Does “Evaluating Journal Quality and the Association for Information Systems Senior Scholars Journal Basket…” Support the Basket with Bibliometric Measures?

We re-examine “Evaluating Journal Quality and the Association for Information Systems Senior Scholars Journal Basket…” by Lowry et al. (2013). They sought to use bibliometric methods to validate the Basket as the eight top quality journals that are “strictly speaking, IS journals” (Lowry et al., 2013, pp. 995, 997). They examined 21 journals out of 140 journals considered as possible IS journals. We also expand the sample to 73 of the 140 journals. Our sample includes a wider range of approaches to IS, although all were suggested by IS scholars in a survey by Lowry and colleagues. We also use the same sample of 21 journals in Lowry et al. with the same methods of analysis so far as possible. With the narrow sample, we replicate Lowry et al. as closely as we can, whereas with the broader sample we employ a conceptual replication. This latter replication also employs alternative methods. For example, we consider citations (a quality measure) and centrality (a relevance measure in this context) as distinct, rather than merging them as in Lowry et al. High centrality scores from the sample of 73 journals do not necessarily indicate close connections with IS. Therefore, we determine which journals are of high quality and closely connected with the Basket and with their sample. These results support the broad purpose of Lowry et al., finding a wider set of high quality and relevant journals than just MISQ and ISR, and find a wider set of relevant, top quality journals

Factorial structure of the Manchester short assessment of quality of life in patients with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders

Purpose Subjective quality of life is a central patient-reported outcome in schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. The Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life (MANSA) is an established and widely used instrument for its assessment. The present study is a secondary analysis of large schizophrenia studies and aims to establish the factorial structure of the MANSA with a rigorous two-step methodology. Methods A sample of 3120 patients was randomly split into two datasets; the first includes two thirds of the patients and serves as the calibration sample (N = 2071) and the second includes one third of them and serves as the validation sample (N = 1049). We performed an exploratory factor analysis with the calibration sample followed by a confirmatory factor analysis with the validation sample. Results Our results for both samples revealed a model with adequate fit comprising two factors. The first factor encompasses eight items measuring satisfaction with a variety of life and health-related aspects of quality of life, whereas the second consists of four items assessing satisfaction with living environment comprising living alone or with others, accommodation, family, and safety. These two factors correlate in a different way with socio-demographic characteristics such as age and living conditions. Conclusions Future trials and service evaluation projects using the MANSA to measure quality of life should take into account that satisfaction with living environment may be distinct from satisfaction with other life and health-related aspects of quality of life

Emotional Effects of the Duration, Efficiency, and Subjective Quality of Sleep in Healthcare Personnel

Considering that both sleep quality and duration are linked to psychological variables, this study analyzed the relationships between sleep components and emotional intelligence and the effects that sleep duration has on stress management and mood in a sample of nurses. The sample was made up of 1073 professionals. Data were collected by the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and the Brief Emotional Intelligence Inventory for Senior Citizens. The results showed that the components of sleep quality were negatively related to stress management and mood. Furthermore, nurses who had short sleep patterns also had low moods and high stress levels. This study emphasizes the importance of subjective sleep quality as a necessary resource for professionals to manage stressful situations and mood and improve their relations with their patients and with each other

Diagnosing Service Quality in Retailing: The Case of Singapore

This paper examines the service quality perceptions of consumers towards retailers in Singapore. We applied SERVQUAL, a popular measure of service quality to a sample of 172 consumers to assess service quality perceptions, expectations and gaps in service quality. We first examined the dimensionality and reliability of this scale. Subsequently, analysis by various demographic groups revealed significant gaps in service quality; the gaps in quality were much higher for some service quality dimensions than for others. The implications of these results for Singapore retailers and retail entrepreneurs are then presented along with future research directions

Physical activity and quality of life of amputees in southern Brazil

Physical activity is a positive component of human health. Its effects are associated with improvement in physical, psychological and social aspects of quality of life. Physical activity is therefore an important factor in the rehabilitation of amputees. To analyse the relationship between physical activity and quality of life for amputees in southern Brazil. Descriptive, cross-sectional design with nonrandomized sample. A total of 40 questionnaire instruments were distributed to subjects who met the inclusion criteria, with a response rate of 55% (22 individuals, n = 15 males, n = 7 females). Outcome measurements were obtained through the International Physical Activity Questionnaire and World Health Organization Quality of Life–Bref. The sample was characterized by physically active adult male prosthetic users with positive quality of life, and amputation below the right knee caused by mechanical trauma related to traffic accidents with motorcycles. Significant correlations were identified between all domains of quality of life and between level of physical activity and psychological quality of life. No correlation was identified between gender and quality of life variables or physical activity levels. This study showed that in very active amputees of both genders, level of physical activity is not associated with quality of life except for the psychological domai

Schooling, Labour Force Quality and the Growth of Nations: Comment

Hanushek and Kimko (2000) concluded that, for a sample of nearly 80 countries, the quality of the labour force is significantly positively related to economic growth rates for the period 1960-1990 and is more important that mean years of schooling. In this paper, we further test the robustness of their result by firstly including in the original model a proxy for labour force health, and secondly by re-estimating the model for a later sample period. We conclude that the findings of Hanushek and Kimko are not robust to these changes. In particular, their measure of labour force quality is significantly but negatively related to economic growth rates for the later sample period.Labour force quality, labour force health, growth

Weak randomness in device independent quantum key distribution and the advantage of using high dimensional entanglement

We show that in device independent quantum key distribution protocols the privacy of randomness is of crucial importance. For sublinear test sample sizes even the slightest guessing probability by an eavesdropper will completely compromise security. We show that a combined attack exploiting test sample and measurement choices compromises the security even with a linear size test sample and otherwise device independent security considerations. We explicitly derive the sample size needed to retrieve security as a function of the randomness quality. We demonstrate that exploiting features of genuinely higher dimensional systems one can reduce this weakness and provide device independent security more robust against weak randomness sources.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figure