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Abstract. The Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) is the leading brief instrument for the “Big Five” personality measurement. However, TIPI’s design has suboptimal features: agree-disagree response options, numeric instead of verbal response labels, and multiple items per page. This paper presents a version of TIPI that addresses these problems. Using two nationally representative sample surveys, we compare the original and revised TIPIs on several dimensions: completion time, item nonresponse, paired item reliability, and validity based on relations to other variables. Completion time is the same and item nonresponse rates are low, while reliability and criterion validity for the revised TIPI is better than the original. The results show how better personality data can be obtained at no additional cost by optimizing questionnaire design.

Introduction While recent studies have focused on confirming satisfaction with telemedicine during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) era, we leveraged a novel survey instrument to identify associations between patient experience and telemedicine-specific factors such as device selection, audio/visual resolution, and connection stability. Methods Telemedicine visit data were gathered from our institution between June 22, 2020 and February 14, 2021. Each patient indicated their overall visit score, likelihood-to-recommend (LTR) score, and device used for the encounter. Remaining questions were randomly distributed to patients to ensure equal distribution across respondents. Results Over 34 weeks, there were 901 unique neurosurgical telemedicine visits linked to a post-visit survey at our institution. The LTR top box score percentage showed no significant change across 34 weeks (p = 0.218). After adjusting across available covariates, patients who experienced wait times exceeding 20 min were significantly less likely to report high overall scores (aOR: 0.12; 95% CI: 0.03–0.41; p = 0.001). Patients who indicated they were less able to understand the provider (aOR: 0.22; 95% CI: 0.07–0.66; p = 0.007), or who indicated the provider was not able to properly see them (aOR: 0.11; 95% CI: 0.03–0.43; p = 0.002) were associated with substantially lower overall scores. Visits with interrupted connectivity or those forced to move to a regular phone call were not important predictors of overall score. Conclusions In the largest description of patient satisfaction with telemedicine in the neurosurgical setting during the COVID-19 era, we identified timely and high-quality physician-patient visualization and communication as among the most important predictors of patient satisfaction in virtual settings.

La influencia de las estrategias de marketing político digital que aplicó el candidato Xavier Hervas a los electores millennials en los medios digitales se vieron reflejados en los resultados de las elecciones presidenciales Ecuador 2021, el candidato obtuvo el cuarto lugar con el 15.68% de los votos. Por lo tanto, el objetivo principal de la investigación es analizar la influencia de las estrategias de marketing político digital en las campañas electorales a favor del candidato. El enfoque de la investigación es de carácter cuali-cuantitativo, este es un método flexible que permite recopilar, analizar y clasificar la información del fenómeno estudiado, en conjunto a una modalidad descriptiva y documental, ya que se pretende explicar la influencia de las estrategias hacia los electores millennials. La recopilación de información se realizó a través de fuentes primarias con el instrumento encuesta para el respectivo análisis y fuentes secundarias donde se validarán los datos textuales. Para la aplicación del instrumento se estableció una muestra de estudio de 384 personas con edades comprendidas desde los 16 hasta los 41 años en el Ecuador, segmento que se encuentra inmerso la decisión de voto. Como resultado final se determinaron las estrategias más importantes del candidato: La participación del candidato se dio a conocer de forma contundente en medios digitales, los electores demostraron una aceptación muy positiva, posteriormente se identificó una amplia aceptación por el público femenino, la fortaleza de su la imagen está compuesta por sus propuestas de campaña, tendencias virales y trayectoria profesional, los temas más relevantes en campañas fueron el empleo, la educación y la salud, la percepción de interés y confianza que demostró dentro de este proceso fue positiva, se concluye que Facebook, TikTok e Instagram son las tres plataformas preferidas y donde se recomienda trabajar con contenido innovador si se quiere generar excelentes resultados.

The knowledge of health workers about magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) safety is essential to ensure patients' safety and comfort, achieve a smooth workflow, and save valuable scan time. The aim of this study was to determine the perception and attitudes of health workers toward MRI safety. A cross-sectional online survey of 194 health workers was conducted between March 27th and April 3rd, 2020. The survey instrument consisted of demographic characteristics, including 15 items on knowledge and 7 items on attitudes on perception and toward MRI safety in Aseer province, Saudi Arabia. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests, binary logistic regression, t-tests, and one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) were conducted. The overall knowledge score of the health workers was 60% and the attitude score was 71.4% for the perception of MRI safety. Participants in the age group of 30-39 years were more aware of MRI basic knowledge than other age groups. Nurses were more likely to be aware of basic MRI knowledge than physicians and dentists (AOR = 2.4, 95% CI = 1.11–5.04) and (AOR = 3.06, 95% CI = .96–9.73). Health workers having a Ph.D., master's, or bachelor's degree were more likely aware of basic MRI knowledge than were those with a diploma (AOR = 7, 95%, CI = 1.39–35.35, AOR = 8.17, 95% CI = 1.23–51.40, and AOR = 2.66, 95% CI = .97–7.29, respectively). Participants in the age group of 30-39 years were more aware of MRI safety than were those in the age group of 50- to 59 years (AOR = 4.60, 95% CI = .67–31.76). Nurses were significantly more aware of MRI safety than were other health workers (OR = 4.60, 95% CI = .67–31.76). The education level of health workers had no significant impact on perception of MRI safety (OR 0 .05). The results highlighted the importance of training and higher studies for health workers regarding the perception and attitudes toward MRI safety. The overall knowledge of MRI safety and procedures is generally acceptable; however, more intensive health education programs are needed to improve the level of knowledge.

