Exploratory Instrument Research Articles

Public Service Motivation Measurement

This article proposes and tests a three-dimension, shortened instrument for public service motivation based on Perry's (1996) exploratory 24-item scale. A confirmatory factor analysis is used with both a diagonally weighted least squares and a modified version of maximum likelihood estimation that are more appropriate for ordinal indicators. Data from the National Administrative Studies Project, consisting of mail surveys of managers engaged in information management activities working in state-level primary health and human service agencies, is used ( n = 274; response rate = 53%). Results indicate good support for the shortened scale compared to Perry's original work. Findings corroborate Perry's theorized dimensions and items in the exploratory instrument. An exploratory analysis evaluating modifications to the tested model suggests possible improvements in two dimensions but does not undermine the overall, supportive results and suggests the importance of continued item and scale development.

Identifying, Assessing, and Enhancing Field Instructor Competencies

Social work education currently prepares the beginning practitioner, but it does not offer preparation for becoming a teacher of social work as a field instructor. This study sought to explore BSW and MSW field instructor competency through the views of field directors/coordinators of CSWE-accredited programs who recruit, train, and work with agency-based social work field instructors. Field directors/coordinators (N= 180) rated the integration of classroom and field learning highest as a training issue for their field instructors, and they ranked their instructors weakest in their ability to integrate classroom and field. No statistically significant differences were reported between BSW and MSW field instructors in strengths, concerns, or training issues. The exploratory survey instrument and a self-assessment variation are appended as possible assessment and measurement tools for field instructors, directors, and liaisons to improve standards and enhance outcome measures for quality improvement and accreditation purposes.

Correlation of the Holy Spirit Questionnaire with the Spiritual Well-Being Scale and the Spiritual Assessment Inventory

The Holy Spirit Questionnaire (HSQ) is an exploratory instrument developed by Ingram and Sandvik (1994) to measure differences in perceptions regarding personal knowledge about filling of the Holy Spirit among Christians. Past examination of the HSQ asserts that the instrument is a reliable measure that examines knowledge about the Holy Spirit (Hurst, 1995). This study included 133 respondents to the HSQ and correlated their responses to results from the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS) (Ellison & Paloutzian, 1982) and the Spiritual Assessment Inventory (SAI) (Hall & Edwards, 1996). Analyses demonstrated significant correlations between the HSQ and the SWBS and SAI, indicating that certain areas of religious and existential well-being and spiritual maturity are significantly related to knowledge of the Holy Spirit.

Engines for the Cosmos

This article highlights how exploration of deep space requires systems of propulsion that can go the distance. To explore the outer planets in a reasonable time, engines must generate either high exhaust velocity or high specific impulse. The United States recognized early the benefit that nuclear propulsion could provide for interplanetary exploration and ran an extensive research and development program devoted to it. Electric propulsion devices require an energy source and an electric generation method in order to operate. Engines being engineered for deep space missions are, out of necessity, fueled by clean energy from light gas atoms. The fuels are brought to certain physical states and subjected to electric or magnetic fields that accelerate and eject charged particles out of the engine, thereby giving momentum to the spacecraft. These new deep space engines will enable to send missions to the far reaches of the solar system and beyond with exploratory instruments.

Laparoscopy — Its possibilities and limits

The progressing development of the exploratory instruments, both optic and fotographic, allow the laparoscopist a real panoramic view of the intraabdominal pathology. The possibility of biopsy with electrocoagulation under direct control completes the endoscopic investigation, in a way that no other method can offer. Thus, we have the chance to obtain objective documentation of findings, macro-and microscopically.

Fun with Exploratory Instruments

Fun with Exploratory Instruments

Solar radiation and terrestrial magnetism

1. One of the foremost magneticians of the last century, after a lifelong and devoted study of the various phenomena of the “Earth magnetical,” said in a public address: “Viewed in itself and its various relations, the magnetism of the Earth cannot be counted less than one of the most important branches of the physical history of the planet we inhabit.” I shall endeavor to show briefly, in the paper which I have the honor to present before you, the rôle certain terrestrial‐magnetic phenomena may play in the study of the physical characteristics of our atmosphere, especially of those upper levels, 100 kilometers and more above us, to which man has not yet succeeded in sending his exploratory instruments.2. Among the most striking of the Earth's magnetic phenomena is the diurnal variation which takes place chiefly during the daylight hours, and varies in its magnitude and general characteristics with geographic position with the season of the year, and with Sun‐spot activity. A preliminary mathematical analysis, made by Schuster and presented before the Royal Society of England in 1889, led to the conclusion that “the principal part of the diurnal variation is due to causes outside of the Earth's surface, and probably to electric currents in our atmosphere.” Furthermore, Schuster found “that the horizontal movements in the atmosphere which must accompany a tidal action of the Sun or Moon or any periodic variation of the barometer, such as is actually observed, would produce electric currents in the atmosphere having magnetic effects similar in character to the observed diurnal variation.” In brief, the hypothesis adopted by Schuster to account for the supposed electric currents, generated in the upper atmospheric regions, was the one first proposed by Balfour Stewart—that the necessary electromotive forces for the production and maintenance of the required electric currents are generated by the motion of masses of conducting air across the lines of the Earth's permanent magnetic field, chiefly of the vertical component, thus bringing into play Foucault currents.