Search results for: construct

Authors: Ibrahim A. Elshaer, Alaa M. Shaker

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Several previous empirical studies have operationalized service quality as either a multidimensional or unidimensional construct. While few earlier studies investigated some practices of the assumed dimensional structure of service quality, no study has been found to have tested the construct’s dimensionality using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). To gain a better insight into the dimensional structure of service quality construct, this paper tests its dimensionality using three CFA models (higher order factor model, oblique factor model, and one factor model) on a set of data collected from 390 British tourists visited Egypt. The results of the three tests models indicate that service quality construct is multidimensional. This result helps resolving the problems that might arise from the lack of clarity concerning the dimensional structure of service quality, as without testing the dimensional structure of a measure, researchers cannot assume that the significant correlation is a result of factors measuring the same construct.

Keywords: service quality, dimensionality, confirmatory factor analysis, Egypt

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Authors: Zhidong Zhang, Zhi-Chao Zhang

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In this study, three Chinese versions of the Achenbach systems of empirically based assessment (ASEBA) scales were used to examine adolescent psychological and behavioral problems. These three scales are CBCL, TRF, and YSR. In order to further understand the robustness of these scales, their reliability and construct validity have been examined. Each scale consists of about 113 items plus relevant background variables. These 113 items were further classified into 8 psychological and behavioral problems: emotionally reactive, anxious/depressed, somatic complaints, withdrawn, attention problems, aggressive behavior, social problems, thought problems, and association problems. The study explored the item and construct correlation relations and the correlations between the corresponding constructs among three scales. The results indicated that the associations between item and constructs varied. The construct validities were very robust.

Keywords: ASEBA, construct validity, psychological and behavioral problems, reliability

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Authors: Chloe T. Cohen, Sarah Johnson

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Psychoanalytic literature has traditionally focused on the theoretical explanations of psychological phenomena rather than empirical research to support those ideas. Many clinicians assume a lack of empirical verification of the theories that underpin psychoanalytic treatment disqualifies psychoanalytic psychotherapy as an effective clinical technique. One such theory is Lacan’s ‘Name of the Father’, which extended Freud’s idea of the importance of a successful resolution of the Oedipal problem, situating it even earlier in psychological development. Lacan posited that the Name of the Father construct (establishing psychological structure and preventing psychosis) was best represented in language use, metaphor, and linguistic structure. However, no study to date has empirically examined the Name of the Father construct. The current study attempts to measure Lacan’s ‘Name of the Father’ construct through linguistic structure and metaphor use and to compare it with Freud’s ‘original introject’. We will then investigate whether they relate to adult personality functioning (measured using the Rorschach Inkblot Test). We aim to contribute to the empirical study of psychoanalytic concepts by operationalizing and validating the Name of the Father empirically. We also aim to examine the relationship of the Name of the Father construct to Freud’s concept of the original introject and to adult pathology. We hypothesize that measures of the original introject will mediate the pathway between linguistic indicators of Lacan’s Name of the Father construct and personality functioning.

Keywords: Lacan, Name of the Father, original introject, personality functioning, psychoanalysis

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Authors: Tatiana V. Korsakova

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The cognitive methodology in management is considered: Cognitive structuring - the formation of ideas about the functioning of a developing organization; Cognitive modeling - heuristic construction of existing actions (zone of successful actions); and Cognitive construct - the formation of filters for converting external information into specific events of managerial reality. The major findings of the study are the identification of areas of successful actions in the organization, harmonization of criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of company management, and the frame-description that indicates the connection of environmental elements with the elements of the organization. It is stated the development of specific events of managerial reality in the direction of the further development of the organization depends on the personal cognitive construct of the development-subjects when it is used in the zone of successful actions.

Keywords: cognitive construct, focus of applicability, knowledge corporate culture, zones of successful actions

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Authors: Younis R. Elhaddad, Mohamed A. Alshaari

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Since 2700 B.C the problem of constructing magic squares attracts many researchers. Magic squares one of most difficult challenges for mathematicians. In this work, we describe how to construct and enumerate Pan- magic squares using genetic algorithm, using new chromosome encoding technique. The results were promising within reasonable time.

