Diverse Research Contexts Research Articles

Comprehensive guidelines for appropriate statistical analysis methods in research.

The selection of statistical analysis methods in research is a critical and nuanced task that requires a scientific and rational approach. Aligning the chosen method with the specifics of the research design and hypothesis is paramount, as it can significantly impact the reliability and quality of the research outcomes. This study explores a comprehensive guideline for systematically choosing appropriate statistical analysis methods, with a particular focus on the statistical hypothesis testing stage and categorization of variables. By providing a detailed examination of these aspects, this study aims to provide researchers with a solid foundation for informed methodological decision making. Moving beyond theoretical considerations, this study delves into the practical realm by examining the null and alternative hypotheses tailored to specific statistical methods of analysis. The dynamic relationship between these hypotheses and statistical methods is thoroughly explored, and a carefully crafted flowchart for selecting the statistical analysis method is proposed. Based on the flowchart, we examined whether exemplary research papers appropriately used statistical methods that align with the variables chosen and hypotheses built for the research. This iterative process ensures the adaptability and relevance of this flowchart across diverse research contexts, contributing to both theoretical insights and tangible tools for methodological decision-making. This study emphasizes the importance of a scientific and rational approach for the selection of statistical analysis methods. By providing comprehensive guidelines, insights into the null and alternative hypotheses, and a practical flowchart, this study aims to empower researchers and enhance the overall quality and reliability of scientific studies.

Study of Consumer’s Intention to Use of E-Wallet: with Extended UTAUT2 Reward and Technological Innovation

Consumers in the 21st century are living in a world transformed by contactless transactions, a product of the digital revolution. This technology is woven into the fabric of daily life, offering solutions for everything from morning coffee purchases to late-night bill payments. From shopping and salons to education, food delivery, money transfers, and public transport, contactless payments are ubiquitous. This constant presence fosters a consumer behavior that embraces new technologies and innovation. The rise of mobile payments, driven by advancements in technology, has fundamentally altered the payment landscape. Consumers now have the power to turn their smartphones into convenient payment tools. The emergence of the Internet and smartphones in the 21st century has made information technology an essential aspect of human existence, which were mostly accessible to organizational users in the late 20th century. Research on technology adoption and diffusion is well-established in the current literature on information systems (IS). IS researchers are constantly seeking to comprehend the different factors that influence individuals' acceptance and utilization of emerging information technology (IT) (Hughes et al., 2016, 2017, Hughes et al., 2020). This extensive research field has seen a variety of research methods being used to study a wide range of technologies in different countries. The existing literature has uncovered numerous theories, contexts, units of analysis, and research methods (Dwivedi & Williams, 2008; Choudrie & Dwivedi, 2005; Williams et al., 2009). The diverse research contexts, which include technology, user type, location, adoption time, and task done, have led to the emergence of numerous conflicting theories and models. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), Diffusion of Innovation (DoI), Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), and Task Technology Fit (TTF) Theory have been commonly used to study various aspects of adoption and diffusion (Dwivedi et al., 2006, 2007; Dwivedi and Weerakkody, 2007; Kapoor et al., 2014). Venkatesh et al. (2003) created the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT) by thoroughly examining eight prominent technology adoption models. This theory focuses on the practical value (external motivation) that technology brings to users in an organizational setting. It eliminates any overlapping or repetitive concepts to streamline the theory (Venkatesh et al., 2003). The emergence of consumer technologies required the expansion of the UTAUT model to include the consumer context, with a focus on the hedonic value (intrinsic motivation) of technology users. As a result, three additional concepts, namely hedonic motivation, price value, and habit, were included in the original UTAUT model. This updated version is known as UTAUT2. However, in UTAUT2, the concept of voluntariness of use was eliminated as a moderator because customers do not have any organizational mandate. Additionally, in many cases, consumer behavior is voluntary (Venkatesh et al., 2012). The UTAUT2 hypothesis has a significantly greater predictive power compared to UTAUT. It can explain around 74 percent of the variation in customers' behavioral intention and 52 percent of the variation in consumers' technological usage of the focus technology (Venkatesh et al., 2016).