Since the COVID-19 outbreak is increasingly widespread in Indonesia at the beginning of the year 2020, the government considers taking policies that focus on implementing the learning and teaching process at all levels. This research focuses on identifying the perception, interests, and challenges of online learning for informatics’ students at AMIKOM University Yogyakarta during the global pandemic. This study uses a descriptive quantitative approach using a survey instrument. This research has succeeded in capturing an overview of the ease, obstacles, and challenges of the informatics’ students in joining online learning from the study results. Discussions and contradictions to these results will undoubtedly be different if they are carried out on different student entities and with various subjects. This research contributes to higher education institutions, especially AMIKOM Yogyakarta University, to evaluate the online learning process. Although the case study presented in this research cannot represent other subjects, students' perceptions can be used as essential feedback for educational institutions.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES The Knobe effect refers to a measurable tendency among people to believe that undesirable side effects are brought about intentionally while desirable side effects are brought about unintentionally. People blame decision-makers for bad outcomes but do not credit them for good outcomes. The purpose of this study was to determine if the same is true for dental students and whether, as health care practitioners, students might mistakenly expect a benefit-of-the-doubt entitlement for themselves that the public is unwilling to bestow when an outcome is bad. METHODS Over three years, roughly 500 first-year dental students were posed two previously published standardized Knobe cases requiring a yes/no response. The survey was conducted as part of a classroom exercise with aggregated responses recorded digitally, anonymously, in real time. RESULTS The Knobe phenomenon was confirmed among dental students but the effect was muted in comparison to that of the public. Dental students aligned with the general public in declining credit for a good outcome but not in attributing blame for a bad outcome. Overall, dental students' negative responses exceeded their positive responses for both questions-confirming the Knobe effect but also revealing that dental students were less willing to take a stance by positively assigning either praise or blame. CONCLUSION Using an in-class survey instrument to demonstrate the Knobe effect among dental students may be one way of making more concrete an unjustified benefit-of-the-doubt entitlement these future professionals may otherwise expect for themselves.

PurposeThis study examines the effect of various attributes of leadership and teams, modeled as perceived e-leadership and perceived team dynamics on virtual team (VT) performance in a public organization.Design/methodology/approachUsing a survey instrument, data were collected from 184 participants involved in a virtual workplace from one of the largest Canadian public organizations. This study uses PLS-SEM software and quantitative methods.FindingsThis research identified that perceived team dynamics, which includes team member behavior, collaboration and support, has a significant medium effect on VT member performance. However, perceived e-leadership, which includes leaders' trust, leader communication/co-ordination and leader behavior, has a significant small effect on VT performance.Originality/valueThis study contribute to literature on VTs and VT's performance specially in public organizations. As the existing literature on employee performance has mainly focused on private organizations, and more so on VTs. However, little is known about VTs in public organizations and specifically about their performance.

The procedure adopted for development of a survey instrument to measure the perceptions and attitudes of Saudi managers on the benefits laws has been described in this paper. The commonly adopted procedure of determining the scales and items for the survey was followed. The context-specific requirements were considered in determining the items to be included in the two scales. The full questionnaire contained relevant demographic items, eight items each for perceptions and attitudes measurement and a final open question for whatever the survey participants wished to say about the topic of survey. A pilot trial was done using the developed survey instrument to measure perceptions and attitudes of Saudi public sector managers on the benefits enjoyed by their workforce due to favourable labour laws. The results showed both perceptions and attitudes of managers to be positive. The results were explained in a number of different ways with the support of literature. Some limitations of this research, as scope for further research, have also been listed.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to share the results of the 2019 international interlending survey conducted by the American Library Association, Reference and User Services Association (RUSA), Sharing and Transforming Access to Resources Section (STARS) International Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Committee, the fourth such survey conducted by this group since 2007. Design/methodology/approach Committee members developed the survey instrument and collected data in Qualtrics. Questions from the 2015 and 2011 instruments were reused to support longitudinal data analysis, and new questions related to improving the sharing of resources across borders were added. The survey was distributed to libraries worldwide via multiple methods, and translations in six of the seven official International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions languages were provided. Findings Results reveal challenges to engaging in global resource sharing in the areas of discovery and request methods, policies and service models, copyright and licensing, delivery and payment. Strategies to overcome these challenges, as informed by both the survey results and recent literature, are shared. Reinforcing each other, these independently and organically developed solutions illustrate ways to further advance ILL. Practical implications The findings can aid ILL practitioners and the organizations to which they belong in improving the sharing of resources across borders. By optimizing this service, libraries can better support researchers in a globalized environment. Originality/value The 2019 RUSA STARS survey is the first survey on the topic of international ILL to offer multiple translations complimenting global distribution. It contributes to the literature by offering a broad and updated perspective on current international ILL practices, challenges impeding the sharing of library materials abroad and possible solutions.

PurposeThis study aims to provide a conceptual framework to investigate the effects of consumer attitudes toward brands and attitudes toward a series of fashion oriented print advertisements with and without homosexual themes, on consumer willingness to buy from brands. The influence of consumer skepticism and inferences of manipulative intent (IMI) as moderators between these variables is also investigated. This study also closes various research gaps identified within the literature.Design/methodology/approachA self-administered survey instrument was designed using established scales to collect data through an online questionnaire. Fashion advertisements namely one advertisement representing homosexual content and one heterosexual advertisement were used in the study within subjects (e.g. male and female) design. Statistical techniques, specifically factor analysis, regressions and multiple regressions are used to analyze the data.FindingsThe findings indicate significant and positive relationships between attitude toward the brand and advertisement as well as willingness to buy for both males and females. The moderation analyses noted that consumer skepticism enhanced the relationship between attitude toward the brand and attitude toward the advertisement, but weakened the relationship between attitude toward the advertisement and willingness to buy, only for the female cohort. Similarly, a weakening effect of IMI was noted on the relationship between attitude toward the advertisement and willingness to buy.Research limitations/implicationsThe current study contributes to the literature on homosexual imagery in advertising. In applying the persuasion knowledge model, the current study demonstrates the applicability of the model to homosexual themes in fashion advertising while accounting for the effects of consumer skepticism and IMI.Practical implicationsThe current research highlights the importance of accounting for gender differences when introducing homosexual themes in fashion advertisements. Heterosexual males and females differ in their attitudes toward homosexual themes in fashion advertising, as well as how skeptical they are with regards to the motives of the advertiser. While a great deal of acceptance is already present in today's society, these differences still need to be accounted for in future fashion advertising campaigns.Originality/valueThe present study represents an examination of consumer responses to a series of fashion advertisements in Australia and provides useful implications to marketers of fashion products. The study further contributes to the literature on consumer skepticism and IMI with regards to cause-related advertising.

Performance assessments attempt to provide a practical and authentic demonstration of students’ learning. Despite growing investments in performance assessments by states, as well as researchers’ theorized value of this type of assessment, the field has not developed a measure of assessment literacy specific to performance assessments that has sufficient psychometric evidence to support it. This study begins important research on developing a quantitative measure that can be used by educational practitioners to self-evaluate their own performance assessment literacy (PAL). Using the Quality Performance Assessment (QPA) framework from the Center for Collaborative Education as a foundation, this study explores and confirms the dimensionality of a 27-item survey instrument that assesses educational practitioners’ perceptions of their PAL using exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. Our findings provide evidence that the instrument captures five reliable dimensions of PAL: valid design, reliable scoring, data analysis, fair assessment, and student voice and choice.