Keywords: genetic algorithm, magic square, pan-magic square, computational intelligence

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Authors: Anton Grobler

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Background: Psychological capital (PsyCap), consisting of Hope, Optimism, Resilience, and Self-efficacy, is a popular positive organisational behaviour construct utilised in the studying employee work and behavioral attitudes. Various scholars believe however that further validity research should be conducted on the PsyCap questionnaire (PCQ), outside of the founding research team and in more diverse settings, for the purpose of this paper, within the diverse South African (SA) context. Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the construct validity of the PCQ with specific reference to its psychometric properties within the diverse SA context. Setting: The sample includes a total of 1 749 respondents, ± 60 each from 30 organisations in South Africa. Method: This study utilised a cross-sectional design and quantitative analysis. The sample is relatively representative (in terms of race, gender) of the South African workforce. A multi-factorial model was statistically explored and confirmed (with exploratory factor analysis [EFA] and confirmatory factor analysis [CFA] respectively). Results: The study yielded a three-factor solution, with Hope and Optimism as a combined factor and Resilience and Self-efficacy made up of a reconfigured set of substantively justifiable items. Three items of the original 24 items were found not to be suitable. The three factors showed good psychometric properties, good fit (in support of construct validity) and acceptable levels of convergent and discriminant validity. Conclusion: The results support the original conceptualisation of PsyCap, although with a unique structural configuration. This resonates with the notion of scholars that further research should be conducted within diverse settings. This is necessary to ensure the valid measurement of the construct, which is considered to be one of the four criteria for a construct to be categorised as a positive organisational behaviour construct.

Keywords: positive organisational behaviour, psychological capital, hope, optimism, resilience, self-efficacy, construct validity

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Authors: Ranjeeta Kumari, Makesh M, Gayatri Tripathi, K V Rajendran, Megha Bedekar

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A comparative study on DNA immunization with recombinant glyceraldehyde-3-phosphate dehydrogenase (GAPDH) construct of Edwardsiella tarda (pGPD group) and a bicistronic construct expressing GAPDH plus IFN-γ of Labeo rohita as adjuvant (pGPD+IFN group) was undertaken in Labeo rohita along with the control animals. Successful co-expression of two genes that is GAPDH and IFN-γ was confirmed in SSN-1 cells line by RT-qPCR and western blot. The protective immune response of host to DNA vaccine construct was determined by RPS and specific antibody production. Fishes immunized with plasmids via intramuscular injection (I/M) exhibited a considerable relative percentage survivability of 66.66% in pGPD+IFN immunized group and 53.34% in pGPD immunized group after challenge with E. tarda. Antibody response was also significantly high in pGPD+IFN group at all time points under study. This was analysed by competitive ELISA, using anti GAPDH monoclonal antibodies. The experiment revealed that the GAPDH gene of E. tarda is one of the ideal candidates for generating protective immune response in L. rohita. Further addition of Interferon gamma to DNA vaccine construct can enhance the immune response in host.

Keywords: DNA vaccine, Edwardsiella tarda, Labeo rohita, zoonosis, immune response

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Authors: Sri Rejeki Dwi Astuti, Suyanta

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The demanding of the asessment in learning process was impact by policy changes. Nowadays, the assessment not only emphasizes knowledge, but also skills and attitude. However, in reality there are many obstacles in measuring them. This paper aimed to describe how to develop instrument of integrated assessment as alternative assessment to measure critical thinking skills and science process skills in electrolyte solution and to describe instrument’s characteristic such as logic validity and construct validity. This instrument development used test development model by McIntire. Development process data was acquired based on development test step and was analyzed by qualitative analysis. Initial product was observed by three peer reviewer and six expert judgment (two subject matter expert, two evaluation expert and two chemistry teacher) to acquire logic validity test. Logic validity test was analyzed using Aiken’s formula. The estimation of construct validity was analyzed by exploratory factor analysis. Result showed that integrated assessment instrument has 0,90 of Aiken’s Value and all item in integrated assessment asserted valid according to construct validity.