Citizen Satisfaction Research in Public Administration: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda

This study presents a systematic review of the 122 studies on citizen satisfaction in the field of public administration. The research aims to identify the current state of knowledge on citizen satisfaction by drawing on existing empirical results and conceptual arguments, highlighting research gaps, and developing a heuristic framework to guide future research. Based on a literature search of 12 major public administration journals, our findings indicate that citizen satisfaction has gained significant academic attention as a performance measure to monitor and assess public service delivery, particularly at the local level. Despite substantial scrutiny in diverse research contexts, quantitative studies still predominate, mainly using secondary survey data in their research. Furthermore, we observed an absence of an agreed-upon definition for citizen satisfaction and an over-emphasis on the expectancy-disconfirmation model to explain the satisfaction process, highlighting the need for scholars to move beyond the performance-expectation dyad. While reviewing a set of environmental, organizational, and individual-level antecedents and outcomes, we noticed few scholars have considered the effects of moderating variables on citizen satisfaction. As such, our paper concludes by identifying a few underexplored research themes that could facilitate knowledge-building regarding citizen satisfaction.

Optimized bacterial community characterization through full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing utilizing MinION nanopore technology

BackgroundAccurate identification of bacterial communities is crucial for research applications, diagnostics, and clinical interventions. Although 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene sequencing is a widely employed technique for bacterial taxonomic classification, it often results in misclassified or unclassified bacterial taxa. This study sought to refine the full-length 16S rRNA gene sequencing protocol using the MinION sequencer, focusing on the V1–V9 regions. Our methodological enquiry examined several factors, including the number of PCR amplification cycles, choice of primers and Taq polymerase, and specific sequence databases and workflows employed. We used a microbial standard comprising eight bacterial strains (five gram-positive and three gram-negative) in known proportions as a validation control.ResultsBased on the MinION protocol, we employed the microbial standard as the DNA template for the 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing procedure. Our analysis showed that an elevated number of PCR amplification cycles introduced PCR bias, and the selection of Taq polymerase and primer sets significantly affected the subsequent analysis. Bacterial identification at genus level demonstrated Pearson correlation coefficients ranging from 0.73 to 0.79 when assessed using BugSeq, Kraken-Silva and EPI2ME-16S workflows. Notably, the EPI2ME-16S workflow exhibited the highest Pearson correlation with the microbial standard, minimised misclassification, and increased alignment accuracy. At the species taxonomic level, the BugSeq workflow was superior, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.92.ConclusionsThese findings emphasise the importance of careful selection of PCR settings and a well-structured analytical framework for 16S rRNA full-length gene sequencing. The results showed a robust correlation between the predicted and observed bacterial abundances at both the genus and species taxonomic levels, making these findings applicable across diverse research contexts and with clinical utility for reliable pathogen identification.

Reimagining institutional ethics procedures in research partnerships with young people across Majority/Minority World contexts

ABSTRACT While institutional ethics are crucial, their application on the ground often creates tensions with what is considered ‘ethical'. This paper reflects on the dissonances between formal institutional ethics and community-based research. The focus is on a project involving young people from India and Brazil, where they actively contributed as co-researchers and advisors. The project's international collaboration encompassed partners from Majority and Minority World contexts, including universities, community organizations, and government bodies. The project, initially planned before the Covid-19 pandemic but implemented during it, necessitated adjustments to its methodology. This paper examines the role of institutional ethic procedures in light of power imbalances and tensions within three areas: (1) research co-production with young people, (2) collaborative cross-country research with partners, and (3) the relevance of ethical guidelines in diverse research contexts. We raise concerns about the top-down nature of these procedures and emphasise the significance of reflexivity, conversations, and relationships in ethical considerations. With growing research in the Majority world (funded by the Minority world), there is an urgent need to recognise and build on the expertise of experienced local civic society organisations in ethical research and safeguarding, to work in genuine, respectful partnership with those we do research with.

Striving for a holistic approach: exploring food education through Finnish youth centers

ABSTRACT Food education has become an umbrella term covering various understandings of our relationship with food, originating from diverse research contexts. There is often the need to form a “holistic” understanding of what food education is and what it does. In this article, we explore a holistic approach to food education and how an informal learning environment can promote and contribute toward a holistic approach to food education. We conducted our study at four youth centers in Finland. The data were collected from seven focus groups of young people who took part in group discussions and whom we observed. We analyzed our data using content analysis. The young people developed food-related skills when discussing different food choices, planning meals, preparing food, and eating together. They evaluated their skills and talked about the kinds of food they made and why. They displayed “holistic thinking:” they created common meanings for food and considered issues related to the food system and environment. Our results indicate that informal settings comprise an important dimension of a holistic approach to food education. To improve food education in the future, we need not only a holistic approach, but also a more thorough understanding of its meanings and dimensions.