Background Patient engagement is recognized as a method to improve care quality and safety. A research team developed WeCares (Willingness to Engage in Your Care and Safety), a survey instrument assessing patients’ and families’ engagement in the safety of their care during their hospital stay. The objective of this study is to establish the preliminary construct validity and internal consistency of WeCares. Methods WeCares was distributed to patients and families. With the survey responses, exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was performed to identify the factorial structure of WeCares. The internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach's alpha. Descriptive and comparative analysis was also performed to summarize patients’ and families’ responses. Results A total of 247 patients and families responded to the WeCare survey, of which 224 were used for EFA. EFA resulted in a 13-item, four-factor structure, including (1) comfortable sharing concerns, (2) responsibility for preventing errors, (3) perception of care team members’ attitude, and (4) patients’/families’ role in preventing errors. The Cronbach alphas were 0.716–0.866, indicating acceptable internal consistency. Overall, patients and families were comfortable sharing concerns with clinicians but preferred to remain anonymous. They believed that the care team members hold most responsibility for error prevention, however, and agreed on their ability to help prevent errors. Conclusion WeCares was developed to assess patients’ and families’ willingness to engage. WeCares can also be used to facilitate conversation about safety concerns and shared responsibility. The study team believes this would lead to patient activation in guarding their own care and ultimately improve patient outcomes and safety.

This paper presents An outcome of gamification interventions in higher educational institutes to enhance the engagement of the teaching staff, the academicians. The academicians' engagement is an important component to enhance learning and timely course completion and for excellent student outcomes. In the recent past the gamification being used as a beneficial strategy in several areas such as business, education, e-learning, research and development and behavioral change of employees. The authors have applied gamification interventions on Academicians of Engineering colleges around Hyderabad to see the effect of gamification on academician's motivation, engagement, loyalty, dedication to the organization, and turnover. A group of 150 academicians, the teaching staff were tested using before gamification and post-gamification survey instruments, a questionnaire. The reliability of the survey instrument assessed measuring Cronbach-alpha statistics, descriptive statistics, and General Linear Model analysis was carried out to predict the influence of gender and academician’s gamification choices on study variables. The post-gamification results reveal a statistically significant influence on motivation, engagement, whereas gamification intervention is a not good predictor of employee turnover and loyalty. The results from the General Linear Model analysis indicate the use of games in non-game context immensely motivates the employees and academicians inclined towards quests and challenges.

Purpose: The main purpose of this research was to investigate the impact of empowering leadership behavior on subordinates’ creativity in teams, and the mediation role of team information sharing following self-determination theory (SDT) in the banking sector of Ghana.Methodology: The researchers used the quantitative approach to investigate the causal relationships among the variables. Primary survey instrument in the form of questionnaires were distributed across 14 branches of a popular commercial bank in Ghana to obtain data. The authors gained the participation of the 14 branches based on random sampling technique from a list of banks at the head office in the capital city. The sample included 264 leader-subordinate pair surveys across 48 teams. Hierarchical Regression Analysis was used for data analyses and hypotheses testing.Findings: The study established a positive relationship between empowering leadership and team creativity, while team information sharing revealed a significant mediation between empowering leadership and team creativity.Unique Contribution: The study offer a unique contribution to the leadership and creativity research at the team level that incorporates a theory in an investigation of the mediation mechanism of teams’ symmetric information sharing and dissemination in the Ghana Banking sector.

The recent trend in foreign language education research is turning toward self-regulated learning and its linkage with goal orientations. Self-regulated learning is the learning propelled by self-induced thoughts, feelings, strategies, and behaviors toward goal attainment (Schunk & Zimmerman, 1998). Goal orientations attempt to identify personal and contextual reasons lying behind an action (Wolters, 2004). This study sought to examine the relationship between goal orientations (mastery-approach, mastery-avoidance, performance-approach, and performance-avoidance goals) and writing self-regulation of Iranian university EFL learners. Survey instrument, designed by Lichtinger, Kaplan, and Gorodetsky (2006), was administered to a sample of 116 sophomore students, attending essay writing courses. Pearson product-moment correlation and regression technique were used for data analysis. The strongest correlation was found between personal performance-approach and performance-avoidance goals. Personal mastery and performance goals and mastery goal structure were associated significantly and positively with self-regulation in writing. Efficacy was significantly related to goal orientation measures. Goal orientations contributed to the prediction of self-regulation in writing. Moreover, performance-approach goal structure was only found to predict positively the writing achievement. Overall, the findings imply that understanding the nature of goal orientations enables writing self-regulation and achievement to be aligned.

Studying the causes of technical debt (TD) could aid in TD prevention, thus easing the job of TD management. On the other hand, better understanding of the effects of TD could also aid in TD management by facilitating more informed decisions about incurring and paying off debt. Create a deeper understanding, and confirming existing evidence, of the causes and effects of TD by collecting new evidence from real-world TD examples. InsighTD is a globally distributed family of industrial surveys on the causes and effects of TD. It is designed to run as a large-scale study based on continuous and independent replications in different countries. The survey instrument asks practitioners to describe in detail a real example of TD from their experience. We present in this paper the design of InsighTD, which has the primary goal of replication at a large-scale, with the results of the study in Brazil as a small part of the larger puzzle. The first iteration of the InsighTD survey, carried out in Brazil, yielded 107 responses. We identified a total of 78 causes and 66 effects, which confirm and also extend the current knowledge on causes and effects of TD. Then, we organized the identified set of causes and effects in probabilistic cause-effect diagrams. The proposed diagrams highlight the causes that can most contribute to the occurrence of TD as well as the most common effects that occur as a result of debt. We intend to reduce the problem of isolated TD investigations that are not yet representative and build a continuous and generalizable empirical basis for understanding practical problems and challenges of TD.

This aim of this study is to identify the effectiveness of the use of Geometer’s Sketchpad (GSP) in the teaching of circle among Form Two students. The quasi-experimental study was to investigate the following two aspects, namely the effective use of software GSP and a survey instrument was used to elicit students’ perception on the use of GSP. About 82 students from two classes selected at random were divided into a treatment group and control group. The results showed that students exposed to the use of GSP obtained significantly better mean test scores compared to the control group. The results of this study indicate that using GSP in teaching and learning of the circle properties have a positive impact on students. Analysis of the questionnaire responses indicated a positive overall perception of using Geometer's Sketchpad in learning about the circle.