Keywords: construct validity, critical thinking skills, integrated assessment instrument, logic validity, science process skills

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Authors: Mohd Dahlan Abdul Malek, Muhamad Idris, Adi Fahrudin, Ida Shafinaz Mohamed Kamil, Husmiati Yusuf, Edeymend Reny Japil, Wan Anor Wan Sulaiman, Lailawati Madlan, Alfred Chan, Nurfarhana Adillah Aftar, Mahirah Masdin

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This research intended to develop a valid and reliable instrument of the Satisfaction with Life Scale (SWLS) to measure satisfaction with life (SWL) constructs among public and private university students in Sabah, Malaysia, through the exploratory factor analysis (EFA) procedure. The pilot study obtained a sample of 108 students from public and private education institutions in Sabah, Malaysia, through an online survey using a self-administered questionnaire. The researchers performed the EFA procedure on SWL construct using IBM SPSS 25. The Bartletts' Test of Sphericity is highly significant (Sig. = .000). Furthermore, the sampling adequacy by Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO = 0.839) is excellent. Using the extraction method of Principal Component Analysis (PCA) with Varimax Rotation, a component of the SWL construct is extracted with an eigenvalue of 3.101. The variance explained for this component is 62.030%. The construct of SWL has Cronbach's alpha value of .817. The development scale and validation confirmed that the instrument is consistent and stable with both private and public college and university student samples. It adds a remarkable contribution to the measurement of SWLS, mainly in the context of higher education institution students. The EFA outcomes formed a configuration that extracts a component of SWL, which can be measured by the original five items established in this research. This research reveals that the SWL construct is applicable to this study.

Keywords: satisfaction, university students, measurement, scale development

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Authors: Elaosi Vhurumuku

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During the past twenty years, there has been an increased interest by science educators in researching and developing teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge for teaching the nature of science (PCKNOS). While there has been this surge in interest in the idea of PCKNOS, there has not been a common understanding among NOS researchers as to how exactly the PCKNOS concept should be construed. In this paper, we analyse and evaluate published accredited journal articles on PCKNOS research. We also draw from our teaching experiences. The major points of foci are the researchers’ presentations of SMKNOS and their centres of attention regarding the elements of PCKNOS. Our content, cluster analysis, and evaluation of the studies on PCKNOS reveal that most researchers have presented SMKNOS in the form of a heuristic or a set of heuristics (targeted NOS ideas) to be mastered by teachers or learners. Furthermore, we found that most of the researchers’ attention has been on developing and recommending teacher pedagogical practices for teaching NOS. From this, we synthesize and propose a subject knowledge content structure and a pedagogical approach that we believe is relevant and appropriate for secondary school and science teacher education if the goal of science education for scientific literacy is to be achieved. The justification of our arguments is rooted in tracing and unpacking the origins and meaning of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK). From our analysis, synthesis, and evaluation, as well as teaching experiences, we distil and construct a meaning for the PCKNOS construct.

Keywords: pedagogical content knowledge, teaching, nature of science, construct, subject matter knowledge

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Authors: Ni Wenli, He Jing

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Repeat–Accumulate (RA) codes are subclass of LDPC codes with fast encoder structures. In this paper, we consider a nonbinary extension of binary LDPC codes over GF(q) and construct a non-binary RA code and a non-binary QC-LDPC code over GF(2^4), we construct non-binary RA codes with linear encoding method and non-binary QC-LDPC codes with algebraic constructions method. And the BER performance of RA and QC-LDPC codes over GF(q) are compared with BP decoding and by simulation over the Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) channels.

Keywords: non-binary RA codes, QC-LDPC codes, performance comparison, BP algorithm

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Authors: Ani Thomas

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Every narrative is a temporal construct. Every narrative creates a qualitative experience of time for the viewer. The paper argues for the concept of a qualified time that emerges from the interaction between the narrative and the audience. The paper also challenges the conventional understanding of narrative time as either story time, real time or discourse time. Looking at narratives through the medium of Cinema, the study examines how narratives create and manipulate duration or durée, the qualitative experience of time as theorized by Henri Bergson. The paper further analyzes how Cinema and, by extension, narratives are nothing but Durée and the filmmaker, the artist of durée, who shape and manipulate the perception and emotions of the viewer through the manipulation and construction of durée. The paper draws on cinematic works to look at the techniques to demonstrate how filmmakers use, for example, editing, sound, compositional and production narratives etc., to create various modes of durée that challenge, amplify or unsettle the viewer’s sense of time. Bringing together the Viewer’s durée and exploring its interaction with the narrative construct, the paper explores the emergence of the new qualitative time, the narrative durée, that defines the audience experience.

