism with a relatively high effect size. These findings highlight the importance of parental control and socioeconomic status in the development of authoritarianism in Iran. Furthermore, the higher authoritarianism of low socioeconomic status is mostly due to lower education levels rather than the income of the family. The findings were discussed with regards to literature as well as the socio‐cultural sphere of Iran.     

Getting culture: a new path for Indonesia’s Islamist Justice and Prosperity party?

Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (PKS, The Justice and Prosperity Party) is the largest Islamist political party in Indonesia. It has roots in the religious and political and religious teachings of the Muslim Brotherhood and promotes what Oliver Roy calls "deculturized religion." The party can be understood as the political component of a larger social movement that seeks to transform Indonesian society and culture in ways that would establish Shari'ah as social, if not political, reality. It is also committed to the electoral process and to working inside the Indonesian political system in a more general sense. Until recently, the PKS has dismissed local modes of Muslim practice and much of Indonesian culture as "un-Islamic." The extent of the party's transformative agenda is unclear for three reasons: it shares the Muslim Brotherhood's gradualist approach, it is less than transparent about its goals, and it is divided into purist or "Justice" and pragmatic or "Prosperity" factions. The leadership of the Prosperity faction is currently ascendant and is attempting to reach beyond its Islamist base by sponsoring musical and dramatic performances it hopes will appeal to Muslims devoted to Javanese and other Indonesian cultural traditions. Ethnographic and web-based research indicate that these efforts are greeted with considerable suspicion.     

A novel paradigm reveals the role of reentrant visual processes in object substitution masking

Object substitution masking (OSM) occurs when an initial display of a target and mask continues with the mask alone, creating a mismatch between the reentrant hypothesis, triggered by the initial display, and the ongoing low-level activity. We tested the proposition that the critical factor in OSM is not whether the mask remains in view after target offset, but whether the representation of the mask is sufficiently stronger than that of the target when the reentrant signal arrives. In Experiment 1, a variable interstimulus interval (ISI) was inserted between the initial display and the mask alone. The trailing mask was presumed to selectively boost the strength of the mask representation relative to that of the target. As predicted, OSM occurred at intermediate ISIs, at which the mask was presented before the arrival of the reentrant signal, creating a mismatch, but not at long ISIs, at which a comparison between the reentrant signal and the low-level activity had already been made. Experiment 2, conducted in dark-adapted viewing, ruled out the possibility that low-level inhibitory contour interactions (metacontrast masking) had played a significant role in Experiment 1. Metacontrast masking was further ruled out in Experiment 3, in which the masking contours were reduced to four small dots. We concluded that OSM does not depend on extended presentation of the mask alone, but on a mismatch between the reentrant signals and the ongoing activity at the lower level. The present results place constraints on estimates of the timing of reentrant signals involved in OSM.     

Pulsed electrodeposition of soft magnetic CoNiFe films under centrifugal forces

A new technique, pulsed electrodeposition under a centrifugal force, is introduced for the preparation of soft magnetic CoNiFe films. The films have enhanced properties such as a high B _s (magnetic saturation) and a low H _c (coercivity), which are desirable for soft magnetic materials. They are also smoother than films deposited under non-pulsed conditions. It is suggested that the technique could be used to prepare various other materials with desirable properties.     

Neuroprotective Effects of Testosterone on Regenerating Spinal Cord Motoneurons in Rats

Degeneration in the CNS and peripheral nervous system consists of degradation and phagocytosis of axons and their myelin sheath distal to the site of injury. Testosterone is a gonadal sex steroid hormone that plays an important role in CNS development. One of the lesser-known testosterone actions is neuroprotection. In the present study, the authors investigated the neuroprotectective effect of intracerebral ventricular injection of testosterone on the number of spinal motoneurons after sciatic nerve crush. In all, 32 male Wistar rats were divided to 4 groups (control, compression, compression + castration, compression + testosterone injections; n = 8). Four weeks after compression the lumber segments of spinal cord were sampled, processed, sectioned serially, and stained with toluidine blue (pH = 4.65) by using steriological quantitative technique (physical dissector), the number of alpha motoneurons in the right ventral horns of spinal cord were counted and compared between groups. Statistical analyses showed that testosterone injections (1μl icv, 4 times, 1 week interval between injections) significantly (p < .05) reduced neuronal damage. These results indicated that testosterone has an obvious neuroprotective effect on lumbar spinal motoneurons.     

Learning to cooperate without awareness in multiplayer minimal social situations

Experimental and Monte Carlo methods were used to test theoretical predictions about adaptive learning of cooperative responses without awareness in minimal social situations—games in which the payoffs to players depend not on their own actions but exclusively on the actions of other group members. In Experiment 1, learning occurred slowly over 200 rounds in a dyadic minimal social situation but not in multiplayer groups. In Experiments 2–4, learning occurred rarely in multiplayer groups, even when players were informed that they were interacting strategically and were allowed to communicate with one another but were not aware of the game’s payoff structure. Monte Carlo simulation suggested that players approach minimal social situations using a noisy version of the win–stay, lose–shift decision rule, deviating from the deterministic rule less frequently after rewarding than unrewarding rounds.     

Exercise interventions and their effects on physical self-perceptions of male university students

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of 12-week exercise interventions on physical self-perceptions of male university students. The study also aimed to investigate the relationships between the changes in physical self-perceptions and the changes in some physiological measures after 12-week exercise programs. Forty-eight male university students aged from 19 to 25 years were enrolled in this study. Participants were randomly and equally assigned to swimming, running, cycling and control conditions. The Physical Self-Perception Profile was administered to all participants before and after 12-week exercise programs. Additionally, strength, maximal oxygen uptake (VO(2max)) and body compositions were assessed before and after interventions. Participants in the exercise groups attended swimming, running or cycling sessions for 40 min per day, 3 days per week with 60-70% of their heart rate reserves, while those in the control group did not attend any regular physical activity. The results of 4 × 2 × 5 MANOVA with the dimensions of physical self-perceptions as within-subject factor revealed that all groups including the control group revealed better physical-self-perceptions from pre- to post-test. Results of 4 × 2 × 3 MANOVA with physiological measures as within-subject factor revealed that VO(2max) values of participants in the swimming group improved more than the other groups. On the other hand, no significant differences were observed in strength scores and body fat levels among groups. Furthermore, no significant associations were obtained between the changes in physical self-perception dimensions and the physiological measures.     

Religious identity consolidation and mobilization among Turkish Dutch Muslims

This paper investigates religious identity consolidation in terms of the endorsement of the rights of Dutch Muslims to publicly express their identity, and identity mobilization in terms of the attitude towards normative forms of political organization. Identity consolidation and mobilization were examined as a function of the content of Muslim identity. A distinction was made between an individualized and a communal interpretation of what it means to be a Muslim, in addition to orthodox belief. Personal meaning and personal certainty as two aspects of an individualized interpretation were found to be positively associated to the endorsement of Muslim expressive rights, but not to the attitude towards political organization. Behavioural involvement and Muslim group interdependence were positively associated with identity organization. Orthodoxy was related to both identity consolidation and mobilization. Theoretical implications of these results are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.