The growing competition in higher education which traverse beyond boarders have urged universities and colleges to put premium on its quality service as it directly relates to student’s satisfaction and dissatisfaction. In this paper, the quality of student services of a university was assessed using SERVQUAL model and priorities for improvement were identified using service improvement matrix. The data were gathered from 175 students enrolled in one of the satellite campuses of a Philippine state university using a validated modified service quality assessment survey instrument. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, gap analyses and service improvement matrices. The findings revealed that quality of students’ services generally fell short of students’ expectations across all indicators, servicing units and dimensions of which responsiveness showed the highest negative gap while tangibles got the lowest negative gap among all dimensions. Service improvement matrices were developed by plotting students’ expectations and experiences and revealed improvement priorities that will then the basis of the university in instituting reforms so as to address these negative gaps.

An empirical research was done to examine and analyze the crucial domains in the organizational culture of world-ranked or premier universities in Malaysia, particularly in terms of their core values, direction, management effectiveness, innovation, customer focus, and institutional policies. The research employed a survey instrument on organizational culture and involved 1440 university students who were randomly selected from different faculties at four premier universities in the vicinity of Kuala Lumpur region in Malaysia. As highlights of this paper, the research found that the crucial cultural domains of premier universities were institutional policies, empowerment issue, team orientation behavior, and capability development of students. It was also found that students in premier public universities were more satisfied with their campus culture than students in premier private universities. Besides that, the important institutional policies were equality, academic integrity, and multiculturalism. Consequently, in terms of significance, new colleges and universities in Malaysia or other countries, whether public or private, may use the results and findings of this research for upgrading their organizational culture in order to achieve global ranking in the future.

PurposeFew companies have had the success that Toyota Motor Corporation has experienced over the past 70 years. Many give credit for Toyota's success to the company's famous Toyota Production System. Companies outside of Toyota have tried to implement versions of Toyota's system as Lean production; however, few companies have experienced the success of Toyota, and none have experienced Toyota's sustained success. In 2001, Toyota released a publication entitled The Toyota Way 2001 as a set of globalized standards of the culture that drives the success of the Toyota Production System.Design/methodology/approachThis research examines the effect of the Toyota Way on the implementation of Lean production outside of Toyota. A survey was developed and a study was performed on a sample of 349 participants with Lean experience. Structural equation modeling was used to test the relationship between the Toyota Way culture, Lean production, and achieving the desired Lean production system results.FindingsThe results of this research discovered that the existence of the Toyota Way culture has a significant and positive mediating effect on a Lean production system achieving the desired Lean results.Originality/valueThis research created a validated survey instrument that can be used to evaluate and understand the status of a Lean implementation initiative based upon employee perception. The results of this study support assertions made by Lean practitioners and previous research stating that culture affects the level of success of Lean production system implementation. While this may not seem like breaking news, prior to this study no statistically validated research supporting such an assertion could be found. Furthermore, this research defines culture very specifically as the Toyota Way culture as outlined in The Toyota Way 2001.

Purpose We aim to test whether resilience mediates the association of fear of progression (FoP) with quality of life (QoL) among ovarian cancer patients in China. Methods We collected 230 questionnaires from the First Affiliated Hospital of China Medical University in Liaoning Province, and 209 completed the questionnaire survey. The survey instrument consisted of four questionnaires: a sociodemographic and clinical characteristics questionnaire, the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy general instrument, the Fear of Progression Questionnaire-Short Form and the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to examine the relationship among FoP, resilience, and QoL, including physical well-being, social well-being, emotional well-being, and functional well-being. We used asymptotic and resampling strategies to examine the indirect effect of resilience. Results FoP was negatively associated with resilience (r=-0.543, P

Microbiological contamination of food during preparation and storage is a risk factor in institutional kitchens. In this Belgian study, hygiene practices in 40 institutional kitchens from four public sectors (10 hospitals, 10 schools, 10 retirement homes, and 10 child care centers) were evaluated to determine whether differences in these practices exist between these sectors. Contamination levels were also analyzed at several critical contact points. A data collection instrument and microbiological analysis of hand contact surfaces, food contact surfaces, and kitchen utensils were used. Hand washing resulted in only a slight reduction in total aerobic bacteria counts (TACs), and all microorganisms evaluated except E. coli were still present at countable levels. Enterobacteriaceae were found on one-third of the cleaned cutting boards. Cleaned work surfaces had the highest average TAC of all cleaned surfaces. Only slight improvements in TACs and Enterobacteriaceae and B. cereus counts were observed between used and cleaned work surfaces. The results from the data collection instrument revealed that child care centers had the lowest hygiene scores, whereas the other three sectors were fairly similar, with hospitals scoring highest. The low hygiene score for the child care centers was verified by comparing the results for cleaned surfaces among the sectors. The average TAC on surfaces was highest for child care centers and lowest for hospitals. Child care centers also had the second highest total mean counts and the highest number of total surface samples positive for Enterobacteriaceae. The highest number of surface samples positive for Staphylococcus aureus was also found in child care centers. This study highlights some areas of concern for hygiene improvement in institutional kitchens, differences between public sectors, and similarities in conclusions about hygiene based on the scores from the survey instrument and the results of the microbiological analyses.

This study focused in determining the Perception, Awareness, Acceptance and Understanding of Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology San Isidro Campus Community towards the its Vision, Mission, Goals and Objectives of programs offered (VMGO). The survey instrument used in this study was a modified survey questionnaire from previous studies conducted by Castillo (2016). The items regarding the perception, awareness, acceptance and understanding on VMGO included in the survey instrument were based on the 2010 AACCUP Revised Instruments. The respondents of the survey were the NEUST-SIC (1325) internal stakeholders and (565) external stakeholders respectively. Findings show that External Stakeholders generally were least aware, least accept and understand the Vision, Mission, Golas and Objectives of NEUST. It is also revealed that the external stakeholders believed that the vision, mission, goals and objectives are not clearly stated and consistent with each other. However, they all agreed that the program objectives are clearly stated in terms of aesthetic and cultural values. Thus, it is recommended that widest dissemination of the VMGO through various forms of communication media, conduct campaigns or other related activities should be done by the NEUST-SIC community to further raise awareness among external stakeholders and thereby strengthen support.

There are many tools for evaluating the learning outcomes measurements of the prelicensure nursing programs, but not for the postlicensure Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN-to-BSN) programs (Farmer et al., 2017; Rodriguez, McNiesh, Goyal, & Apen, 2013). Despite the unprecedented growth in RN-to-BSN programs, including community college-based programs, there are limited learning outcome measurement tools available. This study presents the theoretical framework for designing, implementing, and evaluating an RN-to-BSN survey instrument.