Keywords: cinema, time, bergson, duree

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Authors: Imad Zeyad Ramadan

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In this paper a genetic algorithm was developed to construct the optimal portfolio based on the Treynor method. The GA maximizes the Treynor ratio under budget constraint to select the best allocation of the budget for the companies in the portfolio. The results show that the GA was able to construct a conservative portfolio which includes companies from the three sectors. This indicates that the GA reduced the risk on the investor as it choose some companies with positive risks (goes with the market) and some with negative risks (goes against the market).

Keywords: oOptimization, genetic algorithm, portfolio selection, Treynor method

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Authors: Muhamad Saiful Bahri Yusoff

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This study aimed to evaluate the construct, convergent, and discriminant validity of the Secondary School Stressor Questionnaire (3SQ) as well as to evaluate its internal consistency among adolescents in Malaysian secondary schools. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 700 secondary school students in five secondary schools. Stratified random sampling was used to select schools and participants. The confirmatory factor analysis was performed by AMOS to examine construct, convergent, and discriminant validity. The reliability analysis was performed by SPSS to determine internal consistency. The results showed that the original six-factor model with 44 items failed to achieve acceptable values of the goodness of fit indices, suggesting poor model fit. The new five-factor model of 3SQ with 22 items demonstrated acceptable level of goodness of fit indices to signify a model fit. The overall Cronbach’s alpha value for the new version 3SQ was 0.93, while the five constructs ranged from 0.68 to 0.94. The composite reliability values of each construct ranged between 0.68 and 0.93, indicating satisfactory to high level of convergent validity. Our study did not support the construct validity of the original version of 3SQ. We found the new version 3SQ showed more convincing evidence of validity and reliability to measure stressors of adolescents. Continued research is needed to verify and maximize the psychometric credentials of 3SQ across countries.

Keywords: stressors, adolescents, secondary school students, 3SQ, psychometric properties

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Authors: Mohamed Zaidour

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In this summary, we are going to look in brief at the bridges and their building and construction on most roads and we have followed a simple method to explain each field clearly because the geographical and climatic diversity of an area leads to different methods and types of roads and installation engineering in other areas In mountain areas we need to build retaining walls in areas of rain. It needs to construct ferries to discharge water from roads in areas of temporary or permanent rivers. There is a need to build bridges and construct road installations in the process of collecting the necessary information, such as soil type. This information needs it, engineer, when designing the constructor and in this section, we will identify the types and methods of calculation bridge columns rules phrases the walls are chock.

Keywords: bridges, buildings, concrete, constructions, roads

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Authors: Kiri Trier, Theresa Treffers

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In the course of continuous volatility like production stops due to the COVID-19 pandemic, video-on-demand player monopolizing the film industry, filmmakers are stuck in traditional, linear content development processes. The industry has to become more agile in order to react quickly and easily to changes. Since content development in agile project management is scientifically–empirically not at all recorded, and a lack beyond the software development in terms of agile methods consists, we examined if the agile manifesto values and principles from the software development can be adapted to the film industry to enable agility and digitalization of content development in the industry. We conducted an online questionnaire with 184 German filmmakers (producers, authors, directors, actors, film financiers) for a first cross-sectional assessment for adaptability of the agile manifesto from the software development to the film industry, factor analysis was used to validate the construct. Our results show that it is crucial to digitalize traditional content development to agile content development end-to-end, with tools, lean processes, new collaboration structures, and holacracy to prepare for any volatility. Overall, we examined the first construct for an agile manifesto for the film industry with four values related to nine own principles. Our findings help to get a better understanding of the agile manifesto beyond the software development as a guideline for implementing agility in the film industry.

