Effective questionnaire design: How to use cognitive interviews to refine questionnaire items

BACKGROUND: Cognitive interviewing is a technique that can be used to improve and refine questionnaire items. We describe the basic methodology of cognitive interviewing and illustrate its utility through our experience using cognitive interviews to refine a questionnaire assessing parental understanding of concepts related to preterm birth. METHODS: Cognitive interviews were conducted using current best practices. Results were analyzed by the multidisciplinary research team and questionnaire items that were revealed to be problematic were revised. RESULTS: Revisions to the questionnaire items were made to improve clarity and to elicit responses that truly reflected the participants understanding of the concept. CONCLUSION: Cognitive interviewing is a useful methodology for improving validity of questionnaire items, we recommend researchers developing new questionnaire items design and complete cognitive interviews to improve their items and increase confidence in study conclusions.

Cultural Heritage Storytelling, Engagement and Management in the Era of Big Data and the Semantic Web

Cultural heritage (CH) refers to a highly multidisciplinary research and application field, intending to collect, archive, and disseminate the traditions, monuments/artworks, and overall civilization legacies that have been preserved throughout the years of humankind [...]

Preface

The Material & Energy Engineering for Sustainable Advancement 2021 (MEESA 2021) conference was organized by the Mechanical Engineering Programme, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Malaysia Sabah.The conference was held virtually on the 29thand 30thof September 2021. The 1stMEESA conference was organized to enculturate research and collaborative involvement between researchers in the engineering materials and energy field. Researchers and postgraduate students from multidisciplinary research backgrounds gathered to share new findings and ultimately building a better network for long term collaboration opportunities. The silver lining in organizing this online conference is the participation of international researchers, offering a more diverse network to be built between participants. Twenty-one papers have been presented in MEESA 2021, of which a total of 17 papers was selected for this publication. Four keynote speakers, who are experts in their respective fields were invited.The keynote speakers were Dr. Habibah binti Ghazali (Universiti Teknologi Malaysia), Dr. Ong Hwai Chyuan (University of Technology Sydney), Ir. Dr. Mohd Azlan bin Ismail (Universiti Malaysia Sabah) and Ir. Ts. Dr. Melvin Gan Jet Hong (Universiti Malaysia Sabah).Although this year’s conference was held virtually, we strongly believe that this conference does not reduce the purpose or benefit to the scientific world,in particular,and the general public to share current issues and the latest findings in the field of materials and energy for our environment. All manuscripts published in this proceeding have been vetted through a rigorous review to meet the requirement of high-quality papers.Lastly, we would like to thank the MEESA 2021 Advisor:Dean of Faculty of Engineering, Assoc. Prof. Ts. Dr. Ismail bin Saad, session chairpersons, and members of the Scientific and Technical Committees for their support and undivided commitment to make the conference possible. The committee would also wish to acknowledge all the keynote speakers, reviewers and all participants for their time and effort in making this conference a success. Warmest Regards, List of Organizing Committee are available in this pdf.

Genetic diversity of nuts traits and fatty acids of pecan (Carya illinoinensis) germplasm resources

Pecan (Carya illinoinensis) is the most economically valuable nut tree growing in many countries of the world. 10 nut quantitative traits and 15 fatty acid components of 112 pecan accessions were determined to analyze the morphometric and fatty acids genetic diversity in this study. The measured nuts traits of single nut mass, nut transverse, longitudinal and lateral diameter, nut aspect ratio, single nuts kernel mass, kernel yield and shell thinness were found highly variable. 15 fatty acids were detected among 36 tested fat acids in the nut kernel of pecan, and 14 fatty acids were found high variation except for the C12:0. Plenty of these traits are significant economic importance and could be used as breeding targets to improve the pecan variety. The positive correlations were observed between each pair of single nut mass, nut transverse diameter, nut longitudinal diameter and nut lateral diameter. Single nuts kernel mass is significantly positively correlated with single nut mass, nut transverse diameter, nut longitudinal diameter and nut lateral diameter. The 2D PCA plot successfully grouped the samples according to their phenotypic resemblance and morphological characteristics. 112 accessions were grouped into 4 and 3 major clusters according to the nut quantitative traits and fatty acids components and contents, respectively. Based on these results, we suggest that multidisciplinary research team should be set for genetic breeding of pecan to promote the conservation of local genetic diversity and improve the nuts production and commercialization in China.