Exploratory Factors Research Articles

모바일 SNS 지속 사용의도에 있어 지각된 가치의 역할

Abstract This study investigates the antecedents of continuance intention of mobile SNS. In addition, it also explores the mediating role of perceived value in the relationship between the antecedent and continuance intention. This study posits that a social influence, perceived usefulness, privacy concern, and a perceived effort of use are major factors to influence continuance intention of SNS. By using a PLS analysis, this finding suggests that consumers’ perception of the value of SNS which is previously overlooked, is a primary determinant of continuance intention, and the other exploratory factors are mediated through perceived value in cognitive aspect. This research aims to examine consumer's SNS continuance intention in terms of consumer's perspective, not just from the technology user perspective. Therefore, this research provides a useful guideline for marketing managers on how to manage Mobile SNS properly. Key Words : Mobile SNS, perceived value, perceived usefulness, social influence, privacy concern, perceived effort of use, continuance intention

Family Support, Positive Thinking and Spirituality Correlates on Psychologically Distressed Heart Failure Patients

This study sought to screen the psychological profile among Heart Failure (HF) patients in Malaysia.The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) was administered to 211 HF patients. Later, qualitative interviews were used to gain an in-depth understanding of the prior findings. The study demonstrated that depression (6%) and anxiety (9%) are rare in the Malaysia HF populations. These results were explained through exploratory factors such as family support, positive thinking, and spiritual belief that emerged from the qualitative interviews. Prevalence of anxiety and depression among HF patients in Malaysia is lower compared to the Western population due to some motivating factors.

Critical factors in effective construction waste minimization at the design stage: A Shenzhen case study, China

Construction waste minimization at the design stage is a key strategy in effective waste reduction. However, it seems that few studies focus on exploratory factors that can significantly improve the design of construction waste minimization. This paper addresses this research gap by presenting a set of critical factors that inform and improve the practice of waste minimization design, particularly in the context of Shenzhen, China. Nineteen potential factors which can influence effective waste minimization are presented based on related official guidelines, reports and literature. Top institutions in Shenzhen that have received a Grade A building design certification were surveyed through a questionnaire. From this survey, six critical factors are derived: (1) large-panel metal formworks, (2) prefabricated components, (3) fewer design modifications, (4) modular design, (5) waste reduction investment and (6) economic incentive. The applicability and significance of the identified critical factors for effectively designing waste minimization are also explored. These critical factors not only provide designers and project managers with a useful set of criteria for effective design strategies to reduce construction waste, but also serve as valuable references for the government to formulate related construction waste minimization regulations.

Exploring the root causes of terrorism in South Asia: everybody should be concerned

The limited research undertaken thus far to discover the root causes of terrorism in South Asia. This study takes an initiative to explore root causes of terrorism in South Asia by using panel technique during the period of 1980–2011. The results show that GDP per capita decreases terrorism incidence, however, remaining other economic factors i.e., population, unemployment, inflation, poverty, inequality and political instability exhibits the positive association with the terrorism incidence in South Asia. Some exploratory economic factors are more elastic in nature, as income inequality exhibits the largest share i.e., 1.242 %, followed by population growth rate (i.e., 1.125 %) and political instability (i.e., 1.102 %) respectively. Unemployment rate are around one-to-one relationship with the terrorism incidence in this region. In addition, there is a significant relationship between poverty and terrorism incidence, as if there is 1 % increase in poverty rate, incidence of terrorism increases by 0.758 % in FMOLS and 0.654 % in case of DOLS estimators. This result confirm the conventional view i.e., poverty cause terrorism in South Asia. One of the major economic problems arises when price level associates with the terrorism incidence in this region, which further leads to peoples inside the poverty trap. Finally, trade openness does not act in accordance with significant contributor for terrorism incidence in South Asia, however, the importance of trade liberalization polices may not be neglected in relation with terrorism incidence in this region.

Gender and ethnic differences in precollege mathematics coursework related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pathways

In 2004, the pattern in academic pathways for high school students in the USA showed that students were completing more demanding mathematics courses. Despite the upward pattern in advanced-level mathematics course-taking, disparities among racial/ethnic groups persisted between 1982 and 2004. Using data from the Education Longitudinal Study of 2002 (ELS: 2002; Ingels et al., 2007), the current study sought to advance understanding of gender and ethnic differences in advanced mathematics course-taking. Furthermore, this study examined how the differences are related to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) pathways in college. Results showed that the relationships between exploratory factors (both individual- and school-level factors) and advanced mathematics course-taking and STEM choices differed across ethnicity and gender. This highlights the need for further research that disaggregates data by both ethnicity and gender.

Validity of Dementia Care Mapping on a neuro-rehabilitation ward: Q-methodology with staff and patients

Background: Measuring the quality of care for people using neuro-rehabilitation services is a complex area requiring reliable methods that account for variable communication abilities/cognitive functioning. Dementia Care Mapping (DCM) is an observational method widely used in dementia care to improve person-centred care, which may be usefully applied to neuro-rehabilitation settings. Evaluation is vital to determine the tool’s acceptability in this setting. Purpose: To explore the views of staff/patients regarding whether the use of DCM is acceptable in a neuro-rehabilitation setting. Method: DCM was conducted on an acute neuro-rehabilitation ward. Q-methodology, a technique for extracting subjective opinions, was used with 23 staff and 10 patients on the ward to evaluate the acceptability of DCM. Results: Factor analysis was performed separately for staff and patient Q-sorts. Each found a “consensus” factor where all participants indicated positive acceptability for the use of DCM. Further exploratory factors indicated that some staff/patients had additional views/concerns that were not captured by the first consensus factor. Conclusions: The results from this preliminary study are promising and indicate that DCM is potentially an acceptable tool to use in acute neuro-rehabilitation. Further research is needed to explore the acceptability of this tool more widely across neuro-rehabilitation settings.Implications for RehabilitationPerson-centred care is widely acknowledged as being important in all care settings, including neurorehabilitation.Dementia Care Mapping was deemed to be an acceptable approach for improving the quality of person-centred care on the basis of the views of staff and patients in a neurorehabilitation ward.Dementia Care Mapping, with adaptations for neurorehabilitation settings, successfully provides an acceptable framework for measuring and improving the quality of person-centred care in this setting.