Keywords: agile manifesto, agile project management, agility, film industry

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Authors: Malihe Motiei, Nor Hidayati Zakaria, Davide Aloini

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This study aims to present a method to develop the failure measurement model for ERP post-implementation. To achieve this outcome, the study firstly evaluates the suitability of Technology-Organization-Environment framework for the proposed conceptual model. This study explains how to discover the constructs and subsequently to design and evaluate the constructs as formative or reflective. Constructs are used including reflective and purely formative. Then, the risk dimensions are investigated to determine the instruments to examine the impact of risk on ERP failure after implementation. Two construct as formative constructs consist inadequate implementation and poor organizational decision making. Subsequently six construct as reflective construct include technical risks, operational risks, managerial risks, top management risks, lack of external risks, and user’s inefficiency risks. A survey was conducted among Iranian industries to collect data. 69 data were collected from manufacturing sectors and the data were analyzed by Smart PLS software. The results indicated that all measurements included 39 critical risk factors were acceptable for the ERP post-implementation failure model.

Keywords: critical risk factors (CRFs), ERP projects, ERP post-implementation, measurement instruments, ERP system failure measurement model

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Authors: Austyn Snowden

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Aim: To examine the construct validity of the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire Short form. Background: Emotional intelligence involves the identification and regulation of our own emotions and the emotions of others. It is therefore a potentially useful construct in the investigation of recruitment and retention in nursing and many questionnaires have been constructed to measure it. Design: Secondary analysis of existing dataset of responses to TEIQue-SF using concurrent application of Rasch analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. Method: First year undergraduate nursing and computing students completed Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire-Short Form. Responses were analysed by synthesising results of Rasch analysis and confirmatory factor analysis.

Keywords: emotional intelligence, rasch analysis, factor analysis, nurse recruiters

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Authors: Zurina Khairuddin

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The objective of this study is to explore the identities constructed and negotiated by Malaysian students in the UK and Malaysia when they interact in seminars. The study utilised classroom observation, interview and focus group discussion to collect the data. The participants of this study are the first year Malaysian students studying in the UK and Malaysia. The data collected was analysed utilising a combination of Conversation Analysis and framework. This study postulates that Malaysian students in the UK construct and negotiate flexible and different identities depending on the contexts they were in. It also shows that most Malaysian students in the UK and Malaysia are similar in the identities they construct and negotiate. This study suggests implications and recommendations for Malaysian students in the UK and Malaysia, and other stakeholders such as UK and Malaysian academic community.

Keywords: conversation analysis, interaction patterns, Malaysian students, students' identity

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Authors: Zainur Rahman

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Meaningful work is the topic that will be discussed in this article, especially in changing period. It has an important role because by reaching meaningful work, it will drive to be positive in the workplace. Therefore, task performance will be increased and cynicism about organizational change (CAOC) will be reduced. Moreover, it is influenced by situational factor, which is transformational leadership. In this conceptual paper, the author discusses how the construct of meaningful work influenced by transformational leadership that will have impact on the follower’ work outcomes in the organizational change. It is proposed that the construct of meaningful work are susceptible with situational variable. Transformational leaders who are respectful on the process of humanizing the followers affect task performance and reduce CAOC in organizational change.

