Though social sciences share some general principles with natural sciences, they diverge in two fundamental respects: social scientists generally cannot experiment in the way that natural scientists can; & science affects society, causing adaptations in the cultural environment & producing new social relationships. Also, theory validation may vary according to the social science discipline & social context. Though complementarity exists among social sciences regarding theory formulation, data collection, & statistical analysis, cross-national comparisons are difficult due to differences in reliability assessment, scientific practice, ideologies, & language. Problems with maintaining an unbiased stance when conducting cross-cultural research are examined. K. Hyatt
IntroductionThe ability to identify residents of care homes in routinely collected health care data is key to informing healthcare planning decisions and delivery initiatives targeting the older and frail population. Health-care planning and delivery implications at national level concerning this population subgroup have considerably and suddenly grown in urgency following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has especially hit care homes. The range of applicability of this information has widened with the increased availability in England of retrospectively collected administrative databases, holding rich patient-level details on health and prognostic status who have made or are in contact with the National Health Service. In practice lack of a national registry of care homes residents in England complicates assessing an individual's care home residency status, which has been typically identified via manual address matching from pseudonymised patient-level healthcare databases linked with publicly availably care home address information. ObjectivesTo examine a novel methodology based on linking unique care home address identifiers with primary care patient registration data, enabling routine identification of care home residents in health-care data. MethodsThis study benchmarks the proposed strategy against the manual address matching standard approach through a diagnostic assessment of a stratified random sample of care home post codes in England. ResultsDerived estimates of diagnostic performance, albeit showing a non-insignificant false negative rate (21.98%), highlight a remarkable true negative rate (99.69%) and positive predictive value (99.35%) as well as a satisfactory negative predictive value (88.25%). ConclusionsThe validation exercise lends confidence to the reliability of the novel address matching method as a viable and general alternative to manual address matching.
PurposePolitical skill is measured with the political skill inventory (PSI), and the construct is composed of four distinct dimensions. Previous validation studies of the PSI found evidence in support of the four‐factor structure, but only using self‐reports. Furthermore, no efforts have been made to also identify a single, higher‐order factor solution through second‐order factor analysis. The present research aims to expand on prior work and report on a two‐study investigation of both the construct validity and antecedents and consequences of the political skill construct.Design/methodology/approachTo test construct validity, Study 1 combined self‐ and other reports of political skill from 467 employees in a confirmatory factor analysis. Study 2 used longitudinal data from 202 employees to constructively replicate Study 1 results and to test hypotheses regarding the antecedents and consequences of political skill.FindingsThe results of Study 1 confirmed both a four‐factor and a single higher‐order factor solution of the political skill construct, thus supporting our hypothesis. Study 2 constructively replicated the Study 1 factorial validity results, and supported hypotheses regarding the dispositional and developmental experience antecedents, career‐related consequences, and mediation of these antecedents and outcomes by political skill.Originality/valueThese two studies test the construct validity of political skill using both self‐ and other‐reports. Further, this is the first research to test the Ferris et al. conceptualization of political skill, by examining its antecedents, consequences, and mediation of the antecedents‐consequences relationships.
Purpose: The aim of this study was to make an adaptation of the Spirituality Measurement Scale into Turkish to evaluate the spirituality of clients for social workers. Methods: A total of 385 students from the Department of Social Work at Ankara University, were included in the research. The online survey method was used as a data collection method. Results: Confirmatory factor analysis revealed a 5-factor model with 38 items similar to the original study. Cronbach's alpha coefficient was found as 0.919 and test-retest reliability was 0.868 in this study. Also, concurrent validity analysis results confirmed that higher spirituality is associated with more positive life orientation and higher life satisfaction. Discussion: This study suggests that the Turkish Spirituality Measurement Scale is a valid and reliable measurement tool to be used in the social work field. Spirituality can be evaluated in the field of mental health in youth welfare.
Work engagement is generally accepted to have three factors: vigour, dedication and absorption. I studied whether this three-factor model is valid for India. 182 Indian working professionals completed the 9-item Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (UWES-9). Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the three factor model may not be appropriate for India. Instead, it may be more appropriate to consider work engagement as a single-factor construct for India. Further analyses showed that the single-factor model is invariant across gender, organizational tenure and dyadic duration, but varies across age groups. It may indicate the need to consider culture as a boundary condition for work engagement.
AbstractRecent studies have shown that U.S. water mains are failing at an accelerating rate. In the meantime, water utilities are challenged by limited funding. It is important that water mains with much higher likelihood of failure (LOF) are replaced before they fail to avoid possible high consequences, such as public safety threats, high financial losses, and environmental damages. This article presents a model to evaluate the LOF of water mains using data available in geographic information systems (GIS). A case study is presented comparing 2 years of actual water main break data with the results of the model. The comparison shows a strong correlation between the model prediction and the actual break rates of main pipes; thus, it validates the robustness of the model and shows that funding can be used more efficiently by focusing on the water mains with a high LOF as predicted by the GIS model. This model has been used in New Jersey American Water's distribution systems. It can be used in other water systems to help guide water main replacement efforts.