Signals of local bioclimate-driven ecomorphological changes in wild birds

Across disciplines—biological, ecological, evolutionary, or environmental—researchers increasingly recognize the importance and the need for cost-effective, non-invasive techniques for in-situ morphological measurements of organisms in diverse research contexts. By applying a non-invasive technique using digital images taken under field conditions, we successfully measured the body sizes of wild Painted Storks (Mycteria leucocephala) in two different biogeographic regions of India, spatially separated by 20° of latitude. We have used the wild Painted Storks as model species for measuring their morphometrics using a non-invasive technique that could easily be applied to similar species, rare, endemic, colonial, aquatic, and even those with cultural taboos. Our results satisfactorily classify and predict the sexes of the species and their biogeographic origin based on independent morphological variables using Machine Learning algorithms. The BayesNet yielded the correct classification instances (Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) = 0.985), outperforming all the other tested classifying algorithms. A strong relationship was observed between the local bioclimatic conditions and the morphological variations in wild Painted Storks reflecting clear eco-geographic patterns. Without this non-invasive technique, it would be almost impossible to collect morphological measurements at a large scale from live birds under field conditions. Our study is a testimony to the effectual use of the non-invasive digital method for in-situ measurements from free-living wild species in the field, assuming significance, especially from climate change perspectives, biology, ecology, and conservation.

Interdisciplinary Research Collaborative Trains Students to See Through Turbulent Systems

Despite the availability of interdisciplinary academic training programs, the practice of environmental science is often hampered by a lack of convergence across diverse disciplines. This gap is particularly salient in settings characterized by complex environmental issues, such as multiple-use coastal ecosystems. In response, we developed and implemented a training, research, and communication framework to provide undergraduates with an authentic operative experience working at the interface of interdisciplinary science and public decision-making within a case study of marine renewable energy. In our program, students gained hands-on experience with the scientific process and learned how to make information relevant, useful, and accessible to diverse stakeholder groups. Application of this framework demonstrates that the process of integrating data from biological (visual and acoustic monitoring of fish and marine mammals), physical (hydrodynamics), and social (local ecological knowledge) sciences can provide a more complete understanding of complex and turbulent ecosystems for better informed decision-making. We offer several recommendations to facilitate the adaptation and implementation of our interdisciplinary framework to diverse research contexts, with a focus on interdisciplinary training for the next generation of marine scientists.

Stitching Together: Participatory textile making as an emerging methodological approach to research

Arising from a recently formed research network, Stitching Together, this article introduces a collection of case studies that critically examine participatory textile making as an emerging methodological approach to research. The twenty-first-century resurgence of interest in textile processes such as knitting, sewing and weaving, whether as individual practice or community-based initiative, builds on a long and culturally diverse history of collaborative textile-making activity. This resurgence, combined with the familiarity, accessibility and flexibility of textile practices, has influenced a recent growth in the use of such activities as a means of inquiry within diverse research contexts. The article considers the ways in which collective textile-making projects privilege social encounter as a format for learning skills, creating friendships and consolidating shared interests. It goes on to discuss how researchers are drawing on these characteristics when devising new projects, highlighting the quality of experience afforded by textile making, the diverse forms of data generated and the variety of ways in which these participatory activities can be set up. Recognizing that this research approach is far from straightforward, three key methodological themes are then considered: the multifaceted nature of the researcher’s role and the complexities of relationships with participants and other stakeholders; the difficulties that can arise when using such familiar textile processes; and the opportunities, and complexities, of co-producing knowledge with participants through collaborative textile activity.

Thinking and Researching Relationally

Decolonizing methodologies are gaining increasing prominence in diverse research contexts in which Indigenous peoples are researchers, research partners, participants, and knowledge users. As political and intellectual allies committed to actively resisting and redressing the colonizing potential of research and advancing social change, non-Indigenous scholars are also enacting decolonizing methodologies. By drawing on the author’s experiences as a non-Indigenous researcher partnering with an Indigenous early childhood program in Canada, this article illustrates the interconnected ways in which relationality provides the necessary epistemological scaffolding to actualize the underlying motives, concerns, and principles that characterize decolonizing methodologies. Relationality draws attention to the multiple intersecting influences that shape research and knowledge itself, emphasizes reciprocity, and is compatible with many Indigenous worldviews. This article contributes toward the ongoing international dialogue about decolonizing methodologies and is directed primarily to non-Indigenous researchers and graduate students who are questioning how to “do” community-based decolonizing research involving Indigenous peoples.

Effects of Affiliative Human-Animal Interaction on Dog Salivary and Plasma Oxytocin and Vasopressin.