Keywords: transformational leadership, meaningful work, task performance, CAOC

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Authors: Pei-Chen Wu

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Both preexisting cross-sectional and longitudinal studies of personality-depression relationship have suffered from one main limitation: they ignored the stability of the construct of interest (e.g., personality and depression) can be expected to influence the estimate of the association between personality and depression. To address this limitation, the Trait-State-Occasion (TSO) modeling was adopted to analyze the sources of variance of the focused constructs. A TSO modeling was operated by partitioning a state variance into time-invariant (trait) and time-variant (occasion) components. Within a TSO framework, it is possible to predict change on the part of construct that really changes (i.e., time-variant variance), when controlling the trait variances. 750 high school students were followed for 4 waves over six-month intervals. The baseline data (T1) were collected from the senior high schools (aged 14 to 15 years). Participants were given Beck Depression Inventory and Big Five Inventory at each assessment. TSO modeling revealed that 70~78% of the variance in personality (five constructs) was stable over follow-up period; however, 57~61% of the variance in depression was stable. For personality construct, there were 7.6% to 8.4% of the total variance from the autoregressive occasion factors; for depression construct there were 15.2% to 18.1% of the total variance from the autoregressive occasion factors. Additionally, results showed that when controlling initial symptom severity, the time-invariant components of all five dimensions of personality were predictive of change in depression (Extraversion: B= .32, Openness: B = -.21, Agreeableness: B = -.27, Conscientious: B = -.36, Neuroticism: B = .39). Because five dimensions of personality shared some variance, the models in which all five dimensions of personality were simultaneous to predict change in depression were investigated. The time-invariant components of five dimensions were still significant predictors for change in depression (Extraversion: B = .30, Openness: B = -.24, Agreeableness: B = -.28, Conscientious: B = -.35, Neuroticism: B = .42). In sum, the majority of the variability of personality was stable over 2 years. Individuals with the greater tendency of Extraversion and Neuroticism have higher degrees of depression; individuals with the greater tendency of Openness, Agreeableness and Conscientious have lower degrees of depression.

Keywords: assessment, depression, personality, trait-state-occasion model

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Authors: A. Zurraini, Syed Alwi Sar, H. Helmy, H. Nazeefah

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Early Dementia Questionnaire (EDQ) was developed as a screening tool to detect patients with early dementia in primary care. It was developed based on 20 symptoms of dementia. From a preliminary study, EDQ had been shown to be a promising alternative for screening of early dementia. This study was done to further test on EDQ’s reliability and validity. Using a systematic random sampling, 200 elderly patients attending primary health care centers in Kuching, Sarawak had consented to participate in the study and were administered the EDQ. Geriatric Depression Scale (GDS) was used to exclude patients with depression. Those who scored >21 MMSE, were retested using the EDQ. Reliability was determined by Cronbach’s alpha for internal consistency and construct validity was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (principle component with varimax rotation). The result showed that the overall Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was good which was 0.874. Confirmatory factor analysis on 4 factors indicated that the Cronbach’s alpha for each domain were acceptable with memory (0.741), concentration (0.764), emotional and physical symptoms (0.754) and lastly sleep and environment (0.720). Pearson correlation coefficient between the first EDQ score and the retest EDQ score among those with MMSE of >21 showed a very strong, positive correlation between the two variables, r = 0.992, N=160, P <0.001. The results of the validation study showed that Early Dementia Questionnaire (EDQ) is a valid and reliable tool to be used as a screening tool to detect early dementia in primary care.

Keywords: Early Dementia Questionnaire (EDQ), screening, primary care, construct validity

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Authors: Arman S. Kussainov, Altynbek K. Beisekov

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This work focuses on building an efficient universal procedure to construct a single density of states from the multiple pieces of data provided by the parallel implementation of the Wang Landau Monte Carlo based algorithm. The Ising and Pott models were used as the examples of the two-dimensional spin lattices to construct their densities of states. Sampled energy space was distributed between the individual walkers with certain overlaps. This was made to include the latest development of the algorithm as the density of states replica exchange technique. Several factors of immediate importance for the seamless stitching process have being considered. These include but not limited to the speed and universality of the initial parallel algorithm implementation as well as the data post-processing to produce the expected smooth density of states.

Keywords: density of states, Monte Carlo, parallel algorithm, Wang Landau algorithm

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Authors: Ligia Florio, João Mauricio Castaldelli-Maia

