Practical Recommendations for Mixed Methods Sampling in Psychological Intervention Research: A Mixed Methods Case Study

Sampling is integral to the research process and, if not appropriately addressed, can affect the meta-inferences of the mixed methods study. Sampling is also closely related to recruitment, retention, and additional methodological components. Sampling issues are magnified in social and health sciences intervention research due to the temporal placement of data collection and analysis. Limited research has examined sampling based on researchers’ rationales and decision-making across mixed methods psychological intervention research. This study explored this phenomenon to develop and refine a list of practical recommendations for sampling in mixed methods that were tested using content validity. Using an exploratory sequential mixed methods case study design, the first phase consisted of a qualitative case study using two data sources, a mixed method research-systematic methodological review (MMR-SMR), and semi-structured interviews with researchers who have conducted a mixed methods psychological intervention study. Forty studies were identified through the MMR-SMR and coded using a codebook. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with researchers (N = 10), and several overarching themes were identified. Through building integration, the qualitative findings informed the development of a list of preliminary recommendations that was refined using a modified e-Delphi study for the quantitative phase. Experts (i.e., mixed methods research methodologists) were asked to rate each recommendation\u27s relevancy. Agreement consensus was established based on median and item-content validity index (I-CVI) values to test a component of content validity across each recommendation. Participants rated recommendations across Round 1 (N = 10) and Round 2 (N = 9). Recommendations were modified based on participant ratings and open-ended responses. The final list consisted of 20 recommendations, each demonstrating adequate evidence of content validity. These recommendations span various categories, including recruitment, retention, sampling across mixed methods research designs, data collection, integrating mixed methods samples, and temporal placement of qualitative strand. Multiple audiences, including researchers, mixed methods research methodologists, and grant and journal reviewers, can use the list of recommendations to guide sampling decisions in mixed methods psychological intervention research. Advisor: Wayne A. Babchu

Application of UAV for Village Mapping in Pangambatan, Sumatra Utara

Pangambatan Village, as part of the Lake Toba National Strategic Area and a tourist destination, still lacks facilities, infrastructure, and professional human resources to manage its cultural and tourism potential. An initial mapping of the conditions and potential of the area is needed to drive tourism in Pangambatan Village towards sustainable tourism. This can be done by mapping environmental conditions and tourism potential in Pangambatan Village, providing recommendations for sustainable tourism management, and providing environmental management facilities. The study was carried out using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) technology. UAV technology offers new opportunities for fast and efficient remote environmental monitoring and the collection of high spatial and temporal resolution data. The benefits of this mapping can be used to see environmental conditions and environmental pollution that may occur because of tourist activities. In addition, the use of this technology is expected to help related parties in making decisions and planning

Method of Forming Recommendations Using Temporal Constraints in a Situation of Cyclic Cold Start of the Recommender System

The problem of the formation of the recommended list of items in the situation of cyclic cold start of the recommendation system is considered. This problem occurs when building recommendations for occasional users. The interests of such consumers change significantly over time. These users are considered “cold” when accessing the recommendation system. A method for building recommendations in a cyclical cold start situation using temporal constraints is proposed. Temporal constraints are formed on the basis of the selection of repetitive pairs of actions for choosing the same objects at a given level of time granulation. Input data is represented by a set of user choice records. For each entry, a time stamp is indicated. The method includes the phases of the formation of temporal constraints, the addition of source data using these constraints, as well as the formation of recommendations using the collaborative filtering algorithm. The proposed method makes it possible, with the help of temporal constraints, to improve the accuracy of recommendations for “cold” users with periodic changes in their interests

Spatial and temporal scales of coral reef fish ecological research and management: a systematic map protocol

Background Coral reefs are rapidly changing in response to local and global stressors. Research to better understand and inform the management of these stressors is burgeoning. However, in situ studies of coral reef ecology are constrained by complex logistics and limited resources. Many reef studies are also hampered by the scale-dependent nature of ecological patterns, and inferences made on causal relationships within coral reef systems are limited by the scales of observation. This is because most socio-ecological studies are conducted at scales relevant to the phenomenon of interest. However, management often occurs across a significantly broader, often geopolitical, range of scales. While there is a critical need for incisive coral reef management actions at relevant spatial and temporal scales, it remains unclear to what extent the scales of empirical study overlap with the scales at which management inferences and recommendations are made. This systematic map protocol will evaluate this potential scale mismatch with the goal of raising awareness about the significance of effectively addressing and reporting the scales at which researchers collect data and make assumptions. Methods We will use the Collaboration for Environmental Evidence (CEE) systematic mapping guidelines to identify relevant studies using a framework-based synthesis to summarise the spatial and temporal scales of coral reef fish ecology research and the scales at which management inferences or recommendations are made. Using tested predefined terms, we will search for relevant published academic and grey literature, including bibliographic databases, web-based search engines, and organisational websites. Inclusion criteria for the evidence map are empirical studies that focus on coral reef fish ecological organisation and processes, those informing management interventions and policy decisions, and management documents that cite coral reef research for management decision-making. Study results will be displayed graphically using data matrices and heat maps. This is the first attempt to systematically assess and compare the scales of socio-ecological research conducted on coral reef systems with their management

Optimal client recommendation for market makers in illiquid financial products

The process of liquidity provision in financial markets can result in prolonged exposure to illiquid instruments for market makers. In this case, where a proprietary position is not desired, pro-actively targeting the right client who is likely to be interested can be an effective means to offset this position, rather than relying on commensurate interest arising through natural demand. In this paper, we consider the inference of a client profile for the purpose of corporate bond recommendation, based on typical recorded information available to the market maker. Given a historical record of corporate bond transactions and bond meta-data, we use a topic-modelling analogy to develop a probabilistic technique for compiling a curated list of client recommendations for a particular bond that needs to be traded, ranked by probability of interest. We show that a model based on Latent Dirichlet Allocation offers promising performance to deliver relevant recommendations for sales traders.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, 1 tabl

Scheduling with Fuzzy Methods

Nowadays, manufacturing industries -- driven by fierce competition and rising customer requirements -- are forced to produce a broader range of individual products of rising quality at the same (or preferably lower) cost. Meeting these demands implies an even more complex production process and thus also an appropriately increasing request to its scheduling. Aggravatingly, vagueness of scheduling parameters -- such as times and conditions -- are often inherent in the production process. In addition, the search for an optimal schedule normally leads to very difficult problems (NP-hard problems in the complexity theoretical sense), which cannot be solved effciently. With the intent to minimize these problems, the introduced heuristic method combines standard scheduling methods with fuzzy methods to get a nearly optimal schedule within an appropriate time considering vagueness adequately