Oxytocin (OT) and vasopressin (AVP) are neuropeptides with diverse effects on social behavior, cognition and stress responses. Recent studies suggest that OT facilitates and responds to affiliative forms of human–animal interaction (HAI). However, previous studies measuring OT and AVP in dogs have been limited to measures from blood or urine, which present concerns related to the invasiveness of sample collection, the potential for matrix interference in immunoassays, and whether samples can be collected at precise time points to assess event-linked endocrine responses. Previous studies from our laboratory validated salivary measures of OT and AVP in dogs, however, it is currently unknown whether these measures respond dynamically to aspects of HAI. Here, we investigated the effects of affiliative forms of HAI on both plasma and salivary OT and AVP in dogs. We employed a within- and between-subjects design with a group of Labrador retrievers and Labrador retriever × golden retriever crosses (23 females, 15 males). Half of the dogs engaged in 10 min of free-form friendly interaction with a human experimenter (HAI condition), and the other half rested quietly in the same environment, without human interaction (control condition). We collected blood and saliva samples before, and immediately following both experimental conditions, and all samples were analyzed using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) following previously validated protocols. Dogs participating in HAI exhibited a significant increase in both salivary OT (+39%) and plasma OT (+5.7%) whereas dogs in the control group did not. Salivary AVP showed no change in the HAI group but increased significantly (+33%) in the control group. Plasma AVP decreased significantly following HAI (-13%) but did not change across time in the control condition. Within the dogs exposed to HAI, increases in salivary OT, and decreases in plasma AVP, were predicted by the extent of affiliative behavior between the dog and human (indexed by scores from a principal components analysis of social behaviors between the dog and human). Collectively our results suggest that measures of salivary OT and AVP provide useful biomarkers in studies of HAI, and afford a flexible and non-invasive toolkit than can be employed in diverse research contexts.

INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE 1 : 2017

Sustainable Well-Being is broadly defined as the exploration of lasting happiness. It highlights the importance of a sustainable lifestyle that is environmentally friendly and socially advantageous. It requires us to pursue well-being in a much more holistic way and within the planetary boundaries.Towards the end of the last millennium, the word ‘sustainability’ was, and still is, the most used phrase with regards to all aspects of our livelihood, and even more so in the built environment field. This was when we understood that progress and environmental conservation are symbiotic – one is supposedly benefiting the other. Wellbeing, on the other hand, carries the notion of happiness, healthy and comfortable. Wellbeing has long been a much researched areas, although mainly in the sociological and psychological domains. Of late, it has increasingly becoming an important agenda in the built environment field as well.Acknowledging the importance of built environment in the pursuit of long lasting happiness, this issue of the Planning Malaysia Journal carries the theme of ‘Sustainable Well-Being in Architecture and Environmental Sciences’. This issue focuses on the design and building of living place which are harmonious and in sync with the environment needs and conservation.The contributions to the study of environmental sciences have come from diverse fields including architecture, town planning, transportation, engineering, legal matters, community development and psychology, and housing. Despite the diversity, each of the fields cannot be viewed as separate entities since they interweave in the broad framework of sustainable well-being. A broader yet explicit understanding of sustainable well-being from diverse research contexts would lead to better decisions, especially in the built environment designs and solutions.Finally, we believe that this issue of Planning Malaysia, can become the platform for experts and researchers to discuss on how sustainable well-being in the built environment can be realized. It is also hoped that the articles in this issue would be useful references for future studies related to the built environment and sustainable well-being.

Introduction to the Special Issue on Girls From Outer Space: Emerging Girl Subjectivities and Reterritorializing Girlhood

With an overview of the authors’ contributions, this introduction to the special issue on girls from outer space provides a conceptual framework for bringing counter-narratives of girls from the margins, where unheard voices and movements have emerged, developed, and expanded as a way of talking back to the dominant girlhood space and discourse as well as society. Moving away from both binary and canonical lenses of girlhood that center on White middle-class girlhood, this special issue focuses on lived experiences of girls of color who exist among socio-economically alienated spaces such as immigrant, homeless, queer, and domestically violent spaces, etc. Most of all, it delineates a conceptual revision of the notion of outsideness by shifting from simply victimized, within a deficit model, to a complex dimension of girl agency that demonstrates both limiting and expanding experiences of the girls. Drawing upon feminist insights, this conceptual work attempts to relocate outsideness in the center of girlhood studies, which pays attention to alternative methodological approaches that recover epistemological barriers of girlhood by addressing (dis)entanglement of the girl participants’ minds and actions in diverse research contexts, and by disclosing the dynamic, contradictory, and complicated ideas, voices, and values from the girls’ perspectives.