PurposeCyberbullying – using technology to intentionally and repeatedly engage in bullying behaviors – has gained considerable public attention over the last decade. Parents and educators regularly instruct students about appropriate online behaviors and threaten consequences for misbehaviors. The role and responsibility of law enforcement officers in preventing and responding to cyberbullying incidents remains uncertain. While clear violations of the law (e.g. threats of physical harm) most directly implicate the police, other – more common behaviors – such as rumor spreading or hurtful online commenting do not. The paper aims to discuss this issue.Design/methodology/approachThe current study surveyed 1,596 law enforcement supervisors attending the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Academy (NA) program. The survey instrument assessed perceptions of law enforcement responsibility in cyberbullying incidents. Data were collected in three waves over a nine-year period, allowing the measurement of attitudinal changes over time.FindingsThe authors find that certain officer characteristics are associated with a greater interest in responding to different types of cyberbullying (including having children at home and having previous experience dealing with cyberbullying) and that these perceptions have evolved over time.Research limitations/implicationsThe data are specific to law enforcement leaders who participated in the NA and are therefore not generalizable to all officers. Nevertheless, implications for explaining variance and law enforcement involvement in cyberbullying incidents are discussed.Originality/valueThis is the first study to survey law enforcement leaders over time to assess their evolving perceptions of law enforcement’s role in addressing cyberbullying among youth.

Organizations are in the constant pursuit of reliable strategies for increasing customer satisfaction. One of these strategies refers to the implementation of the ISO 9001 standard as a quality management system to ensure that products and services meet or surpass customer expectations. However, successful ISO 9001-based systems are possible only if companies count on a series of critical success factors that guarantee successful ISO 9001 implementation. This research aims at developing and validating a survey instrument to evaluate the degree of compliance with ISO 9001 critical success factors among manufacturing organizations. The research is conducted in Mexican manufacturing companies. The survey is designed by considering the quality management principles of the ISO 9001:2015 standard as critical success factors. We conducted an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis to identify the structure of the survey and confirm its validity. Our findings confirm that the survey instrument comprises four constructs, three of them associated with the quality principles of the ISO 9001 standard, and one associated with the benefits of said standard. In conclusion, the proposed survey is a valid, useful tool to assess ISO 9001 implementation in manufacturing companies and similar organizations.

Patients often do not disclose domestic violence (DV) to healthcare providers in emergency departments and other healthcare settings. Barriers to disclosure may include fears and misconceptions about whether, and under what circumstances, healthcare providers report DV to law enforcement and immigration authorities. We sought to assess undocumented Latino immigrants (UDLI), Latino legal residents/citizens (LLRC) and non-Latino legal residents/citizens (NLRC) beliefs about disclosure of DV victimization to healthcare providers and healthcare provider reporting of DV to law enforcement and immigration authorities. From 10/2018-2/2020, we conducted this survey study at two urban emergency departments (EDs) in California. Participants, enrolled by convenience sampling, responded to survey questions adapted from a previously published survey instrument that was developed to assess undocumented immigrant fears of accessing ED care. Our primary outcomes were the proportions of UDLI, LLRC and NLRC who knew of someone who had experienced DV in the past year, whether these DV victims were afraid to access ED care, reasons DV victims were afraid to access ED care, and rates of misconceptions (defined according to current California law) about the consequences of disclosing DV to healthcare providers. Of 667 patients approached, 531 (80%) agreed to participate: 32% UDLI, 33% LLRC, and 35% NLRC. Of the 27.5% of respondents who knew someone who experienced DV in the past year, 46% stated that the DV victim was afraid to seek ED care; there was no significant difference in this rate between groups. The most common fears reported as barriers to disclosure were fear the doctor would report DV to police (31%) and fear that the person perpetrating DV would find out about the disclosure (30.3%). Contrary to our hypothesis, UDLI had lower rates of misconceptions about healthcare provider and law enforcement responses to DV disclosure than LLRC and NLRC. Fear of disclosing DV and misconceptions about the consequences of disclosure of DV to healthcare providers were common, indicating a need for provider, patient, and community education and changes that lower barriers to help-seeking.

Around the world, pre-college teachers are increasingly being called upon to address engineering, often as part of science instruction. Teachers are typically tasked with engaging students in authentic engineering design activities to promote students’ development of design practices while deepening their knowledge of relevant science concepts. Planning and implementing engineering experiences that authentically reflect the field require that teachers hold accurate perceptions of what engineering is, how it works, and how it is related to yet distinct from science. As teacher education and research efforts in this area grow, there is a need for high-quality instruments that elicit key aspects of how teachers think about engineering. However, few instruments are currently available, and each has significant limitations. This study presents a new instrument, the Scope of Engineering Survey, that addresses a critical dimension of teachers’ perceptions of engineering. The ‘‘scope of engineering’’ refers to the kinds of projects and activities that do and do not fall under the umbrella of engineering work. Individuals who hold accurate views on the scope of engineering understand the breadth of engineering work, but can also differentiate engineering work from that of technicians or scientists. This is essential for teachers, because holding accurate views on the scope of engineering places them in a far better position to design and implement authentic engineering activities in their classrooms. This study describes how the Scope of Engineering Survey was developed, provides evidence of the validity and reliability of the instrument, and gives recommendations for its future uses. Results from a large-scale field test are reported and baseline statistics are provided for key survey measures.

We developed and tested a survey instrument to measure teachers’ attitudes about gesture in learning and instruction (TAGLI). Teachers (N = 192) generally believed that instructional gestures are beneficial for learning, and not distracting for students. Teachers had positive expectations, both for gestures that are redundant with (i.e., match) the accompanying speech, and gestures that are complementary to (i.e., mismatch) speech. However, teachers’ attitudes varied with teachers’ grade bands (middle v. high school) and curricular content areas (STEM v. non-STEM). Teachers endorsed a range of reasons for gesture’s pedagogical effectiveness. These reasons largely mirror the reasons teachers reported for why they produced gestures: gestures help make connections between representations and ideas, make abstract concepts more concrete, and they appropriately direct learners’ attention. Teachers reported that they frequently use gestures while teaching, explaining, and in everyday conversation.