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Background: Food addiction (FA) emerged in the 1990s as a possible contributor to the increasing prevalence of obesity and overweight, in conjunction with changing food environments and mental health conditions. However, FA is not yet listed as one of the disorders in the DSM-5 and/or the ICD-11. Although there are controversies and debates in the literature about the classification and construct of FA, the most common approach to access it is the use of a research tool - the Yale Food Addiction Scale (YFAS) - which approximates the concept of FA to the concept diagnosis of dependence on psychoactive substances. There is a need to explore the dimensional phenotypes accessed by YFAS in different population groups for a better understanding and scientific support of FA diagnoses. Methods: The primary objective of this project was to investigate the construct validity of the FA concept by mYFAS 2.0 in individuals who underwent bariatric surgery (n = 100) at the Hospital Estadual Mário Covas since 2011. Statistical analyzes were conducted using the STATA software. In this sense, structural or factor validity was the type of construct validity investigated using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and item response theory (IRT) techniques. Results: EFA showed that the one-dimensional model was the most parsimonious. The IRT showed that all criteria contributed to the latent structure, presenting discrimination values greater than 0.5, with most presenting values greater than 2. Conclusion: This study reinforces a FA dimension in patients who underwent bariatric surgery. Within this dimension, we identified the most severe and discriminating criteria for the diagnosis of FA.

Keywords: obesity, food addiction, bariatric surgery, regain

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Authors: Felsy J. Sandi

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There is a potential of growth in the spa industry due to the influx of domestic and international tourist coming to Sabah, Malaysia. It is a good opportunity to venture into this industry for the country’s economic future growth, and therefore, it is essential for this area to be researched. Being one of the fastest growing industries in the world, has led to enormous challenges, which need to be addressed. Malaysia is also riding with this phenomenon. The President of the Malaysian Association of Wellness and Spa stated that the misconception about the Spa industry’s image, especially amongst the elderly is the biggest challenge faced by the industry, as they perceived the spa industry is equivalent to a prostitution center. Therefore, the objective of this study is to explore the issue by analyzing whether image can be added in the theory of planned behavior to better understand the consumer’s intention to visit, in the spa context. The Theory of Planned Behavior by Ajzen, a theory or model in predicting intention, has three constructs; such as Attitude as the first construct, the second construct is Subjective Norm and the third construct is Perceived Behavioral Control. Qualitative research is used as this is an exploratory research. The site of study will be at Jari Jari Spa, located in Kota Kinabalu, the only spa in Sabah that was awarded as the Center of Excellence (CoE) by the Ministry of Tourism and Culture in Malaysia. The findings propose to provide useful information to the relevant stakeholders on ways to approach local customers to convince them to visit the spa and for spa marketers to help them develop and design effective marketing strategies. Future investigation should consider more on the perception and loyalty of the local customers.

Keywords: consumer's perception, image, local customer, spa, visit intention

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Authors: Parviz Abadi

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Leadership is a key driver in organizational achievement. The research presented herein intends on providing the tools for assessing Divine Leadership, which imperative in quantitative evaluations of a leadership. The effectiveness of this leadership has never been examined. There are various tests that can be applied to this leadership, such as evaluation of it against follower motivation, or the impact it has on organizational success, etc. One of the common means of evaluation of a phenomenon is to conduct a quantitative study on the hypothesis related to the subject. The dimensions enacted in this leadership consisted of Humility, Integrity, Empowerment, Altruism, and Visionary. However, these elements of the construct of leadership are latent subjects and cannot easily be assessed. Therefore, it is necessary to develop tangible items that can relate to the construct. The study presented herein was conducted to develop the scales that were tangible and could have been applied in a quantitative study to assess this leadership. The study led to generating a detailed questionnaire, which consisted of 40 questions, that could be presented to participants in the survey.

Keywords: leadership, management, scale development, organizations

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Authors: Fuad A. A. Trayek, Tunku Badariah Tunku Ahmad, Mohamad Sahari Nordin, Mohammed AM Dwikat

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This paper reports on the results of an exploratory factor analysis procedure applied on the e-learning readiness data obtained from a survey of four hundred and seventy-nine (N = 479) teachers from secondary schools in Nablus, Palestine. The data were drawn from a 23-item Likert questionnaire measuring e-learning readiness based on Chapnick's conception of the construct. Principal axis factoring (PAF) with Promax rotation applied on the data extracted four distinct factors supporting four of Chapnick's e-learning readiness dimensions, namely technological readiness, psychological readiness, infrastructure readiness and equipment readiness. Together these four dimensions explained 56% of the variance. These findings provide further support for the construct validity of the items and for the existence of these four factors that measure e-learning readiness.