Creativity, a primary academic objective, is crucial in higher education, as economic, informational, societal and environmental advancements rely on people's ability to innovate. Creativity is widely investigated in its individualistic form, yet there is a notable dearth in work that studies its collective dimension, from a learning perspective. This study focuses on validating the psychometric properties of an existing instrument (ASCC), by measuring creative collaboration in blended learning settings. Two hundred and thirty six under and post-graduate students self-evaluated their creative collaboration experiences, using the ASCC instrument. The findings of exploratory factor analysis denote a three-factor (21-item) structure, measuring 'Synergistic Social Collaboration', 'Distributed Creativity', and 'Time Regulation and Achievement', with good internal consistency. An instrument with valid psychometric properties for the assessment of creative collaboration is much-needed in the growing research and practitioners' community. This is critical in the fields of Design, HCI and Engineering, that rely extensively on the creative collaboration (online and offline) of teams to develop innovative products that are suitable for real-world purposes. ; This work has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme under Grant Agreement No 739578 and the Government of the Republic of Cyprus through the Directorate General for European Programmes, Coordination and Development.
ABSTRACTA study was conducted at a southern university in sophomore level production classes to assess skills such as the order of arithmetic operations, decimal and percent conversion, solving of algebraic expressions, and evaluation of formulas. The study was replicated using business statistics and quantitative analysis classes at a southeastern university. The intent of the study was to determine math deficiencies among college students and to ascertain whether or not these deficiencies impact grades. Data analyses compared students' test results and grades from the different classes at the two universities and identified surprising patterns across classes, universities, and professors.These results support the need for curriculum modifications to address the identified deficiencies.
Polluted soils have become a public health problem. While population exposure to soil pollutants is generally quantified using multimedia models, their estimations have not been validated, and studies that attempted to do so are scarce. The objective of the SOLEX study was to compare the predictions of pyrene exposure levels (converted into 1 hydroxypyrene) computed by several models with the results of urinary 1‐hydropyrene (1‐HOP) assays among 110 employees working at three sites polluted during their past use as manufactured gas plants. Four models were used: AERIS (Canada), CalTOX (California, USA), CLEA (UK), and HESP (The Netherlands). Three occupational exposure scenarios—with office, mixed, and outdoor workers—were constructed, based upon job activities during two measurement campaigns, one in winter and one in summer. The exposure levels estimated by the four models could differ markedly (from 7 up to 80 times) according to the exposure scenario. Also, the predominant exposure routes differed according to the model (direct soil ingestion for HESP and CalTOX, inhalation for AERIS, and dermal absorption for CLEA). The predictions of CalTOX are consistent with the 1‐HOP measurements for all the scenarios. For HESP, the consistency is observed for the scenarios, office and mixed, for which the pyrene level in the soil is low. AERIS and CLEA yield results that are systematically above the 1‐HOP measurements. This study confirms that validation of the models is crucial and points out to the need to proceed to assess components of the models that are the most influential using appropriate statistical analysis in combination with true field data.
Abstract Background Chemical intolerance (CI) is a condition that may result in multisystem symptoms triggered by low levels of exposure to xenobiotics such as chemical inhalants, foods, and/or drugs. The population prevalence of self-reported chemical intolerance is estimated to be between 4 and 25% across several countries. Clinicians and researchers require a brief, practical screening tool for identifying chemical intolerance.
Objectives We investigated the validity of a three-item screening questionnaire for CI, the Brief Environmental Exposure and Sensitivity Inventory (BREESI). The internationally validated, and widely used 50-item Quick Environmental Exposure and Sensitivity Inventory (QEESI) was used as the reference standard.
Methods Five thousand individuals (n = 1000 in each of five countries: the US, Japan, Italy, Mexico, and India) responded to both the QEESI and the BREESI using an online research survey platform. We determined the statistical performance metrics for the BREESI, comparing the number of items chosen on the BREESI with QEESI scores for chemical intolerance. Logistic regression was used to determine the likelihood of chemical intolerance based on endorsing 0, 1, 2, or 3 items on the BREESI. We report the BREESI's sensitivity and specificity, positive and negative predictive values, and positive and negative likelihood ratios.
Results Compared to the QEESI reference standard, the BREESI had excellent sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative likelihood ratios, and positive and negative predictive values for chemical intolerance in all countries except than in Japan, the negative predictive value was poor. Notwithstanding, logistic regression curves show that in all of the countries, for each one-unit increase in the number of BREESI items, there is a 4- to 5-fold increase in the odds of CI.
Discussion This study confirms the results of two recently published validation papers in the US. The BREESI performs well as a screening tool for chemical intolerance. It is a practical screening tool for researchers, clinicians, and epidemiologists seeking to understand and address this important and prevalent condition.