Through a novel survey instrument, we examined traits and characteristics that various scholars and observers have averred promote or hinder proenvironmental behaviors. We found that those who hold anthropocentric and monotheistic religious views, and express low levels of environmental, religious, and cosmic humility, are less likely to engage in proenvironmental behaviors than those who maintain views, or express affinity with affective traits, values, and spiritual understandings, that are ecocentric, Organicist/Gaian, pantheistic, animistic, and that in general reflect humility about the human place in the world.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to reconsider school improvement from the perspectives of community leaders who support urban schools in equitable ways.Design/methodology/approachThis study employs the Delphi method to elicit feedback from community leaders.FindingsFindings highlight how the community equity literacy leadership assessment’s (CELLA) constructs can be expanded to include essential knowledge and practices that improve schooling conditions for students.Originality/valueThis study extends the existing research on school improvement in two ways. First, this study reconsiders school improvement from the perspectives of community leaders who support urban schools in equitable ways. Second, and in doing so, this study examines how a panel of 16 “expert community leaders” offered feedback on the CELLA for principals, an emerging survey instrument to help educational leaders improve school and community conditions.

The study explored the knowledge of Kuwaiti prospective teachers in linguistic constructs related to English literacy coaching in developmentally, linguistically and culturally inclusive classrooms. A total of 150 prospective teachers were assessed using an online questionnaire based on a widely used survey instrument. A deficit of explicit knowledge was observed in the phonological, morphological and orthographic awareness constructs, with a marginally improved performance in the knowledge of teaching instruction. These results, in conjunction with the lack of correlation between performance levels and completed credit hours, suggest that no significant gains in knowledge are made throughout the core curriculum modules of English teaching preparation. The findings reveal the necessity of greater attention towards language content and materials presented to prospective teachers, enabling better decisions on the optimal literacy instruction practices for children with differing abilities in inclusive classrooms in Kuwait.

This article describes the development of a 21st century skills instrument for high school students. The first round of development of the instrument was crafted from four rubrics created to assess communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity within project-based learning (PBL) activities. After an exploratory factor analysis, the pilot study results revealed multiple survey items loading across multiple factors requiring a revised instrument. The research team revised the instrument and added more items by using language from P21 standards documents. The revised 21st century skills instrument of 50 items was administered to 276 high school students participating in a STEM program. The final Exploratory Factor Analysis yielded a total of 30 survey items loaded across the four subscales with strong internal consistency within the constructs. This instrument can be used as a baseline and achievement measure for high school students’ 21st century skills.

PURPOSE Humanism in medicine is associated with increased patient satisfaction, trust of patients in their doctors, and better outcomes. The authors sought to identify attitudes, habits, and other factors that sustain humanism in academic surgical faculty, and compare these with attributes determined from a previous study of internal medicine faculty. METHOD A mixed-methods study design at University of Pennsylvania Health System was employed from 2016 to 2018 using a survey instrument and semistructured interviews. Surgical residents nominated faculty who exemplified humanism. In-depth interviews were then conducted with surgeons receiving the most nominations. The interviews were transcribed, and common themes were identified using the grounded theory method. These were compared with findings from a previous internal medicine study. RESULTS Ten faculty described three strongly shared attitudes: humility, responsibility, and a desire to live up to a high standard of professional behavior. Five habits were found important to sustaining these attitudes and their practice: self-reflection, finding deep connections with patients, maintaining personal and professional relationships, "having fun" at work, and paying it forward to surgical trainees. Surgeons also cited the importance of past role models in developing humanistic attitudes and sustaining practice. Responses were compared with previously documented attitudes and habits of humanistic internal medicine faculty at the institution. CONCLUSIONS This study identified recurring attitudes and habits that characterize humanistic behaviors in a cohort of academic surgeons. Learning from these exemplary humanistic surgeons may inform the development of future educational programs for residents and faculty in sustaining humanism.

Teachers in higher education institutions are responsible for acting in accordance with the law and policies to ensure that equity is provided and rights are not violated. This descriptive-correlational study determined the profile and the level of legal literacy on education laws of 322 teachers of State Universities and Colleges (SUCs) in the Eastern Visayas Region of the Philippines. Moreover, it endeavored to determine the association of legal literacy to the identified profile variables through the use of a researcher-made survey instrument. The analyses of data included both descriptive and inferential statistics like frequencies, means, standard deviation, Eta correlation, Pearson product-moment correlation, and Spearman ranks correlation. Results revealed that teachers have low level of legal literacy and that no significant relationship exists between their legal literacy and age, sex, educational background, teacher certification, length of administrative and teaching experience, and exposure to education law. The study recommends the provision of trainings, grants, scholarships and sufficient access to education law resources for teachers in the higher education institutions.

Residency training in podiatric medicine and surgery includes 3years of comprehensive training. Complementing their podiatric medicine and surgery training, residents complete a series of required nonpodiatric, or off-service, rotations in a range of specialties. However, there has been a lack of formal investigation of these off-service rotation experiences. An online survey was developed and distributed to both program directors and residents nationwide. The survey instrument covered various aspects of off-service rotations, including rotation value, length, goals and objectives, activities, feedback, and resident satisfaction. In total, 122 of 222 directors responded and 151 of 243 residents responded. Resident responses reflected the impact of podiatric responsibilities during off-service rotations and the importance of hands-on, interactive, and dedicated learning opportunities during these rotations. Both similarities and differences were appreciated with regard to perceived rotation value between resident and director perspectives. Perceived satisfaction of certain rotations was correlated with rotation length, feedback, specific rotation activities, and whether residents received goals and objectives. Though perhaps neglected, the off-service rotation experience is an important part of the podiatric medical and surgical residency experience. Considering the perspectives of both directors and residents can be helpful in directing these experiences and in considering future changes.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine the influence of service quality and university image on student satisfaction and student loyalty. Design/methodology/approach This study employed a set of survey instrument adapted from previous studies. The construct of the service quality consisted of 12 indicators, one of which was originally designed by the researcher, and the rest were adapted from other researchers. For the construct of university image, there were five indicators, while the rest were designed by the researcher. There were six indicators of construct student satisfaction, while the other three were designed by the researcher. Lastly, the construct student loyalty consisted of five indicators, three of which were originally designed by the researcher. All of those constructs used seven-point Likert scale scoring, which ranged from 1= strongly disagree to 7= strongly agree. Findings The findings of this study are as follows: the result of the data analysis has confirmed the existence of a positive and significant influence of service quality on student satisfaction, there is a positive and significant influence of student satisfaction on student loyalty, there is no positive or significant influence of service quality on student loyalty, and university image has a positive and significant influence on both student satisfaction and student loyalty. Originality/value The originality of this study has been confirmed, considering the fact that only few studies on service quality in education field were conducted. In this study, researchers were interested in developing the service quality based on five dimensions. This model have been applied by a number of researchers. Unfortunately, some other researchers showed their disagreements upon the use of only these five dimensions in the research in the field of education, and they suggested that more appropriate dimensions should be applied.

