Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) methodology was used to examine the emotional context of nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI). Forty-seven adolescents and young adults used a novel smartphone app to monitor their emotional experiences, NSSI thoughts, and NSSI behaviors for 2 weeks. Momentary changes in both negative and positive emotions predicted greater intensity of NSSI thoughts at the subsequent assessment, while only increases in negative emotion predicted NSSI behaviors. Immediately following NSSI behaviors participants reported reduced high-arousal negative emotions and increased low-arousal positive emotions, suggesting that NSSI may be an efficient and effective method of regulating emotion. Findings highlight the importance of addressing emotion regulation in NSSI interventions.

Digital currencies represent a new method for exchange and investment that differs strongly from any other fiat money seen throughout history. A digital currency makes it possible to perform all financial transactions without the intervention of a third party to act as an arbiter of verification; payments can be made between two people with degrees of anonymity, across continents, at any denomination, and without any transaction fees going to a central authority.The most successful example of this is Bitcoin, introduced in 2008, which has experienced a recent boom of popularity, media attention, and investment. With this surge of attention, we became interested in finding out how people both inside and outside the Bitcoin community perceive Bitcoin -what do they think of it, how do they feel, and how knowledgeable they are. Towards this end, we conducted the first interview study (N = 20) with participants to discuss Bitcoin and other related financial topics. Some of our major findings include: not understanding how Bitcoin works is not a barrier for entry, although non-user participants claim it would be for them and that user participants are in a state of cognitive dissonance concerning the role of governments in the system. Our findings, overall, contribute to knowledge concerning Bitcoin and attitudes towards digital currencies in general.

The experience of pain during nonsuicidal self-injury (NSSI) remains enigmatic. Ultimately, there is a dearth of evidence regarding whether pain is actually experienced during NSSI behavior and, if it is, to what extent that pain offsets following cessation of the NSSI episode. Using a smartphone app to collect information on self-injury episodes reported by adolescents and young adults in their daily lives, we found that across 143 NSSI episodes comprising 442 NSSI behaviors, most participants reported feeling significant and substantial pain onset during most NSSI episodes. A small effect was established for pain offset, with pain diminishing somewhat for most at NSSI completion. Furthermore, those who had higher negative emotion at the start of NSSI episodes but experienced less pain onset reported more NSSI behaviors during such episodes. The evidence supports a dynamic experience of pain during self-injury that can vary between people and episodes.

Digital currencies represent a new method for exchange-a payment method with no physical form, made real by the Internet. This new type of currency was created to ease online transactions and to provide greater convenience in making payments. However, a critical component of a monetary system is the people who use it. Acknowledging this, we present results of our interview study (N=20) with two groups of participants (users and non-users) about how they perceive the most popular digital currency, Bitcoin. Our results reveal: non-users mistakenly believe they are incapable of using Bitcoin, users are not well-versed in how the protocol functions, they have misconceptions about the privacy of transactions, and that Bitcoin satisfies properties of ideal payment systems as defined by our participants. Our results illustrate Bitcoin's tradeoffs, its uses, and barriers to entry.

Today, people have the opportunity to opt-in to usage-based automotive insurances for reduced premiums by allowing companies to monitor their driving behavior. Several companies claim to measure only speed data to preserve privacy. With our elastic pathing algorithm, we show that drivers can be tracked by merely collecting their speed data and knowing their home location, which insurance companies do, with an accuracy that constitutes privacy intrusion. To demonstrate the algorithm's real-world applicability, we evaluated its performance with datasets from central New Jersey and Seattle, Washington, representing suburban and urban areas. Our algorithm predicted destinations with error within 250 meters for 14% traces and within 500 meters for 24% traces in the New Jersey dataset (254 traces). For the Seattle dataset (691 traces), we similarly predicted destinations with error within 250 and 500 meters for 13% and 26% of the traces respectively. Our work shows that these insurance schemes enable a substantial breach of privacy.