Keywords: e-learning, e-learning readiness, technological readiness, psychological readiness, principal axis factoring

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Authors: Daniel Nelson, Valeria La Saponara

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Material extrusion is an additive manufacturing modality that continues to show great promise in the ability to create low-cost, highly intricate, and exceedingly useful structural elements. As more capable and versatile filament materials are devised, and the resolution of manufacturing systems continues to increase, the need to understand and predict manufacturing-induced warping will gain ever greater importance. The following study presents an in situ remote sensing and data analysis construct that allows for the in situ mapping and quantification of surface displacements induced by residual stresses on a specified test structure. This proof-of-concept experimental process shows that it is possible to provide designers and manufacturers with insight into the manufacturing parameters that lead to the manifestation of these deformations and a greater understanding of the behavior of these warping events over the course of the manufacturing process.

Keywords: additive manufacturing, deformation, digital image correlation, fused filament fabrication, residual stress, warping

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Authors: Jason Sheng-Hong Tsai, Faezeh Ebrahimzadeh, Min-Ching Chung, Shu-Mei Guo, Leang-San Shieh, Tzong-Jiy Tsai, Li Wang

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In this paper, we first construct a new state and disturbance estimator using discrete-time proportional plus integral observer to estimate the system state and the unknown external disturbance for the discrete-time system with an input-to-output direct-feedthrough term. Then, the generalized optimal linear quadratic digital tracker design is applied to construct a proportional plus integral observer-based tracker for the system with an unknown external disturbance to have a desired tracking performance. Finally, a numerical simulation is given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the new application of our proposed approach.

Keywords: non-minimum phase system, optimal linear quadratic tracker, proportional plus integral observer, state and disturbance estimator

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Authors: Yee-Seul So, Guiseppe Ianiri, Alex Idnurm, Yong-Sun Bahn

Abstract:

Tor1 is a serine/threonine protein kinase that is widely conserved across eukaryotic species. Tor1 was first identified in Saccharomyces cerevisiae as a target of rapamycin (TOR). The TOR pathway has been implicated in regulating cellular responses to nutrients, proliferation, translation, transcription, autophagy, and ribosome biogenesis. Here we identified two homologues of S. cerevisiae Tor proteins, CNAG_06642 (Tor1) and CNAG_05220 (Tlk1, TOR-like kinase 1), in Cryptococcus neoformans causing a life-threatening fungal meningoencephalitis. Both Tor1 and Tlk1 have rapamycin-binding (RB) domains but Tlk1 has truncated RB form. To study the TOR-signaling pathway in the fungal pathogen, we attempt to construct the tor1Δ and tlk1Δ mutants and phenotypically analyze them. Although we failed to construct the tor1Δ mutant, we successfully construct the tlk1Δ mutant. The tlk1Δ mutant does not exhibit any discernable phenotypes, suggesting that Tlk1 is dispensable in C. neoformans. The essentiality of TOR1 is independently confirmed by constructing the TOR1 promoter replacement strain by using a copper transporter 4 (CTR4) promoter and the TOR1/tor1 heterozygous mutant in diploid C. neoformans strain background followed by sporulation analysis. To further analyze the function of Tor1, we construct TOR1 overexpression mutant using a constitutively active histone H3 in C. neoformans. We find that the Tor1 overexpression mutant is resistant to rapamycin but the tlk1Δ mutant does not exhibit any altered resistance to rapamycin, further confirming that Tor1, but not Tlk1, is critical for TOR signaling. Furthermore, we found that Tor1 is involved in response to diverse stresses, including genotoxic stress, oxidative stress, thermo-stress, antifungal drug treatment, and production of melanin. To identify any TOR-related transcription factors, we screened C. neoformans transcription factor library that we constructed in our previous study and identified several potential downstream factors of Tor1, including Atf1, Crg1 and Bzp3. In conclusion, the current study provides insight into the role of the TOR signaling pathway in human fungal pathogens as well as C. neoformans.

Keywords: fungal pathogen, serine/threonine kinase, target of rapamycin, transcription factor

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