This study examines whether blended first-year writing courses can function as Communities of Inquiry and analyzes whether the amount of time spent online impacts the extent to which students positively perceive teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence. A modified version of the 34-item Community of Inquiry survey instrument was delivered to students enrolled in 22 sections of a FYW course at the same university. Findings indicate students in high blend (50% online) classes perceived greater degrees of teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence than students in medium blend (33% online) classes. Analysis of survey results, alongside observations of the assigned online activities, suggest a correlation between online time on task and interactive learning activities that promote collaborative student-student interactions. Implications for blended writing instructors and opportunities for future research are discussed.

Measuring the effectiveness of a continuous quality improvement cycle in education is a cumbersome and sophisticated process. This article contributes a comprehensive self-assessment instrument for identifying the strengths and weaknesses of all phases of a continuous quality improvement cycle, including planning, data collection, analysis and reporting, and implementation of improvements. To this end, a four round Delphi study soliciting a total of 23 program quality experts from four universities was conducted. The produced survey instrument contains a total of 50 questions. The instrument may be used by quality experts in education to judge the quality of their continuous quality improvement cycle that endeavours to assess the attainment of learning outcomes in various undergraduate educational programs. Moreover, the instrument could be exploited to infer relevant user and system requirements and guide the development of an automated self-assessment tool aimed at identifying the shortcomings in educational continuous quality improvement cycles.

More than 4000 Indigenous Australian students enrol and take up a placement at boarding school each year. While reasons for attending boarding school vary, the impetus for many remote and very remote-dwelling students is restricted secondary educational opportunities in their home communities. A large multi-site study is being undertaken across Queensland to understand the conditions required for these students to be resilient while studying away from home. This paper reports on levels of student satisfaction with Queensland Department of Education's Transition Support Service (TSS) that provide assistance to remote-dwelling Indigenous students in the transition to boarding schools. A survey instrument administered to students included 22 close-ended questions to elicit levels of student satisfaction with TSS. Data were collected electronically using SurveyMonkey™ and analysed in SPSS v24. Descriptive statistics were calculated for variables assessing service support, student perceptions and experiences. A total of 294 primary, secondary and re-engaging students across 21 sites responded. Nearly all primary students (97%) anticipated that TSS would assist their move to boarding school. All secondary students identified that TSS had assisted their transition to boarding school. All re-engaging students agreed that TSS support had increased their capacity to cope when things go wrong. Lower scores related to students’ ability to access TSS when needed. Very high levels of satisfaction with TSS were countered by constraints of distance between TSS and students, and resources available to support the work of TSS. Findings point to the need for equitable provision of transition services in Queensland that emphasise the importance of relationship between service provider and student, and can inform the design of similar transition services across Australia.

OBJECTIVES Evaluate clinicians' sentiments about participating in cardiac arrest resuscitations and identify factors associated with confidence in resuscitation of cardiac arrest. DESIGN Electronic survey. SETTING Twenty-one hospitals in Utah and Idaho. SUBJECTS All attending physicians, residents, and nurses in a multilevel healthcare system likely to participate in an in-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation at least once every 2 years. INTERVENTIONS None. MEASUREMENTS AND METHODS A survey instrument evaluating clinician perceptions of in-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation participation was developed after literature review and iteratively revised based on expert input and cognitive pretesting. Survey responses were collected anonymously. Sixty percent of 1,642 contacted clinicians (n = 977) submitted complete responses, of whom 874 met study inclusion criteria (190 attending physicians, 576 nurses, and 110 residents). Most respondents (74%) participated in less than or equal to six in-hospital cardiac arrest events per year, and 41% of respondents were most likely to participate in in-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation at a community, rural, or critical access hospital. Confidence in in-hospital cardiac arrest participation was high overall (92%), but lower among residents (86%) than nurses (91%) or attending physicians (96%; p = 0.008). Fewer residents (52%) than nurses (73%) or attending physicians (95%; p < 0.001) reported feeling confident leading in-hospital cardiac arrest teams. Residents (63%) and attending physicians (36%) were more likely to worry about making errors during an in-hospital cardiac arrest event than nurses (18%; p < 0.001). Only 15% of residents and 50% of respondents overall reported they were both confident participating in in-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation and did not worry about making errors. In-hospital cardiac arrest participation frequency was the dominant predictor of respondents' confidence leading or participating in an in-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation. CONCLUSIONS Many clinicians, especially residents, who participate in or lead in-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation events lack confidence or worry about management errors. Hospitals-particularly smaller hospitals-should consider methods to provide in-hospital cardiac arrest teams additional "effective experience," potentially using simulation or telemedicine consultation.

Does attentiveness matter in survey responses? Do more attentive survey participants give higher quality responses? Using data from a recent online survey that identified inattentive respondents using instructed-response items, we demonstrate that ignoring attentiveness provides a biased portrait of the distribution of critical political attitudes and behavior. We show that this bias occurs in the context of both typical closed-ended questions and in list experiments. Inattentive respondents are common and are more prevalent among the young and less educated. Those who do not pass the trap questions interact with the survey instrument in distinctive ways: they take less time to respond; are more likely to report nonattitudes; and display lower consistency in their reported choices. Inattentiveness does not occur completely at random and failing to properly account for it may lead to inaccurate estimates of the prevalence of key political attitudes and behaviors, of both sensitive and more prosaic nature.

Translanguaging, as an approach to language, bilingualism, and bilingual education, considers all linguistic resources available to learners without partitioning their use and is essential for promoting student learning in the twenty-first century. Knowledge of university students’ beliefs about language use must be uncovered and examined; however, existing research has predominantly investigated perceptions of students in universities outside of the USA. In the present study, graduate students’ views about translanguaging practices were examined. Data were collected through a survey instrument and then analyzed using descriptive statistics. Results show that graduate students’ beliefs about translanguaging are highly positive, particularly for social settings and L2 learnings.