Researcher intersubjectivity: a methodology for jointly building an interactive electronic early childhood quality involvement/rating scale

ABSTRACTResearching quality in early childhood settings has been operationalized in many ways, within and across countries. Nevertheless, despite some consensus on what might constitute a universally recognized view of what is considered essential for young children’s development, there are strong indicators that locally developed assessment tools are likely to give more contextually relevant results. Yet, little appears to be known about how to develop localized tools for assessing quality, especially in culturally diverse research contexts. Further, it would seem that not much is understood about the ways researchers and research participants have worked together to achieve reciprocal outcomes. In drawing upon cultural-historical theory, this paper goes beyond the traditional binary of an emic–etic perspective and instead describes a dialectical model for creating conditions for generating research intersubjectivity. An example of how researchers and participants worked together to develop an interactive e-quality rating scale in Vietnam is presented with the research exchange methods of Dialogue through the technology, Capturing moments of localized quality, Community walk, and Research selfies. These methods together acted to underpin the methodology that foregrounds what we have termed research intersubjectivity.

Information value across cultures and communities

The value of information within and across communities varies; however, even slight variations in this value may define boundaries between different worlds. The Theory of Information Worlds offers a framework for understanding social information behaviors in these settings. This poster reports on the operationalization of the concept of Information Value and its implications for an ongoing project focusing on the development of codebooks intended to be effective across diverse research contexts and methodologies. Specifically, the concept of Information Value is operationalized and discussed through the lenses of three different dissertation projects focusing on South Korean political discourse on Twitter, Ernestine Rose and the Harlem Library, and the digital literacy practices of role-players in a new Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game. Implications of Information Value on research on communities and cultures are also briefly discussed before describing the project's next steps.

Consent and community engagement in diverse research contexts.

Consent and community engagement (CE) in health research are two aspects of a single concern-that research is carried out in a respectful manner where social value is maximized. There are important overlaps and interdependencies between consent and CE; for example, CE can provide insights into how best to tailor consent to context and can be an important component of consent processes. Engaging communities can also have intrinsic and instrumental value beyond consent; for example, as a means of showing respect and identifying appropriate ways of working respectfully. In this paper we critically examine how CE and consent processes are characterized, conducted, and evaluated in diverse health research contexts, and propose a preliminary research agenda to support future learning in these critical areas.

Construct validation and internal consistency of the geometric categorization task (GEOCAT) for measuring primary and secondary processes.

The GEOCAT is a short nonverbal test for measuring two types of cognition that tally with Freud's distinction between primary and secondary unconscious processes: attributional and relational similarity judgment. Attributional similarity judgment is a mode of cognitive categorization in which stimuli are classified based on perceptual resemblances between attributes and features, just like in primary processing. Relational similarity judgment is a mode of cognitive categorization that builds on higher order relationships between stimuli, just like in secondary processing. The GEOCAT can be used in diverse research contexts, and test administration takes 2 minutes. The present study investigates the construct validity and internal consistency of this instrument in a sample of Belgian university students. A confirmatory factor analysis for binary items indicates that a dimension reflecting relational or attributional categorization processes lies behind the GEOCAT items, that this model has a good fit to the data, and that all items are equally good indicators of these processes. We also compared the GEOCAT to an alternative measure that builds on a continuous scale for similarity judgment. Correlations between corresponding subscales were moderate and three GEOCAT items proved to be problematic. Internal consistency proved to be good. Suggestions for future research on similarity judgment and primary and secondary processes are discussed.

Making Choices: Factors in the Selection of Information Resources Among Science Faculty at the University of Michigan Results of a Survey Conducted July-September, 2000.

We carried out a survey of 230 science faculty and researchers at the University of Michigan in the departments of astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, mathematics, natural resources, physics, and statistics, seeking to learn about their information resource use and preferences in diverse research contexts (e.g., current awareness, routine day-to-day information needs). The response rate was 46.5%. Results indicate that researchers rely largely on the same information-seeking tools in different research contexts. We also asked about the importance of six factors -- speed, convenience, familiarity, currency, authoritativeness, reliable availability -- on their information resource preferences; convenience and time were most frequently cited. Finally, open-ended questions invited respondents to comment on barriers and frustrations they encountered in information-seeking; themes of availability and access to needed material were mentioned, in addition to a wide variety of information retrieval difficulties.