When Politicians Sell Drugs: Examining Why Middle East Ethnopolitical Organizations Are Involved in the Drug Trade

Political organizations claim they are serving the interests of their constituents—but being involved in the drug trade does not seem to support those claims. Why would political organizations sell drugs then? Most often the question of why organizations engage in the drug trade has been explored in the context of organizations that are either criminal or violent, thus leaving a large hole in the literature about how violence and legality intersect with other exploratory factors. We explore this issue more fully by looking at both violent and nonviolent organizations using the Middle East Minorities at Risk Organizational Behavior dataset, which has data on over 100 ethnopolitical organizations in the Middle East. Very few of these organizations are involved in the drug trade and yet all of those are engaged in violence at the same time. We explore what factors, other than violence, make this rare behavior for political organizations more likely.

Factors affecting process orientation in Iranian Social security organization’s hospitals

Process orientation was one of the new approaches in managerial topics, which were recently considered by the Iranian healthcare centers. The study’s aim is to identifies the main factors of process orientation in health care management arena in Iranian hospitals. To achieve this objective, the main variables were recognized and the questionnaire was determined. Iranian Social security organization’s hospitals were chosen as a sample among all Iranian healthcare centers (n=48).The validity of questionnaire were assured with expert judgment and the reliability was determined using Cronbach’s alpha and Pearson correlation (1st and 2nd times). Cronbach’s alpha coefficient and Pearson correlation were 0.819 and (p<0.001) 0.951 respectively. The questionnaire was filled out by the research community. After the sample size was proved to be sufficient, the exploratory and confirmatory factors were analyzed. The findings of the present research showed that, after conducting the factor analysis of “process orientation” in health care management, 2 factors were extracted. The factors were “design and implementation of processes” and “control and improvement of processes”. The calculated fitness indexes proved the desirability and appropriateness of structural relations. It may be concluded that these factors have substantial roles in the performance of process orientation and are considered to be the main factors while performing process orientation approach in these organizations. Key words: Process orientation, Iranian healthcare, social security organization, health care management.

Efficiency of the modal shift and environmental policy on the Korean railroad

The Kyoto Protocol calls for industrialized nations to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 5% from 1990 levels by 2008–2012, so developed countries are presenting various policies to reduce greenhouse gas that is produced in transport fields. One of those polices is a modal shift that changes from road freight to sea, inland waterways and railroad transportation that is eco-friendly. The increase of road freight brings road congestion, accidents, logistic costs, air pollution and greenhouse gases. Railroads are superior to the other modes of transportation in mass transportability, high speed, timeliness, safety and environmental-friendliness, but the railway industry has been pushed behind in competition. Korean railroads were used by passengers and for freight transport popularly until the middle of the 20th century. However, because of the sudden change of logistics environments, having time efficiency being most important, railroads lost logistic competitive power against the transportation by truck. This paper intends to examine the modal shift to railroad transportation, which enjoys high interest as environmentally-friendly logistics, i.e., the modal shift strategy. Efficiency analysis is conducted using DEA and exploratory factors are identified for the modal shift of the companies. This paper also proposes an alternative plan for green logistics and environmentally-friendly logistics, by analyzing the characteristics of the railroad cargo transportation system and the conditions of local railroad cargo transportation.

P.1.195 Effect of CRF1 receptor blockade on rat exploratory behaviour and AP-2 transcription factors in the locus coeruleus region: Important environmental and individual variables

P.1.195 Effect of CRF1 receptor blockade on rat exploratory behaviour and AP-2 transcription factors in the locus coeruleus region: Important environmental and individual variables

Feeling textures through a probe: effects of probe and surface geometry and exploratory factors.

Vibratory roughness perception occurs when people feel a surface with a rigid probe. Accordingly, perceived roughness should reflect probe and surface geometry, exploratory speed, and force. Experiments 1 and 2 compared magnitude estimation of roughness with the bare finger and two types of probes, one designed to eliminate force moments, under the subject's active control. Experiments 3 and 4 varied speed under passive control. Log magnitude was consistently a quadratic function of log spacing between elements in the surface. The location of the function's peak was related to the drop point--that is, the spacing at which the probe can just drop between elements--which is affected by probe tip diameter, element height, and speed. Other parameters of the quadratic were affected by probe type and speed.

Mating preference and sexual reinforcement in female rats

Intact female rats chose between sexually active males and inactive males or females in a runway-choice apparatus. In either a discrete choice or continuous choice format, sexually receptive female rats demonstrated a preference for sexually active males over the other two incentive animals. No preference was demonstrated when females were sexually non-receptive. The results demonstrate that, for sexually receptive female rats, copulation can have reinforcing effects distinct from the reinforcing effects of more general social and exploratory factors.