The aims of this study were to assess the perceived levels and sources of stress for Libyan dental students living in a war zone and to compare the results of those students with students living in conflict-free areas in the same country. Eight hundred randomly selected students from three Libyan dental schools in conflict-active and conflict-free regions were invited to participate in a survey in 2016. The survey instrument was the validated Dental Environment Stress (DES) questionnaire translated into Arabic. Responses to the 41 items were on a five-point scale from 0=not stressful at all to 4=very stressful. The response rate was 84.4% (675/800). The results showed that the respondents' overall mean score of stress perception was 2.5 (SD 0.6). There was a statistically significant difference in overall perceived stress between the two groups (p

Many countries have recently seen rapid growth in tourism which is perceived as an engine for economic growth and social development. On the other hand, many countries have been faced with problems of attracting and retaining well-qualified employees, as many graduates do not enter the tourism industry on graduation. This study aims to determine the attitudes of Tourism and Hospitality (T&H) students towards the problem of seasonality in tourism employment and how it relates to students’ employment aspirations. The research was conducted among students of higher educational institutions (HEI) located in Northern Poland (Southern Baltic Sea Region). A survey instrument was applied and 171 usable questionnaires were retrieved and analyzed in this study. Students’ perceptions of tourism seasonality seem to be more positive than negative and it may relate to their working intentions on graduation. Additionally, students who declared their seasonal working experience referred to tourism seasonality more positively. This study makes useful contributions to the existing knowledge and management literature by showing that the ability to identify negative aspects of future career development, such as tourism seasonality, and the ability to manage it effectively, may have a positive impact on employment perception in the view of a future workforce.

The aim of this article is to obtain experts’ consensus on the need for parental involvement in the effort to inculcate preschool children’s attitude, which covers several dimensions namely school-based involvement, home-based involvement and communication between the home and the school. The verification was done by 11 panel members or experts on the survey instrument containing items, and it was analyzed using the Fuzzy Delphi technique template. The study establishes that there is an agreement among the experts on parents’ involvement in the formation of preschool children’s attitude, be it in the school-based involvement, home-based involvement and communication between the home and the school. All items, totaling 24 items in the dimensions of school-based involvement, home-based involvement and communication between the home and the school, have obtained experts’ consensus exceeding 75% with 22 of them obtaining the threshold reading (d) ≤ 0.2. Next, the items involved were arranged by position based on the defuzzification value and improved with some additional items as proposed by the panel of experts.

Resumen Este artículo aborda las necesidades y el comportamiento informativo de una comunidad no estudiada, se trata de los Grupos de Familia Al-anon, en donde asiste la familia de las personas que presentan problemas con el consumo de alcohol. Este estudio es exploratorio con un enfoque mixto, la muestra es no probabilística y participaron seis mujeres. Se empleó el instrumento de la entrevista y la encuesta. Se encontró que las principales necesidades informativas son el duelo (66 %) y la felicidad (50 %); y los temas: entretenimiento, superación personal, aceptación, tolerancia y primer paso; todas las anteriores con un porcentaje de 33 %. Los comportamientos informativos de estas mujeres son: el libro (83 %), el internet (66 %) y la televisión (50 %). Abstract This article deals with the needs and informational behavior of a community not studied, the Al-anon Family Group for the family of people addicted to alcohol. This study is exploratory with a mixed approach, the sample is not probabilistic and six women participated. The interview and survey instrument were used. It was found that the main informational needs are: grief (66 %), happiness (50 %); and the subject of: entertainment, personal improvement, acceptance, tolerance and first step, all of the above with a percentage of 33 %. The informative behaviors of these women are: the book (83 %), the internet (66 %) and tv (50 %).

As a result of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, many universities were required to make quick decisions to accommodate social distancing guidelines. Cherished university events such as commencement and spring convocations were postponed or cancelled. Such decisions were made in an effort to curb the number of people infected with the virus. Institutions were also forced to consider how to continue educating students in the midst of a pandemic. In many instances, faculty were required to transition their face to face courses to an online format. Some instructors were familiar with the instructional strategies and technological tools needed for effective online teaching. Whereas, other novice faculty were hesitant or even resistant to the idea of online teaching and learning. This case study at a Midwest Masters level university, examines the perceptions of faculty (n=158) regarding the quick adoption of their courses to an online medium during the Spring 2020 semester. The web-based survey instrument consists of two sections. Section I had 10 demographic questions, section II had 28 statements with a seven-point Likert-type scale measurement that ranged from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree). Section II assessed perceptions and attitudes about the quick transition to online, and comparison of students’ engagement for the courses during the spring semester face-to-face vs the online format during COVID-19, and professors’ level of satisfaction with the transition. The data was analyzed using frequency, mean and ANCOVA with SPSS version 23. Findings revealed that generally faculty felt that course quality remained the same, that students’ engagement and performance declined during the pandemic and satisfaction levels with the transition were low.

Despite worldwide initiatives, the exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) rate is low. The study aims to investigate the role of fathers’ knowledge, attitude and support in formulating mothers’ practice of breastfeeding taking Bangladeshi parental cases as a sample. The study uses a standard survey instrument following the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Responses from 332 couples are accepted following a standard criteria and used for analysis. The sample is divided into sub-groups based on delivery mode—vaginal (n = 211, 64%) and cesarean section (n = 121, 36%). Based on the sub-groups, a multi-group structural equation modelling (SEM) is applied to analyze the phenomena. The study finds that a father’s knowledge in EBF can, in one way, significantly enhance mother’s knowledge by sharing and, in another way, can enhance his own attitude to offer different support to his partner/wife which induces the chances of EBF practices by mothers. The enhanced EBF knowledge of a mother raises her attitude to practice EBF, which is also positively affected by the father’s attitude. Thus, fathers’ support, coupled with mothers’ positive attitude, the mother’s intention to practice EBF as per standard guidelines.

In terms of productivity in software development, there is specific interest in identifying its influencing factors. For this purpose, several classification approaches have been previously used, which have already recognized technical factors, organizational factors, product factors, project factors, and personal factors. However, these approaches often focus on technical factors over social and human factors (SHFs). Nevertheless, in addition to the obvious technical aspects, the software development process involves problem-solving skills and cognitive aspects and social interaction. In this sense, determining SHFs can lead to software organizations designing strategies for improving team productivity. In this study, we first conducted a preliminary classification of the SHFs identified in the literature. Because this study seeks to assess the factors from the standpoint of software development professionals, we developed and validated an instrument to measure the perception of software development team members about SHFs that may be affecting their productivity. For this purpose, the first four stages of survey-based research were followed: objective definition, survey design, instrument construction, instrument validity, and reliability assessment. The instrument included 79 items assessing 13 different SHFs. After assessing both their validity and reliability, the results demonstrated that the instrument is a valid and reliable tool for measuring SHFs perception among software development team members.