The Cognitive Model of Negative Symptoms in Schizophrenia: A Hierarchical Component Model With PLS-SEM

The cognitive model of negative symptoms suggests that some dysfunctional beliefs mediate the relationship between neurocognitive deficits and negative symptoms and disability. This study tested the hypothesis that dysfunctional performance beliefs mediate neurocognitive deficits, negative symptoms, and disability. We used a hierarchal component model with 85 men patients diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia. Results showed a moderate to strong correlation between dysfunctional performance beliefs, neurocognitive deficits, negative symptoms, and disability. These results support the Hierarchal component model (HCM) of the cognitive model of negative symptoms. Our results indicated that the disability in schizophrenia is mediated through dysfunctional performance beliefs, neurocognitive deficits, and negative symptoms pathway. Further, dysfunctional performance beliefs have a crucial role in this pathway. Therefore, targeting this vicious cycle of dysfunctional beliefs can improve disability in patients with schizophrenia.

Iceberg Indicators for Sow and Piglet Welfare

This study identifies iceberg indicators for welfare assessment in sows and piglets to enhance feasibility and sustainability of available protocols. Indicators of the Welfare Quality® protocol and of a German protocol were collected over 65 farm visits to 13 farms in Germany between September 2016 and April 2018. Data were analysed using partial least square structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM). A hierarchical component model was built (animal welfare = higher-order, Welfare Quality® principles = lower-order components). In sows, welfare was revealed to be most influenced by the principles good housing, good health and appropriate behaviour (path coefficients = 0.77, 0.86, 0.91). High coefficients of determination R2 indicated a large amount of explained variance (good housing R2 = 0.59, good health R2 = 0.75, appropriate behaviour R2 = 0.83). Stereotypies was the indicator most valuable to assess sow welfare. Additionally, the final model included the indicators panting, shoulder sores, metritis, mortality and an indicator assessing stereotypies in resting animals (indicator reliabilities 0.54–0.88). However, the model did not include the indicators lameness and body condition, which may be due to the farm sample. Welfare of piglets was most explained by the indicators carpal joint lesions, mortality, sneezing and undersized animals (indicator reliabilities 0.48–0.86).

A Reflective–Formative Hierarchical Component Model of Perceived Authenticity

Discussions on authenticity have become prominent in tourism research, particularly in the context of heritage tourism and quantitative approaches have become popular methods to investigate authenticity, especially from a tourist’s perspective. Previous studies, however, have failed to include multiple forms of authenticity into a single quantitative scale, as well as to use a formative approach for its measures. This study develops a comprehensive and reliable scale of authenticity, considering its multidimensional complexity and its formative nature. A reflective–formative hierarchical component model of perceived authenticity toward heritage experience, including three lower order components of objective authenticity, existential authenticity, and constructive authenticity, is proposed. The scale of authenticity also indicates a strong predictive power over tourist satisfaction.

An Empirical Study on Career Choices Among Undergraduates: A PLS-SEM Hierarchical Component Model (HCM) Approach

This study examines how undergraduates’ personality, parental and peer influences on their career choice. Partial Least Square, hierarchical component model (HCM) was used to measure the formative measurement model of personality construct and reflective measurement models of parent and peer influence constructs on career choices in the study. Data were collected from 218 of undergraduates from local private and public universities. Findings show that there are significant positive relationship between personality, parental and peer influences and career choices. Such insights are useful for HRD practitioners to develop relevant HRD interventions to assist individuals and organizations in career development. Limitations and suggestions for future research are also discussed.

Modularity for Large Virtual Reality Applications

This paper focuses on the design of high performance VR applications. These applications usually involve various I/O devices and complex simulations. A parallel architecture or grid infrastructure is required to provide the necessary I/O and processing capabilities. Developing such applications faces several difficulties, two important ones being software engineering and performance issues. We argue that application modularity is a key concept to help the developer handle the complexity of these applications. We discuss how various approaches borrowed from other existing works can be combined to significantly improve the modularity of VR applications. This led to the development of the FlowVR middleware that associates a data-flow model with a hierarchical component model. Different case studies are presented to discuss the benefits of the approach proposed.